negative free bids

[awm]

On a weak hand you always have this 5-card suit problem. But NFB give you a problem with invitational hands. Say the auction starts 1d-(2c) and you have five hearts and eleven points. In NFB you can double, but then over 2s from opener you probably have to bid 2nt (basically treating hearts as four) or you can bid 2h but will have to accept that opener passes on singleton quite often (basically treating hearts as six). With forcing free bids you bid 2h (forcing showing five and F1). Even GF hands have this issue somewhat; for example an auction like 1d-(2c)-X-(3c)-3s leaves you unable to show your five card heart suit effectively whereas forcing freebids lead to an easier auction.

 

The issue with invites comes from the range. Basically, there are hands where game opposite 11 is good but the three level opposite 7 is scary. By splitting between 7-11 vs 12+ you give opener a problem when he has 14-15 (enough for game opposite 11 but dubious to bid higher vs 7). Forcing free bids split 7-9 vs 10+ which reduces the problem because of the tighter range on weak hands as well as removing the problem for balanced hands (since the otherwise annoying balanced 16 opened 1nt).

[fromageGB]

My partner and I play 2/1. I'd like to know the cons and pros of negative free bids. I personally prefer playing that a free bid is forcing to 1 round, and my partner prefers negative free bids.

Compromise. Throw both away, play transfers instead, and you have the best of both worlds. You can assign meanings to whether partner completes the transfer or breaks it, and if the transferer is strong enough to bid again then he can do things like show a 5 card suit on the way to a raise, or a force, to offer alternative contracts.