Blunsdon House Hotel 27th November 2026

When your partner opens a major and as responder you know that you have a fit, you need to tell partner immediately. You should not try and tell your partner anything else about your hand. There are a number of ways you can communicate this to partner. You can make a limit bid, a splinter bid or use the excellent Jacoby 2NT bid. In a competitive auction when you have support for partner’s major suit overcall, you should again communicate this immediately to partner, either by bidding to the level of the fit or showing strength by bidding the opponent’s suit. Over the weekend we will be exploring all of these systems in more depth, through seminars and set hands. We will be identifying the sort of hands where you make a game force using a splinter bid or by using the Jacoby 2NT convention and the sort of hands where you simply make a limit bid raise. Further, we will be looking at how you decide when to bid to the level of the fit and when to make a cue bid of the opponent’s suit.