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.

Responding to 1 of a Minor

When your partner opens 1 of a Minor, how should you respond? Remember your main goal is to find a "Golden Game", which is an 8 card major fit, and 26 points.

Here's how to think through your responses.

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With Less Than 6 Points
If you have less than 6 points, you almost certainly don't have game, so just pass so the bidding doesn't get too high.

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With a Major (6 or more points)
If you have at least 4 cards in a major bid it at the one level. If you have both majors, bid the longer one. If they are the same length:

• With 4 each - bid 1H
• With 5 or 6 each - bid 1S

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Without a Major

With 6-10 Points
You want to let partner you have some points, but not too many. If your partner opened clubs, and you have diamonds (at least 4 of them), you can bid 1D. If you have support for your partner's minor (at least 4 cards, preferably 5 or more) you can bid 2 of your partner's suit. Otherwise bid 1NT.

Just like over a major:

Do not bid a new suit at the 2 level without at least 10 points!

With 10-12 Points
Again, if your partner opened clubs, and you have diamonds (at least 4 of them), you can bid 1D. If your partner opened diamonds, and you have clubs (at least 4 of them), you can bid 2C. If you don't have any other 4 card suit, you must have support for your partner's suit, so bid 3 of your partner's suit.

With 13+ Points
If you have a balanced hand, bid 2NT. If not, you can bid 1D with diamonds (if partner opened clubs), and 2C with clubs (if partner opened diamonds). If none of these apply, you can bid your partner's suit at the 4 level. (though, in this case it is usually better to lie, and bid one of your other suits at a low level, to keep the bidding low while you explore).

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Examples
For all of the following examples, assume that your partner opened 1D.

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K8532

43

987

642

With less than 6 points, just pass.

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AK532

43

987

642

You have a major, so bid it: 1S.

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AK53

T4

A9832

42

Even though you have support for diamonds, show your major first: bid 1S.

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AJ987

5

43

AKQ65

You have two 5-card suits, bid the higher one: 1S.

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AKJ9

AQ53

43

Q65

You have two 4-card suits, bid the cheaper one: 1H.

---

75

432

AK653

654

With no 4 card major, and diamond support, show your diamonds. Bid 2D.

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Q54

KJ6

AJ765

43

With no 4 card major, and diamond support, show your diamonds and your points. Bid 3D.

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AQ4

KJ6

AJ765

43

With no 4 card major, a balanced hand, and 13+ points, show your points and your distribution. Bid 2N.

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754

43

64

AQ6532

Your longest suit is clubs, but since you have less than 10 points you can't bid them at the 2 level. With no suit to bid at the one level, bid 1NT.

Opening 1 of a Minor

Requirements for Opening 1 of a Minor
(clubs or diamonds)

• 13+ points
• longest suit -or- no 5 card major

Other Considerations
If you have two 5-card suits (or 6 card suits) that are the same length, open the higher one. i.e. Prefer spades to hearts to diamonds to clubs.

If you have no 5-card major, and your minor suits are the same length, open 1 diamond if you are 4-4 in the minors, and open 1 club if you are 3-3 in the minors.

Examples
In all the examples the suits are ordered, from top to bottom, spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. A number means a card with that number, A = ace, K = king, Q = queen, J = jack, and T = ten.

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Q74

AT5

63

AK532

With 5 clubs and 14 points (don't forget to count the 1 distribution point for the fifth club), open this 1C.

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Q74

AT5

63

K7532

With less than 13 points, just pass.

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AK53

K74

KT43

63

You have 13 points, but you don't have a 5 card major, so open this one 1D.

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53

9

AK532

AQ743

You have enough points to open, and two 5 card minors, so open the higher one:  1D.

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532

96

AK53

AQ74

You have enough points to open, and two 4 card minors, so open the higher one:  1D.

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9532

943

AK5

AQ7

You have enough points to open, and two 3 card minors, so open the lower one:  1C.

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Q532

A784

AK5

AQ

You have enough points to open, but no 5 card major, so open the longer minor:  1D.

Responding to 1 of a Major

When your partner opens 1 of a Major, how should you respond? Remember your main goal is to find a "Golden Game", which is an 8 card major fit, and 26 points.

Here's how to think through your responses.

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With Less Than 6 Points
If you have less than 6 points, you almost certainly don't have game, so just pass so the bidding doesn't get too high.

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With Support
If you have at least 3 cards in your partner's major, you know you have an 8 card fit, so you have found a fit. Now your only question is how high to bid.

With 6-10 Points
You want to let partner you have some points, but not too many. Just bid 2 of your partner's suit.

With 10-12 Points
This is considered "invitational strength", since all it takes is for partner to have a little bit beyond a minimum opener for your side to have the 26 points required for game. Bid 3 of your partner's suit to invite to game.

With 13+ Points
You know that 4 of your partner's suit is almost certainly the best place to play. However, you don't have to go right there. Bid something else (2NT with a balanced hand, or a new suit, otherwise), and let your partner redescribe their hand with another bid. This may give you enough information to determine if you should bid slam.

Remember, in this situation, your partner doesn't know that you have the major fit yet. All of the possible bids you could make is beyond the scope of this post. If your next bid is 4 of the major, your partner will now know what you were doing.

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Without Support
If you don't have support for your partner's major then you still have to find what suit is best for your partnership. In general, your best bid here is your longest suit, at the cheapest level that you can.

Suits of the same length
If you are have two suits that are the same length that you are choosing between, the rule is:

• If the suits are 4-4, bid the cheapest suit. (i.e. whichever one comes soonest in the bidding sequence)
• If the suits are 5-5 or 6-6 bid the highest suit. (i.e. prefer spades to hearts to diamonds to clubs)

Weak Hand
The caveat to the above rules is:

Do not bid a new suit at the 2 level without at least 10 points!

So, if you do not have a new 4 card or longer suit that you can bid at the 1 level, and you have less than 10 points, then you should bid 1NT.

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Examples
For all of the following examples, assume that your partner opened 1H.

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K8532

43

987

642

With less than 6 points, just pass.

---

AK532

43

987

642

You don't have enough hearts to support, so bid your longest suit: 1S.

---

AK532

643

98

642

You have support for your partner's hearts. Show that by bidding 2H.

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AK53

43

A987

642

You have two 4-card suits. Since 1S is a cheaper bid than 2D, bid 1S.

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AK53

T432

A98

42

You have support for hearts, and enough points to invite, bid 3H.

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AJ987

5

43

AKQ65

You have two 5-card suits, bid the higher one: 1S.

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7543

43

AK652

64

Your longest suit is diamonds, but since you have less than 10 points you can't bid them at the 2 level. Bid 1S since you have 4 of them.

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A5432

KQ6

AJ76

4

You have support for hearts, and enough points to go to game. However, with this many points you don't have to go straight there. Just bid 1S for now. You can always bid 4H on your next bid.

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754

43

AQ6532

64

Your longest suit is diamonds, but since you have less than 10 points you can't bid them at the 2 level. With no suit to bid at the one level, bid 1NT.

Opening 1 of a Major

Requirements for Opening 1 of a Major
(hearts or spades)

• 13+ points
• 5+ in that major

Other Considerations
If you have a longer suit, open that. i.e. with 6 diamonds and 5 hearts, you would not open 1H, but rather 1D.

If you have two 5-card suits (or 6 card suits) that are the same length, open the higher one. i.e. Prefer spades to hearts to diamonds to clubs.

Examples
In all the examples the suits are ordered, from top to bottom, spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. A number means a card with that number, A = ace, K = king, Q = queen, J = jack, and T = ten.

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AK532

Q74

AT5

63

With 5 spades and 14 points (don't forget to count the 1 distribution point for the fifth spade), open this 1S.

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K7532

Q74

AT5

63

With less than 13 points, just pass.

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AK53

K74

KT43

63

You have 13 points, but you don't a 5 card major, so open this one 1D.

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AK532

AQ743

53

9

You have enough points to open, and two 5 card majors, so open the higher one:  1S.