Article 34521 of rec.games.bridge:
From: sjpicus@nyc.pipeline.com (Sue Picus)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Jacoby 2NT 2nd suit precedence
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 06:08:57 GMT

Mike Girou <girou@parashift.com> wrote:


>I was trying to avoid offending anyone with my response, while getting
>across the point that hardly anyone would treat a bad five card suit
>as a second suit.  Amongst the Soloway, Goldman, Lair, Passell, Wold
>crowd, none usually play Jacoby 2NT on their own (or at least didn't
>the last time I played and discussed bridge with them, which was a
>while ago), and neither would the 4 card major people (Hamman &Wolf).
>Of the subset that do play Jacoby 2NT, partnerships involving Howie
>Weinstein, Dave Lehman, Steve Garner, Jim Hall, Dick Melson, Tom Fox
>(dependable faces in the Blue Ribbon finals, and friends) would all
>show the stiff ace.  No one would like it, but it's better than lying
>about shape.  I don't know anyone who would do differently, doesn't
>mean that there aren't some good players in that category or that
>the alternative is necessarily bad.  It would not be well-received by
>my crowd, or, apparently, the folks Marcia plays with.

>My point was/is that Jacoby 2NT is far more popular among intermediate
>players than the top guns (for thoughtful/historical reasons), it is
>inconceivable that anyone would treat a ten-fifth suit as a second
>suit, and that, based on my personal sample, most successful players
>would rather bid a singleton ace than lie about shape.

 
My feelings about Jacoby 2NT are that although it is a fine
convention, it does not give opener the chance to take control (which
he sometimes wants to do and it does not distinguish range.
Especially important in a non-strong club system. There is a very good
case for playing a slightly more complex version of Jacoby whereby a
3C response to 2NT shows a minimum, 3D is RKCB or the like;3H shows a
non-minimum singleton, 3S a non-minimum with extra trumps, and 3NT a
Strong NT. 4C plus show good 5/5s. over the 3C bid a 3D relay gets you
into the same distribution showing patterns, but min. not max.

Not that this helps a lot with this conundrum; it is a bad hand for
sensible methods because you have two normal features ( a side suit
and a singleton) but both are "flawed". chalk it down to bad luck. but
treating the singleton ace as a singleton does not worry me so much as
some.

Any one who wants more details of the above can contact me. we aim to
maker the world a better place for Brdge players. as I recall, Henry
Bethe may have written about modifications to Jacoby in either BW or
IPBM about 6/7 years ago. (Something to do with a max no. of controls
in the jacoby bid allowing opener to jump to game and conceal info.
The proposed method above was also based on some of Henry's ideas and
al;so aims to conceal info about opener's hand which may well be
important (ie where the singleton is)
regards

Barry Rigal
(expressing his views not Sue's)