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Q:

We played (until the webinar today), weak jump shifts both in competition and not in competition.  How do we bid those hands now?  

Say, partner opens one Diamond, [pass], to you.  You have 5-6 HCP and a long major, but you suspect LHO has a fistful (maybe as much as 19?) and is chomping at the bit.  Before adding Soloway Jump Shifts, this would have generated an interference bid of 2 Spades, but now ….  What?

A: 

When choosing any convention, you want to way the pros and cons, the frequency of each bid, and alternative bids for the same hands.  In this Q&A, we are discussing whether responders jump shift to the two level should be either a Soloway Jump Shift (3 Types of Strong Jump Shifts) or a weak jump shift.  In either case, you want to continue using weak jump shifts in competition (when you know your opponents have the points).

Soloway Jump Shifts are very helpful when responder has an 18+ points hand with one of three hands: 1) Single Suited Hand (6+-cd Independent  suit), 2) 5-cd suit and balanced hand or 3) two suited hand with support in opener’s first suit.  These are very difficult hands to bid by responder without the Soloway Jump Shift.  Yes, you could start with 2/1 but these types of hands, responder just wants to set the suit and Keycard.  With long drawn out auctions, these types of hands sometimes get lost.

The other option is the Weak Jump Shift (WJS).  A saying you have probably heard is don’t preempt your partner.  Well, that is exactly what you are doing when making a weak jump shift (with no competition).  When holding a hand that looks like a weak 2 bid (this is what a WJS looks like), you can simply respond 1 of the suit and then rebid 2 of the suit to show your six card suit and a weak hand.  This method can be just as effective as a WJS since your opponents don’t know if you have 6 points or 15 points!  When you make the WJS, the opponents sit up in their chairs, think they are being stolen from and bid even more!  

Yes, there is a slight advantage to taking an extra level  of bidding when your left hand opponent has a nice hand, but not knowing whether it is your opponents or your partner holding those points, its better to use the jump shift to the two level for the Soloway Jump Shift.  

In the scenario above, It is highly unlikely that partner holds 13 HCP, you hold 6 HCP and your left hand opponent holds 19 HCP.  The HCP distribution frequency is just not there to design your bidding system around.  BTW:  If left hand opponent does have 19, your WJS isn’t going to slow him down!

There are many choices for responder’s jump shift to the two level.  In this post, we only discussed the differences between Soloway Jump Shifts and Weak Jump Shifts.

Let me hear from you!