The Jacoby transfer, or simply "transfers", in the card game contract bridge, is a convention initiated by responder following partner's notrump opening bid that requests opener rebid in the suit ranked just above that bid by responder, i.e. a response in diamonds requests a rebid in hearts and a response in hearts requests a rebid in spades; other responses may carry other meanings; designed to make the stronger hand declarer.
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Transfers were first described in a series of articles by Ollie Willner in Bridge Tidningen in the early 1950s, and were popularized for English speakers in 1956 in The Bridge World article by Oswald Jacoby. Transfers have such utility in no trump bidding that they enjoy broad acceptance by most players, in duplicate and in rubber bridge. In many parts of the world their usage is so widespread (e.g. the United Kingdom) that they are known simply as "transfers".
By a simple procedure, transfers allow a weak take-out contract (following an opening 1NT) in a major suit to be played by the opening (i.e. the stronger) hand thus concealing the tenaces in that hand. An additional benefit of transfers is that they allow more bidding space in the search for the optimum contract.
In the 1990s further developments of the transfer procedures enabled them to be used to even greater effect. The use of "bouncing" and "breaking" rebids by opener offered partnerships the opportunity to find safe game contracts with fewer high card points than with traditional methods.
The transfer procedure is quite simple and is described first in response to your partner's 1NT opening bid. Since a 1NT opening bid requires a balanced hand, i.e. no more than one doubleton, it promises to have at least two cards in the desired suit):
Opener can super-accept the transfer by bidding three of the major with a maximum hand containing at least four cards in that major.
An immediate disadvantage of this method is that it is incompatible with a weak take out into 2♦, although as with the loss of the 2♣ weak take-out when using Stayman, this is not generally considered a serious loss.
After the transfer has been completed by the 1NT opener, subsequent bids by the transfer initiator are:
Since a 2♠ response is no longer required for a weak take-out into spades, it is often used in other ways:
Although part of the early writings on transfers in the 1950s, "bouncing" and "breaking" have only become widespread in the UK since the 1990s. As promulgated by Paul Mendelson, they are:
With these two devices (bouncing and breaking) it is possible to discover games that would otherwise be missed at very little risk.
Transfers work well following other NT bids. A common usage follows an opening bid of 2NT where a weak take-out into three of a major becomes a possibility whereas with traditional methods such a bid would be forcing.
Following a double (i.e. partner opens 1NT and intervening opponent doubles), there are two options in fairly common use:
(Note: some partnerships use a "forcing pass" by the partner of the 1NT opener. The 1NT opener is then obliged to redouble. The partner of the 1NT opener may then pass the redouble with a good hand and 1NT redoubled is judged to be makeable, or with a poor hand initiate bidding 4-card suits up-the-line until at least at 4-3 suit fit is found).
Standard bidding in most systems is that all responses following a natural suit overcall are themselves natural bids ("double" may be used for take-out). An alternative is that such responses, including "double", act as transfers. For example, following a 1NT opening and a 2♦ overcall: