This conventional method was originated by Mr. Alvin Leon Roth, a bridge author and theoretician, who partnered often with Mr. Jeff Rubens and Mr. Tobias Stone. The following concept was conceived by him to force the continuation of the auction following a preemptive bid by the partner on the three level in any suit. The main feature of this concept entails the desire of the responder to explore the possibilities of not only a game contract, but also the possibility of a slam contract.

After digesting the information shared via the preempt by partner, the responder must have a method of forcing the opener to continue to share information about the holding. This is accomplished with the following bids:

Opener		Responder		Meaning
3 any suit:				The preempt is based on partnership agreement communicating certain, but not detailed information.
		4		An artificial response, forcing for one round, requesting additional information.
4				This rebid promises a weak holding, weak values, and missing top honors.
4				This rebid promises at least two of the top three honors in the preempted suit.
4				This rebid promises semi-solid honors in the preempted suit and one or more side honors. It also informs the responder that the preempted suit lacks any honors higher than the Queen, therefore an honor-weak suit.
4 NT				This rebid promises that the preempted suit contains solid honors from the top to the Queen. Some partnerships require that the Jack is included.

Once the responder has received this additional information, the responder may attempt a slam try, sign-off in game, or even sign-off in a partscore, which would be a rare case since the initiation of this action virtually guarantees game. All following bids by the responder, however, according to the original concept must be considered natural.

Individual Agreements

Individual partnerships may assign certain meanings to idle bids as in the following example:

Opener		Responder		Meaning
3		4		An artificial response, forcing for one round, requesting additional information.
4 NT				This rebid promises that the preempted suit contains solid honors from the top to the Queen. Some partnerships require that the Jack is included.
		5		This second response could possibly by Roman Keycard Gerber asking for Keycards; this second response could also be the beginning of Keycard cuebidding.

If the rebids by the responder are not considered natural by the individual partnership, then all idle bids may be assigned different meanings if the responder does not place the final contract at the earliest opportunity.

If you wish to include this feature, or any other feature, of the game of bridge in your partnership agreement, then please make certain that the concept is understood by both partners. Be aware whether or not the feature is alertable or not and whether an announcement should or must be made. Check with the governing body and/or the bridge district and/or the bridge unit prior to the game to establish the guidelines applied. Please include the particular feature on your convention card in order that your opponents are also aware of this feature during the bidding process, since this information must be made known to them according to the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge. We do not always include the procedure regarding Alerts and/or Announcements, since these regulations are changed and revised during time by the governing body. It is our intention only to present the information as concisely and as accurately as possible.