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Bidding
In bidding, your objective is to indicate to your partner what sort of hand you have, and determine how many tricks to aim for. To open the bidding we’ve learnt that you need 12 or more points. If you are able to open, you must also see if your hand is balanced or unbalanced: your whole bidding strategy depends on the answer.
Balanced or unbalanced hand?
The 13 cards of each suit are divided between between the four players. Each hand has a distribution, for example, a hand consisting of three spades, three hearts, four diamonds and three clubs has a distribution of 4333.
A balanced hand contains:
• no void (suit with no cards)
• no ‘singleton’ (suit with just one card)
• not more than one ‘doubleton’ (suit with just two cards)
must know
All distributions (or ‘shapes’) can be subdivided into one of two categories: balanced or unbalanced.
The distributions, or shapes, that satisfy all three criteria are 4432, 4333 and 5332. These are the three balanced shapes:
Opening with a balanced hand
With a balanced hand – no void, no singleton and not more than one doubleton – your bidding plan should revolve around no-trumps (see the following panel). The even spread of a balanced hand means you have no strong preference for a trump suit, which is why bidding no-trumps makes sense. However, an opening bid of One no-trump (1NT) shows a specific point count, so you may need to delay your no-trump bid if your point count is higher in order to convey the right message to your partner.
No-trumps
As the name suggests, ‘no-trumps’ means that the deal is played without a trump suit so in each round played the highest card of the lead suit always wins the trick. Arguably it’s slightly more difficult for the declaring side not to have the security of a trump suit, but no-trumps outranks all the trump suits (see the bidding ladder on p. 22 (#ulink_2814fd4d-7fdb-5c59-81bb-e3f894758a41) and notice that no-trumps is higher ranked than spades, the highest ranked suit). No-trumps also scores slightly better (see p. 221 (#litres_trial_promo)), so plays a huge role. Typically, a no-trump bid is made when you have no long suit and no short suit – an even spread, or balanced hand. The most important no-trump bid is the opening bid of One no-trump (1NT) because this describes your hand very accurately to your partner. If you open the bidding with 1NT, in most cases you shouldn’t bid again. Having described your hand so accurately, you should leave further bidding decisions to your partner (see p. 35 (#ua7dbb637-d281-47bb-a60a-8e0166398888) for your partner’s response to a 1NT opener).
If you have a balanced hand with 12, 13 or 14 points, you should open the bidding with One no-trump (1NT). In the following example (a), all three hands are 1NT openers. In (b), none of the three hands should open 1NT. The first has too many points (15) so opening 1NT would paint too pessimistic a picture for your partner. Instead you should open One-of-a-suit (1♦ in this case) and plan to bid no-trumps at your next turn. The second hand has just eleven points, so you should pass. The third contains two doubletons: an unbalanced hand. In this case you should open 1♦.
(a) Examples of One no-trump (1NT) opening hands
(b) Examples of opening hands that are not One no-trump (1NT)
Now let’s consider your opening strategy with these three balanced opening hands:
(a) You have 13 points so should open 1NT. Leave further bidding to your partner (except in certain situations that we’ll discuss later).
(b) You have 16 points – too many to open 1NT. You should open 1♥, then show your balanced hand by bidding 1NT at your next turn. By bidding a suit followed by no-trumps you’re indicating to your partner that you have a balanced hand but with too many points to open 1NT (though not enough to open 2NT).
(c) You have 21 points. When your hand has 20+ points (i.e. at least half the pack’s total points in your hand alone) you should tell the good news to your partner by opening at the level of ‘Two’ (2NT).
Strategy for opening bidding (balanced hand)
With a balanced hand (a distribution of 5332, 4432 or 4333), your opening bidding strategy should be:
Useful tip
If you have 20+ points, open at the Two level (to remember, think ‘Two-Twenty’).
Opening with an unbalanced hand
If your opening hand is unbalanced (i.e. the distribution is not 4432, 4333 or 5332), then you should avoid bidding no-trumps at your first two bids. We’ll consider these strategies in more detail later. For now, just remember that your aim is to describe your hand as accurately as possible to your partner, and if your partner responds in a new suit, you are obliged to bid again.
must know
• Introducing a suit into the bidding guarantees at least four cards in the suit are held by the bidder.
• A ‘fit’ means that a minimum of eight cards in one suit are held by the partnership.
Strategy for opening bidding (unbalanced hand)
With an unbalanced hand (not a distribution of 5332, 4432 or 4333), your opening bidding strategy should be:
Finding a fit (making a suit trumps)
There are two primary goals of the bidding:
• To find a trump suit mutually agreeable to you and your partner – this is known as ‘finding a fit’.
• To decide how many tricks to aim for in that chosen trump suit (or no-trumps) – in particular, whether to bid to a game contract.
When finding a fit, there is a minimum number of cards that should be held between you and your partner to warrant making a suit trumps. Clearly, it would be nice to hold all 13 cards in a suit, but this is rare. Eight cards is more likely and considered the minimum to make a good trump suit. This leaves the opponents with five cards in the suit (probably splitting 3-2 between the opposition partners), giving you a substantial advantage.
Three ways the suit cards may be distributed between the partnership for there to be a ‘fit’
A common scenario is that your partner bids a suit, because he holds at least four cards in the suit. You also hold four (plus) cards in the suit so you know there’s a fit. You then decide how many tricks to aim for – particularly whether or not to ‘go for game’.
Bidding to a game contract
Bidding to a game contract, known as ‘bidding game’ or ‘going for game’, is very important. In Rubber Bridge, one game made marks a halfway point to the ultimate goal: scoring a rubber (see pp. 220–4 (#litres_trial_promo)).
must know
You can make (win) a game either by making several small contracts (‘part-scores’) that add up to the score for game over several deals, or by making game in just one deal (a ‘game contract’). For more on part-scores and game contracts, see p. 60 (#litres_trial_promo).
The five game contracts are 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ and 5♦. The game contract requiring the fewest tricks to win is 3NT (six plus three = nine tricks out of a total of thirteen – see the bidding steps on p. 22 (#ulink_2814fd4d-7fdb-5c59-81bb-e3f894758a41)), which is why it’s the most commonly played game contract – closely followed by 4♥ and 4♠. The last two (5♣ and 5♦) are more difficult and should be avoided.
A rough guide for bidding game is if your opening bid faces a hand that could also have opened the bidding (i.e. your partner also has 12 or more points), then your partnership should go for game. For example, South is dealer and he and his partner hold the following cards:
South has a balanced hand with 13 points – he opens the bidding 1NT. With the opponents silent, North, who also has an opening hand, immediately thinks ‘game’. With no particular preference for a trump suit (his hand is also balanced), he opts for game in no-trumps. He therefore bids the game contract 3NT.
A more specific guide for when to go for game in the three desirable game contracts (3NT, 4♥ and 4♠) is if you and your partner together have 25 points (i.e. ten more than your opponents out of the total, 40). It doesn’t guarantee success, and you won’t always fail if you have fewer points, but it’s a useful guide.
must know
• The five game contracts are 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ and 5♦.
• Avoid contracts 5♣ and 5♦.
• If you have an opening hand (12+ points) and your partner also has 12+ points, you should contract for game.
• Bid game (3NT, 4♥, 4♠) if your partnership has 25+ points.
When to go for game
Bidding with your partner involves first trying to find a fit, then seeing whether you have enough points between you for game. This decision process is shown here:
Now let’s look at some sample pairs of hands (we’ll assume silence from the opponents). Note that ‘responder’ is bridge jargon for the opener’s partner.
(a) Opener bids 1♠, so responder knows they have at least eight spades between them – a fit. Responder must now bid. There’s no point bidding clubs – it would only confuse matters when it’s obvious spades should be trumps. The only unresolved issue is how high to bid in spades, specifically whether or not to bid for game (4♠). Responder knows that opener has 12+ points (the minimum required in order to open the bidding), and responder has 13, thus the partnership has at least 25 points, which means that responder can go for game: she bids 4♠, a ‘jump’ from the previous bid 1♠. The bidding sequence is as follows, the underlined bid being the final contract:
(b) Opener bids 1♠. Again responder knows there’s a spade fit (opener must have four+ spades, and responder has four spades, so the partnership has eight+ spades). However responder has a relatively low point count, so should raise to 2♠. This conveys to opener that responder supports spades as trumps but her hand is only worth a minimum bid. With nothing to add to his opening bid, opener then passes. They’ve found their fit but lack the strength for game. The bidding sequence is:
(c) Opener bids 1♠, which doesn’t reveal a fit to responder. She therefore tries her favourite (longest) suit at the lowest level possible, bidding 2♣. This suit doesn’t appeal to opener, but rather than repeat spades he offers a third choice of trump suit, hearts. Responder now knows they’ve found their fit (the partnership has at least eight hearts). She considers whether the values for game are present: she has 13 points, and her partner has advertised 12+ by opening, which is enough to bid a game contract (25 points are needed to go for game). Responder jumps to 4♥. The bidding sequence is:
must know
Don’t bid unnecessarily high when bidding a new suit. Try to find a fit as ‘cheaply’ as possible i.e. the bid you reach first as you work up the bidding ladder on p. 22 (#ulink_2814fd4d-7fdb-5c59-81bb-e3f894758a41) (the bid that requires the least number of tricks to make a contract). Then assess whether or not you have enough points to go for game.
Responding to a 1NT opener
If your partner opens the bidding 1NT, as responder you should be happy because he’s described his hand very accurately: 12, 13 or 14 points and one of three balanced distributions (see the diagrams on p. 26 (#ube54edee-227e-4ffe-820a-70426ca0b045)). In most cases you’ll be in a position to place the final contract.
Strategy for responding to 1NT opener
Remember that opener will only rarely bid again, so you should assume (at this stage) that your bid as responder will end the auction.
Now consider how you’d respond to your partner’s 1NT opener when you hold the following cards:
(a) You know the partnership has enough strength for game (you have 25 or more points between you). With your balanced hand, your preferred bid is 3NT.
(b) You know the values for game are present. You also know there’s a heart fit (a 1NT opener can’t contain a void or a singleton so your partner must have at least two hearts, which makes at least eight hearts between you). The correct response is jump to 4♥.
(c) With such a weak hand there’s clearly no chance of going for game. However, leaving your partner in 1NT would be a mistake so you need to make a bid. Your hand is useless in no-trumps but may take a few tricks with diamonds as trumps, so bid 2♦. Your bid effectively removes your partner’s 1NT bid and is known as a ‘weakness take-out’. Your partner will know not to bid again (he’ll look on your bid as a rescue).
must know
• When your partner opens 1NT, as responder you must consider whether to make a trump suit or to stay in no-trumps, and whether to go for game.
• Responding Two-of-a-suit removes your partner’s 1NT opener and is known as a ‘weakness take-out’.
Responding to a suit opener
If your partner opens with One-of-a-suit, e.g. 1♥, you know that 19 is the highest point count they can have to open at this One level (see diagrams on pp. 29 (#ulink_40e5cf88-27f6-536d-9f0d-99b49b930f5c) and 30 (#ulink_d8a3cc2c-ea2b-54cd-a38f-006741dc0b7a)). This means that you, as responder, need a minimum of six points to have a chance of game (25 points in total are required for game).
Strategy for responding to One-of-a-suit opener
If you as responder have six+ points in total then you should keep the bidding open (note the difference between this and responding to 1NT, where the opener’s upper limit is 14 points).
Now consider how you should respond to your partner’s 1♥opener if you hold the following cards:
(a) You have fewer than six points. The partnership doesn’t hold the 25 points for game, so you should pass. To bid would show (inaccurately) six+ points.
(b) You have plenty of points to respond, plus a fit for hearts. Also, the point count is high enough to go for game (13+12 = 25). You should jump to 4♥.
(c) You easily have enough points to bid, but no guarantee of a fit for hearts (opener may only have four hearts, in which case you’d need four to make the eight required for a fit). Instead you should bid your longest suit at the lowest level, and await developments: a bid of 1♠. This shows you have at least six points in order to bid and at least four spades to try for a fit (see the diagram on p. 31 (#ulink_3731a97c-c1ba-5f81-98bf-26cb57cf4580)), and, by inference, you have fewer than four hearts.
must know
• The responder to a One-of-suit opener should bid if she has six+ points in her hand, and pass if she has fewer points than this.
• The opener of One-of-a-suit must bid again if his partner bids a different suit.
Bidding after an opponent’s opener
If you bid (or ‘call’) after the opponents have opened the bidding then you are ‘overcalling’.
Overcalling
Unlike opening, you don’t need 12 points to enter the bidding when overcalling, but you should only enter the bidding for a reason, i.e. when you have strong cards in a long suit. Sometimes you may be able to steal the contract from your opponents, or you may simply be aiming to cause them trouble by using up their bidding space (their opportunities to communicate with each other) or pushing them to make an unwise bid at too high a level.
The crucial difference in bidding an overcall is that where an opening bid and response only promise a minimum of four cards in the bid suit, an overcall guarantees a minimum of five cards. The corollary to this is that the overcaller’s partner only needs a three-card support to make the fit of eight cards (see the following diagram).
Note that both members of the overcalling side adhere to the same guidelines – it doesn’t matter if you’re bidding directly over an opening bid, or over the response.
Here are three sample hands that would make a 1♠ overcall following your opponents’ opening bid of 1♥ (or after the bidding sequence: 1♣, Pass, 1♥).
(a) and (b) are not particularly strong hands, but there’s everything to be gained by mentioning your spades in each case: it’s the highest-ranked suit (see pp. 8 (#u97a877fb-2786-418f-91c1-9f77a4cdae1e) and 22 (#ulink_2814fd4d-7fdb-5c59-81bb-e3f894758a41)) and you may go on to make a contract. Even if it’s just a case of disrupting your opponents’ bidding, and ultimately defending, you’ll have helped your partner’s defence by indicating which suit to lead.
(c) is another clear overcall of 1♠. Note that an overcall is possible with opening bid values (12+ points).
must know
• An overcall in a suit indicates five+ decent cards in the suit.
• An overcall doesn’t guarantee that the overcaller has opening points (12 or more), but equally it doesn’t preclude them.
Doubling
The final bid in the bridge player’s arsenal is a double. When you bid ‘Double’ literally this means that you double the opposing contract because you think it will fail, and if you’re right you get more points for your side. However, the most frequent use for the double is something quite different: to ask your partner to bid in one of the unbid suits.
We’ll talk much more about the double in chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo) (see p. 126 (#litres_trial_promo)). For now, accept that the following hands (a, b and c) would double a 1♥ opener from the opposition:
must know
If you bid ‘Double’ following an opening suit bid from the opposition this normally indicates you have an opening hand (12+ points) supporting all unbid suits, and it implicitly asks your partner to bid one of these other suits.
