Class No. 6 – Wednesday, Feb 17, 2010

Forcing Bids & Fourth Suit Forcing
With the emphasis on bidding out the shape of the hand and finding fits, today’s experienced players recognize that conservation of bidding space is important (useful space principle). Modern systems with strong hands use an increased number of artificial and forcing bids to conserve bidding space. The idea is to create forcing auctions at low levels allowing for bids to show shape and secondary fits below game level. Thus, the concept of slow arrival is strong. Instead of using jumps to show strength, jumps are preemptive bids taking up the opponent’s valuable bidding space, thus, fast arrival is weak.

This workshop focuses on making the auction forcing, how to distinguish between forcing one round and game forcing and the artificial system bid of Fourth Suit Forcing. At the conclusion of this class participants should undersatnd:

1. When an auction is forcing, invitational or non-forcing.
2. The difference between forcing one round (F1) and game forcing (GF).
3. Opener’s forcing auctions.
4. Responder’s forcing auctions.
5. Exceptions to forcing auctions
6. The agreement Fourth Suit Forcing (4SF) and responses.
7. ... and a special section on opening 4Nt and how to show specific aces.