"Fire Prevention Month" by Marti Ronemus

"Fire Prevention Month" holds a special place in my pantheon of observances, ever since the Great Caramel Debacle. I'm more vigilant than Smokey the Bear, and actually have several fire extinguishers around the house.

And in bridge, it's important to prevent fires also. What bids are too high? How close can you come to the edge of disaster? What does it take to make your partner spontaneously combust?

Monday we talked about reverses, and today we're going to explore responding to Pard's reverse. We almost hesitate to tackle this subject because there is a forest of choices. We're going to use the basic, Standard American approach.

We are responder. If we rebid our suit or take a simple cheap preference to opener's FIRST suit, our bids are non-forcing. Also, a bid of 2NT is not forcing.

BUT!! If we JUMP in our response suit or opener's first suit, it is forcing. Also forcing is a raise of opener's SECOND suit or a NEW suit, are all forcing.

Got that? Yeah, sure. Let's try it.