Fourth Suit Forcing

• Bridge Conventions (List)

When playing this convention, the bid of the fourth suit is either one round or game forcing, depending upon the partnership agrreement. The bid itself promises nothing in the suit, but asks partner to continue bidding to provide more information to the fourth suit bidder.
Most commonly, partner's bid of the fourth suit asks partner whether s/he has the fourth suit stopped.
With a stopper in the fourth suit, replier typically bids notrump, otherwise bids something else.
The benefit to this convention is that it prevents pre-mature closing of the auction where an apparent misfit is found, and allows the partnership to play notrump from the best side.

  		KQxxx                                 Kx                                 QJxx                                 Ax    		Jx                                 Jxx                                 AKx                                 KQxxx   	Opp    	Partner 	Opp	You                    P   	   1S           P             2C                    P              2D          P             2H(!)                    P              2NT        P             3NT                   P/O 

A bidding convention is an agreement between two players on a different meaning of a bid in the card game bridge. These agreements are made so that partners can more quickly determine which contract, with both their cards, they can win together. Often, conventions are forged together into one, which is then called a bidding system.

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