Summary (Standard)
Summary (SA)
Phew! We’ve covered a lot in this bidding course. Here is a brief summary of the topics we’ve discussed.
There are two types of auction in bridge: constructive and competitive. A constructive auction is one where only one side bids to their final contract, whereas a competitive auction is one where both sides act. Constructive auctions allow you to bid up to your best contract (hopefully!), whereas competitive auctions are often a case of making the best of the situation or making life difficult for the opponents.
In this course, we covered these aspects of constructive bidding:
- Opening bids (at the 1-level)
- Responses (forcing and non-forcing)
- Opener’s rebid (balanced and unbalanced)
And these aspects of competitive bidding:
- Overcalling in a suit
- Responding to Partner’s overcall
Opening bids
Depending on whether you open with a suit or a 1NT bid, you are sending a different message to your partner.
A 1NT opening is always balanced and 15-17 HCP. This is kept nice and narrow so that your partner knows when to bid or pass. This is really important because the 1NT opening takes away the 1-level, so it needs to have a very specific meaning.
A 1suit opening is usually 12-19, might be balanced or unbalanced and promises 5+ cards if a major is bid or 3+ cards if a minor is bid. This is a much more open-ended bid: you could have all sorts of hands here. That generally isn’t a problem, as you have some space at the 1-level, so your partner can normally cut the bidding off later in order to not get too high. If you have equal length in your suits, you can follow a simple rule: with 5-5, bid the higher suit first (“high fives”!); with 4-4 in the minors, open 1♦; with 3-3 in the minors, open 1♣.
Responses when Raising 1NT
Put your hand into a strength category depending on how possible game is, remembering that you should bid a game with 25+ HCP between you and your partner.
Categories:
- Weak: Not possible
- Invitational: Possible if Partner has a maximum
- Game-going: Possible no matter what Partner has
Remember that Partner has 15-17 HCP and categorise accordingly:
- Weak = 0-7. You should pass
- Invitational = 8-9. You should bid 2NT
- Game-going = 10+. You should bid 3NT
Responses when Supporting Partner’s Major
Put your hand into a strength category depending on how possible game is, remembering that you should bid a game with 25+ HCP between you and your partner.
Categories:
- Weak non-response: Not possible
- Weak response: Possible if Partner has a maximum
- Invitational: Possible if Partner has a good minimum
- Game-going: Possible no matter what Partner has
Remember that Partner has 12-19 HCP and categorise accordingly:
- Weak non-response = 0-5. You should pass
- Weak response = 6-9. You should bid 2M
- Invitational = 10-12. You should bid 3M
- Game-going = 13-15. You should bid 4M
Responding in a New Suit
If Partner opens 1suit and the bid was not a major that you could support, you will need to bid something else. A new suit is forcing, as you will not have limited your hand, whereas a 1NT bid does limit your hand and is therefore non-forcing.
To go up a level in a new suit, you need to have a better hand than you do to bid a new suit at the same level. Remember that you should always respond with 6+ HCP because your partner can easily have up to 19 for his opening bid. Bidding a new suit always shows at least 4 cards in that suit.
Schema:
- New suit at the 1-level = Weak or better, 6+ HCP
- New suit at the 2-level = Invitational or better, 10+ HCP
- 1NT = A hand unable to make one of the above bids, 6-9 HCP
If you have two suits of equal length, here are some general rules you can follow:
- With 4-4 in suits of the same rank, bid the lower suit.
- With 4-4 in suits of different rank, bid the major.
- With 5-5, bid the higher suit (“high fives”).
Opener’s rebid with support for Partner’s Major
Put your hand into a strength category depending on how possible game is, remembering that you should bid a game with 25+ HCP between you and your partner.
Categories:
- Minimum: Not possible if Partner has a weak hand.
- Maximum: Possible if Partner has a weak hand that is at the top of his range.
- Game-going: Possible no matter what Partner has.
Remember that Partner has shown 6+ HCP by responding at the 1-level and categorise accordingly:
- Minimum = 12-15. You should bid 2M
- Maximum = 16-18. You should bid 3M
- Game-going = 19(+). You should bid 4M
Opener’s Rebid if Balanced without Support
Remember that your HCP range if you are balanced is 15-19. Split this into two with the wider range as the lower one: 15-17 and 18-19. Now you can bid NT at a different level depending on your strength:
- 15-17. Bid NT at the lowest available level
- 18-19. Bid NT with a jump
Opener’s Rebid if Unbalanced
You will usually either have a single-suited or a two-suited hand. A single-suited hand has one 6+-card suit, whereas a two-suited hand will have one 5+-card suit and one 4+-card suit.
With a single-suited hand, bid your suit again; your bid is non-forcing (a suit that has been bid), so you must give an indication of your strength:
- Minimum = 12-15. Bid 2x.
- Maximum = 16-18. Bid 3x.
- Game-going = 19(+). Bid game.
With a two-suited hand, you should bid your second suit; but only jump if you are strong enough to force to game if Partner has 6 HCP. Otherwise, bid your second suit at the lowest level.
Overcalling in a suit
Remember that one of your opponents has already shown a good hand by opening the bidding, so you should not leap into the auction lightly. You should have a good reason for bidding, either because you have a good suit or a good hand or both!
Criteria:
- Length. Always have at least 5+ cards in the suit you are overcalling.
- Strength. At the 1-level, overcalling with 8+ HCP is fine as you are not expecting to play the hand; at the 2-level, bid with closer to an opening hand.
- Suit quality. At least 2 honours in your suit, as your partner will lead your suit in defence and you don’t want that to give a trick away!
As you become more experienced, you will learn to judge whether or not to overcall based on a trade-off between these factors.
Responding to an overcall
Respond as though your partner had opened the bidding. With a good hand, you can make forcing bids in new suits; with support, raise according to your strength and remember that you can do so with 6 HCP. As your partner has promised 5+ cards in his suit, you can support with 3+ cards in that suit.
The more space you consume, the harder you make the opponents’ lives!