Conventions

JACOBY 2NT

This is a method of showing strong support for an opening major bid. I gave a set of Friday seminars on the system called Supporting Majors (parts 1-5). These can be found in the Friday Live Archive (060-064).

When the auction starts 1♥︎ – PASS – ? (or 1♠︎ – PASS - ?)

The traditional method was to use a 2NT response to show 11pts balanced, but any hand that wants to bid this can usually respond with 2-of-a-minor allowing the auction to progress naturally. This frees up the 2NT response to be used as a convention to show support for the major.

After 1♥︎ – PASS -

2NT shows 4+ hearts and enough strength for game (12+)

Note: if you play splinters, then you still use these to show your singletons & voids, so most often the 2NT bidder is balanced or semi-balanced.

The idea of the bid is to allow the partnership to investigate a slam with plenty of bidding space. After the 2NT response the opener describes his hand.

The standard responses to the Jacoby 2NT are:

3-level bids = SHORTAGES

4-level bids = STRONG second suit

3-trump suit, 3NT & 4-trump suit = balanced or semi-balanced – the Stronger the hand the lower the bid (of the three choices)

Hearts	Spades
1♥︎ – PASS – 2NT* – PASS	1♠︎ – PASS – 2NT* – PASS
?	?
3♣︎ singleton (or void) club	3♣︎ singleton (or void) club
3♦︎ singleton (or void) diamond	3♦︎ singleton (or void) diamond
3♥︎ strong balanced hand 17-19	3♥︎ singleton (or void) heart
3♠︎ singleton (or void) spade	3♠︎ strong balanced hand 17-19
3NT semi-strong & balanced 15-17	3NT semi-strong & balanced 15-17
4♣︎ strong club suit	4♣︎ strong club suit
4♦︎ strong diamond suit	4♦︎ strong diamond suit
4♥︎ weak balanced hands	4♥︎ strong heart suit
4♠︎ strong spade suit*	4♠︎ weak balanced hands

Notes

• These are the STANDARD (original) set of responses which I believe are the best. Some players might use other methods (e.g. reversing the order of the responses).

• Jacoby is not used when there is an interfering bid (overcall or double).

• A strong suit is a five-card suit with two honours – if it is strong enough then bid this ahead of showing shortage, with a weaker suit, show your shortage instead.

• After the opener describes their hand – responder can cue-bid, or use Blackwood if he likes the news, or sign off in game if he dislikes the news.

• *A 4♠︎ response after 1♥︎-2NT- takes the bidding beyond game. It is very rare because to hold 5 spades would mean you have 6-5 shape.

• With a void you show shortage and then can cue-bid the suit again – this is one of the advantages of showing shortages at the lower level.

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