Cuebids

Adverse calls may take away bidding space, but they can also grant us cuebids. The natural meaning of a strain can be rendered infeasible in competition. (Cooperative) penalty scores better than playing in an adverse strain (and at a higher level). Allocating useful artificial meaning to cuebids follows the useful space principle and is the key to fight back intervention.

Finding cuebids

Cuebids are obvious opposing a natural bid. Locating cuebids over an artificial call requires some discussion.

It is tempting to ignore opposing doubles. However, I suggest using notrump as cuebids over doubles. XX shows interest in penalty with strength and a probable misfit. Since XX overlaps with the natural meaning of notrump, reusing notrump as cuebids is more efficient. This idea gave birth to Truscott 2NT and Rubens over 1♦♥♠(X).

Aritificial calls are trickier. Usually, the referred strains are used as cuebids. X, NT, and the nominal strain need specific agreements.

Transfer à la Rubens

Unassuming cuebids show support stronger than direct raises. Jeff Rubens found out that good raises need little further clarification. On the other hand, forcing new suits suffer from their wide range. Rubens advances rearrange [cuebid .. raise) into transfers.

This philosophy can be generalized to other competitive situations, e.g. when we open:

• Transfer Walsh, X as the stolen cuebid
• Rubinsohl, NT as (another) cuebid