Gerber


Gerber is a system for asking partner how many aces and kings he has with the goal of bidding slam. Gerber is normally used by bidding 4 in response to a notrump bid. The reason for the use of 4 is to leave 4NT free to use as a quantitative notrump bid.

Gerber 4 responses: 4 = 0 or 4 aces,   4 = 1,   4 = 2,  and  4N = 3.

If the response shows that the all aces are held, asker can bid 5 to ask for kings. The same step responses are used on the 5 level.


"Gerber Is a Baby Food"

Larry Cohen made the above comment in the January 2020 Bridge Bulletin, It's Your Call with the hand 85 T98542 Q AKJ4 and bidding of 2-2; 3-3; 3N-4 where 11 of 15 top players bid 4 as natural. (The other 4 bid 4.)

In the June 2022 Bridge Bulletin, p.65, is an article about Gerber. Past issues of the Bulletin can be read on ACBL's web site. So just to skip to the gist of the article - Gerber should never be used after a notrump bid.

Say that partner opens 1N and you have a hand with which you would like to bid slam if partner has the number of aces you need. The article makes it clear that this very rarely, if ever, happens. But if it does rather than using Gerber use control bids. This leaves 4 for more frequently needed purposes.


Super Gerber

Since the use of Gerber precludes the use of 4 as natural or a cue bid, Super Gerber was designed to use the lowest unbid suit between and including 4 and 5 to ask for Aces if one of the following conditions has been met:

    1. If a minor suit has been agreed as trump OR  
    2. When the last bid made by partner was 3N.

If all four suits have been bid, then 5 is used to ask.

Some sources say to bid Super Gerber by always jumping to 5 instead of using an unbid suit. Obviously, such a jump uses up space which may cause a bail-out to 5N (to play) if missing 2 aces.

Since using an unbid suit removes the ambiguity of Gerber without wasting as much space, we do not use the 5 version in BidBase.

Examples: 

    1 - 1
    3N - 4 = Super Gerber

    1 - 1
    3 - 4 = Super Gerber

    1 - 3
    4 = Super Gerber

Responses: 

    The same step responses are used as with regular Gerber, but starting with the suit above the Super Gerber asking bid's suit.

Kings: 

    Bidding 5 of the suit used to ask for Aces is used to ask for Kings. The same step responses are used.

    If 5 was used to ask for Aces due to all other suits being bid first, then asking for kings would meaning bidding 6 which could cause confusion if Clubs is the agreed trump suit.