Analyze the Bidding

Part of being successful at the bidding or playing in bridge is understanding what is said at the table. The more information you can glean from everyone else's bidding the better position you'll be in to make the right decision.

Imagine the bidding sequence (opp's passing):

South     North

  2C          2S

  3C          3H

  3N          6C

  6N          pass

What can you tell about North and South's hands?

Here's what we learn one bid at a time.

2C - 22+ points or a hand that is within one trick of game (because of distribution).

2S - 8+ points, a good 5+ card spades suit headed by 2 of the top 3 honors. Also a hand that feels it is worth taking up bidding space to tell partner about his own suit before hearing her suit. (because he didn't bid 2D) Note, at this point the pair is in a game forcing auction, and has at least slam interest.

3C - opener's long suit. Presumably 5+ clubs. Says nothing about points.

3H - shows a two suited hand (spades and hearts), says nothing about points.

3N - This is a very descriptive hand. This game bid is not forcing. As such we know south has less than 3 spades (didn't support spades), less than 4 hearts (didn't support hearts), and doesn't have crazy distribution (didn't rebid a minor). Since she doesn't have crazy distribution, we know she has 22+ points. However, since we know she didn't make a forcing bid, she has at most about 24 points. (with more, she'd want to go to slam, knowing partner has 8+ points). So know we know south has 22-24 points, a balanced-ish hand probably with 5 spades.

6C - This is also descriptive. North is showing club support, so at least 3 clubs. So we know north has 5+ spades, 4+ hearts, and 3+ clubs. This only leaves one card we don't know about. We also know he has 11-12 points. With less, he wouldn't be comfortable going to slam, and with more he'd be looking to see if grand slam was available

6N - South has diamonds stopped (probably twice), and wants to play in the higher scoring contract.

As you can see, you can learn a lot from the bidding even without a lot of conventions. (only the first two bids were conventional, and only one wasn't natural.) The important thing to always remember is every bid is said in the context of what has already been said. And, unless forced, every bid should be either describing something new about the hand, or placing the hand in what is expected to be the final contract.

Support Partner or Bid Your Suit?

Some of the challenges in bridge are deciding what to do when you have no good options, and some are when you have multiple. Today I'm going to discuss one of the latter. What should you do when your partner opens one of a suit and you have both support for partner's suit and your own suit to bid? Should you support partner? Should you bid your own suit?

The answer is, like most, it depends. Rather than just give you rules to memorize, I will show you the logic behind the rules. Understanding the thought process will help you for those situations where none of the rules fit quite exactly, or to decide when to break the rules.

Goals

The most important thing to remember about Standard American bidding is that you are trying to find out if your side has game, in particular 4 of a major or 3NT. So the two questions you are trying to answer are, does your side have a combined 26 points? Does you side have an 8 card fit in a major? You want to find out the answer to these questions as quickly as possible.

All of the below situations assume that you have support for your partner's suit and have your own suit to bid.

When Your Partner Opens a Minor

If your partner opens a minor suit (1C or 1D) and you have support for that minor, and you also have a major, bid your major suit. Even if you only have 4 cards in your major and you have 5 or more cards in your partner's minor. Until you have ruled out game in the major, look for a major fit rather than a minor fit.

For example, if you have:

S  10 5

H  K J 4 2

D  A 8 6 4 3

C  4 3

and your partner opens 1D, you should bid 1H. Yes, diamonds is almost definitely your best fit, but you first need to explore to see if your side can make 4 hearts, which will probably be easier to make than 5 diamonds, if your partner has four card heart support for you. If your partner does anything other than support your hearts, you can now bid diamonds with a clear conscience.

When Your Partner Opens a Major

If your partner opens a major (1H or 1S) and you have support for that major and another suit, its a little bit more complicated. I'll break this down by point ranges.

0-5 Points

Pass. You know you have less than game, so don't encourage your partner. Of course, if the opponents enter the bidding, you may bid later, knowing you've already told your partner you have a weak hand. (This, of course, is also true if they had opened a minor.)

6-10 Points

Bid 2 of your partner's suit. Even if your other suit is really nice, support partner. Given your weakness, it increases the odds that the opponents will bid something. Now you are in a competitive auction, and your partner doesn't know about the fit, and so can't make an informed decision. And by the time the bidding gets around to you, the level might be too high for you to be comfortable bidding again.

S  A Q 10 7 5

H  6 4 2

D  6 4 3

C  4 3

This is really important, so I'm going to repeat it. If you have a weak hand, the most important thing you can do, is to support your partner's major suit bid. On the above hand, if your partner opens 1H, bid 2H, not 1S.

10-12 Points

This is an in-between scenario. In some systems, like 2/1 (a popular system based on Standard American), it would depend on whether you have 4 card support for your partner's major or only 3. For the HSBC standard, I'm going to recommend going the simpler route of just bidding 3 of your partner's major. This bid shows your strength range and your support all at once. It's very descriptive, makes it hard for the opponents to enter the bidding, and hopefully gives your partner enough information to do the right thing.

13+ Points

With this strong hand, you already have both the questions answered. You know your side has 26+ points and you know your side has an 8 card major fit. Now you have the freedom to consider other options. Maybe your side has slam (6 or 7). Bid your suit and see what happens. A new suit by you is forcing, so you aren't worried about your partner passing. You can always bid 4 of your partner's major as your next bid, if nothing good comes about.