Conventions: Transfer Advances Part I by Marc Smith

Source: http://www.bridgeguys.com/ by Marc Smith

Editor Note: Transfer Advances were described by Jeff Rubens in a series of articles in the 1980 and 1981 issues of Bridge World Magazine.  These and a few other Bridge World articles were published in a booklet titled, The Useful-Space Principle.  

Most of you play them in no-trump sequences, so you understand the concept. As you know, transfers allow you to describe many more hand types than do natural methods. The primary reason for this is that you can use the same initial bid (the transfer) to cater for weak, intermediate and strong hands. There are many other situations in which transfers can also be very useful. In the 1970s, Jeff Rubens introduced the concept of using transfers in response to an overcall. This is one of the most significant bidding innovations of recent times and yet, for some reason, the idea never caught on outside of expert circles. Quite why this should be so is particularly perplexing, since Transfer Advances of Overcalls have one major advantage over just about every other convention ever devised: they do not take away a single natural bid.

Let’s start with three bidding problems:

Hand A:   543 9 KJ98643 86

Hand B:   543 9 KQJ8654 A6

Hand C:   43 KJ9 KQJ654 A6

In each case, the auction starts:

RHO	You	LHO	Partner
		1	1
Pass	?

You would like to bid 2 on each of these hands – but for a different reason. With Hand A, you would want 2 to be non-forcing and non-invitational, since 2 will surely be a better contract than 1. Furthermore, if the opponents bid again, you want partner to compete if he has some kind of diamond fit.

When you are dealt Hand B, you want to bid a natural and constructive 2.

With Hand C, you want to investigate a slam. Ideally, you would like to start with a descriptive and forcing 2 before supporting hearts.

With your regular partner, you will have agreed to play a change of suit in response to an overcall as showing one of these hand types. On the others, you will have to find some other way of bidding your hand. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could bid 2 on all of them, and have it mean whatever you want? Transfers give you that luxury. So, how do they work?

First – when do transfers apply? You can set your own parameters for using Transfer Advances with your regular partner, but here is one rule that works effectively:

Transfer Advances apply after any second-seat non-jump suit overcall at the one, two or three level.

Next, which bids become transfers? Here is the basic premise:

Bids between a simple cue-bid and a simple raise are conventional (rotated).

Thus, a transfer into overcaller’s suit now becomes the sound raise. (If this sounds obscure, do not give up – yet!)

Other bids are unaffected, but here is a sound set of principles that works effectively:

• Bids in other suits are natural and forcing
• Bids of NT are natural
• Raises of overcaller’s suit are always pre-emptive
• Jumps in new suits are fit-showing
• Jumps in opener’s suit are splinters

Many of you will already follow some variation of these, but I have included them here for the sake of completeness.

The basic concept of the Transfer Advance is that you rotate the meaning of all bids between and including the simple cue-bid to the bid below the raise. That may sound complicated, but a couple of examples should make it clear. Let’s say the auction begins:

RHO	You	LHO	Partner
		1	1
Pass	?

Most pairs would use a bid of 2 as a sound spade raise and 2 as a weak raise. Playing Transfer Advances does not change this at all, because there are no bids between the cue-bid (2) and the bid below a raise (2).

Now, let’s change the auction slightly:

RHO	You	LHO	Partner
		1	1
Pass	?

Now there are two relevant bids: 2 and 2. Playing standard methods, 2 would show a sound spade raise and 2 would be natural and either weak, constructive, or forcing depending on your preference. Playing Transfer Advances, you simply switch the meaning of those two bids.

Thus:

RHO	You	LHO	Partner
		1	1
Pass	2

This 2 bid is now a transfer to hearts. (We will see later how the auction continues.)

And:

RHO	You	LHO	Partner
		1	1
Pass	2

This is now the sound spade raise. Think of the 2 bid as a transfer to spades.

Now let’s look at the auction with the most space between the bid suits:!

RHO	You	LHO	Partner
		1	1
Pass	?

In standard methods, 2 and 2 would be natural and 2 would be used to show the sound spade raise. Rotating these bids, 2 becomes a transfer to diamonds, 2 a transfer to hearts, and 2 a transfer to spades (i.e. the sound raise).

Notice that no natural bids have been lost: any hand that you could show with your current methods can still be shown, albeit via a different route.

This structure works equally well to give you much-needed extra space at higher levels:!

RHO	You	LHO	Partner
		2*	3
Pass	?

*Weak two

Using Transfer Advances: 3 = natural and forcing 3 = transfer to spades 3 = good hand with a club fit.

And even higher:

RHO	You	LHO	Partner
		3	3
Pass	?

• 3NT = natural
• 4 = at least five diamonds
• 4 = at least five hearts
• 4 = slam try in spades
• 4 = normal raise

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