Contract bridge has been around a long time; so it is a wonder to find something new.  Actually there are a lot of new ideas being floated all the time, but few are good enough be worth noting.  Here is the best idea I have come across in a long time.  Your hand is:

 

S) 8   H) A7   D) KQJ654   C) J93

 

You open 1 diamond and partner responds 3 hearts - a double-jump shift.  What are you going to do now?  Yes, I suppose you are stumped.  If my partner made this bid, I would be stumped too.

 

Here is another deal with the same partner, and your hand is:

 

S) 65   H) AQ432   D) AQ76   C) 43

 

You open 1 heart, partner calls 1NT, and you rebid 2 diamonds.  Partner has made a limited bid, but after your minimum rebid, she continues to 2 spades.  This is not any sequence I know of, so again I am stumped.  What to do?
   
Here you have two situations where neither you nor I know what partner’s bids mean.  Here is where the new idea comes to play.  It is ASBAF, which stands for “All Strange Bids Are Forcing”.  In other words, whenever you are unsure if you should bid again or pass partner’s last call, you should deem it forcing and bid again.  It can be played with any partner, new or old, and you do not need an agreement to play it.  After all, you never put your partner in this predicament, so she doesn’t need to know it.  ASBAF was created by Jerry Helms and published in a recent ACBL Bulletin.