Introduction

Most bridge players use transfer bids over 1NT openings, so the principle and advantages of the transfer approach is well recognised and experienced. Transfers allow a second bidding opportunity to show the shape and strength of the responding hand, and ensure that the stronger opening hand declares the final contract.  Those players taking up the challenge of playing transfers over 1♣ openings will find that the same principles apply and it does not take long to begin automatically alerting transfer responses to 1♣ openings.

Why Play Transfers over 1♣ Openings?

As 1♣ openings occur more frequently than any other opening bids there is an obvious advantage in building the bidding system around this bid.  Playing an opening 1NT within the 14-16 range means that 1♣ openings, with a minimum holding of two clubs, cover four hand types:

• 11-13 balanced

• 17-19 balanced

• 5+ clubs unbalanced

• 4414 with a singleton diamond

This approach allows a simple four step structure for describing balanced hands with a three point range for each step:

The other major advantage of using 1♣ openings to describe balanced hands is that it now frees the 1♦ opening to be always semi-balanced or unbalanced, guaranteeing at least four cards:

Also after an opening bid of 1♦ a rebid of 1NT by opener cannot be balanced and maybe used to describe a range of options.

Responding to 1♣ Openings

There are a number of different approaches used by partnerships playing transfers over 1♣ openings. This article sets out the basic structure to help partnerships try this convention. Some partnerships only accept a major suit transfer with 3 card support. This article suggests that 2 or 3 card support is equally effective, and has two extra advantages:

• With 17-19 points opener can rebid 1NT over a major suit transfer and this allows the bidding to stay lower if responder has a minimum hand, eg a balanced 6 count with poorly scattered values, or a poor 6 card suit with just 4 or 5 points

♠ KJ6                  ♠ QT5432

♥ AQ                   ♥ K54

♦ QT87               ♦ 43

♣ AJ42        ♣ 87

1♣                       1♥ Opener rebids 1NT to confirm a 17-19 balanced

1NT                     2♥ and partner re-transfers to the safe 2♠ contract  

2♠

• Now a jump rebid to 2NT can be employed to show other combinations such as 17-19 with 4 card major suit support and a good 6 card club suit

♠ AJ97                ♠ QT5432

♥ 7                      ♥ K54

♦ AQ                   ♦ 43

♣ AKJ965           ♣ 87

The table below summarises the basic structure of one level transfer responses to 1♣ (2+); options available for the 1NT response and other two level bids will be covered in a second article.

The following examples show how these bids work in practice:

Summary

This initial article on transfers over 1♣ openings has explained one of the more popular versions of the one level transfer responses and the rebids available to opener. As in all transfer methods the key advantage of playing transfers is the opportunity to describe different hand patterns with the second round of bidding.

The practical examples above aim to provide the flavour of how this can work after a 1♣ opening.

The next article will discuss some of the options available for 1NT and two level responses to 1♣ openings when employing transfers.