Jacoby Transfer Summary

JACOBY TRANSFERS

ABOUT THE DEALS

You may be either Opener or Responder, but you will always be in the South position.

The first page or two of each Deal shows only your hand. The initial bidding is given and you are asked to decide what you would bid, then click BID. The subsequent page will then appear telling you what you should have bid and continuing the auction. On the final page of each Deal partner's hand will be shown.

Feel free to disagree with some of the bids that do not apply directly to Transfers. Deals 9 and 21 for example.

Although it is not included in the Deals you might wish to examine your and dummy's hand and make a Plan of how you would play the contract.

JACOBY TRANSFERS SUMMARY

Created by Oswald Jacoby a lot of years ago, there are two good reasons to use Transfers.

They provide a precise bidding method when the Responder to a 1NT opening has a 5 or 6 card Major suit.
They make the opening 1NT hand the declarer, keeping the stronger hand concealed.

Jacoby Transfers should only be used in conjunction with the Stayman Convention. The two work smoothly together with Stayman taking care of those hands where Responder has a 4-card Major(s) and Jacoby Transfers taking care of those hands where Responder has a 5- or 6-card Major.

The actual working of transfer bids is simple:
After a 1NT opening a 2♦ response requires Opener to bid 2♥, while a 2♥ response requires Opener to bid 2♠.
On his next bid Responder clarifies the picture by either placing the contract or by inviting Opener to do so.

Jacoby Transfers take much of the guesswork (sometimes called judgement) out of the bidding and steer you directly to these two goals:

With a partnership 26 points you will reach game, with 33 you will reach slam.
With a partnership 8+ cards in a Major suit you will play in that suit, otherwise you will play notrump.

For the first point consider this table which is based on the 1NT opener holding 15-17 points.

Resp Points	Opener Points			Bidding
Resp Points	15	16	17	Target
8	23	24	25	Partscore
9	24	25	26
10	25	26	27
11	26	27	28
12	27	28	29	Game
13	28	29	30
14	29	30	31
15	30	31	32
16	31	32	33
17	32	33	34	Slam
18	33	34	35

Responder's actions are as follows:

8 points or fewer - either pass or transfer and then pass
9 points - invite partner to game
10 points - either invite or force to game, using your judgement
11-15 points - force to game
16 points - invite to slam
17 points - either invite or force to slam, using your judgement
18 points or more - force to slam

Opener's actions are as follows:

15 points - decline invitations
16 points - either decline or accept, using your judgement
17 points - accept invitations

As to the second point above (the 8-card trump fit) you must keep in mind that it is correct to open 1NT with 5-3-3-2 distribution, so it is possible for Opener to have a doubleton in the Major suit that Responder is interested in. Therefore Responder must bid differently with a 5-card suit than he does with a 6-card suit.

With a 5-card Major Responder transfers Opener to that Major suit, then at his next turn bids notrump.
With a 6-card Major Responder transfers Opener to that Major suit, then at his next turn rebids the suit.

Opener also has to keep on the right track when Responder has shown only 5 of the suit by rebidding notrump.

With 2 cards in the transferred suit Opener stays with notrump.
With 3+ cards in the transferred suit Opener returns to the Major suit.

Some comments are in order about the point count methods used on these pages.

Initial point count for both hands is based on 4-3-2-1 plus one point for a fifth card in a suit.
Revalued points (only after a trump fit is discovered) are +1 for a doubleton held by Opener.
Responder must be very cautious about adding short-suit revalued points. As the long-trump hand Responder will not be able to gain a trick by ruffing since it usually uses a trump which would be a winner anyway.

25 examples will be worth more than another 1000 words.

Deal 1