Today, I was asked a question by a local player about a Jac 2NT auction. Person A opened 1S. Person B then bid 2N, which was alerted correctly as Jacoby 2N. After that, Person A bid 3D, showing a stiff or void. The auction then proceeded to game from there. The opponents later called the director, because they felt that the 3D bid had to be alerted by person B. In this situation, does the 3D cuebid need to be alerted?
3D definitely requires an alert. Virtually all artificial bids (below the level of 3NT) require alerts (yes, I know there are some exceptions, but they are rather common).
A bid of 4D would not have required an alert, however, regardless of the meaning, as it is "a normally alertable call above the level of 3NT, starting with opening bidder's second call."
I told the player who asked me today, yet she still wondered why it had to be alerted since it was a 'standard response' to a Jacoby 2NT call. What can I tell her?
Sorry I've been so out of it, lately. Tell her that, even though the response is a standard response to Jacoby 2NT, the ACBL has determined that Jacoby 2NT itself, with it's follow-up structure is not standard. This may not be the correct evaluation of commonly used conventions, but it is the rules we live under.
What can I tell her?