Bruce's Bridge Basics #4

Bidding Concepts and Frameworks

Bidding is an art. Many teaching programs and bidding texts use hands where the expected auction should be obvious. The players graduate and try games where the cards are shuffled and they are overwhelmed. Who knew that so many deals don't fit the rules we learned? Here are some bidding concepts which are rubbery enough to fit the rules you are learning.

8-card major-suit fits are a key objective of bidding. It's important to have an idea of the range a bid has: what's the strongest hand you could have, or the weakest? But most of the early bids in an auction also promise a minimum length for suits mentioned. Let your partner know when your side has an eight-card fit, because that's important to find out. A player with four spades and three hearts who hears partner open 1♥ should usually resist the urge to bid 1♠ and instead support hearts, unless the hand is strong enough to bid 1♠ and support hearts later. Even so, if you bid 1♠ first and support hearts later, partner may wonder if this is a desperation move with Kx or QJ rather than real three-card support.

A new suit by responder is always forcing. This is a basic rule of standard bidding, and there are only three exceptions:

  1. If opener rebids in notrump, a new suit by responder can be passed: 1♦ - 1♠, 1NT - 2♥. Responder probably has 5-5 or 6-5 in the majors and a weak hand; 2♥ can be passed. Once opener rebids notrump, responder needs to jump a level with a strong hand and distribution to describe.
  2. If responder is a passed hand, no bid is forcing: Pass - 1♥, 2♣: responder did not open the bidding, so opener can pass 2♣ if no better bid seems obvious. (Assuming 2♣ is natural, of course: many these days play 2♣ as a conventional call.)
  3. If an opponent intervenes, a forcing bid can be passed since responder will get another chance: 1♣ - 1♥, 1♠ (2♦ by opponent). "Forcing" really means "don't let this be passed out." When an opponent bids, this is no longer a concern, but if you have something to say, feel free!

Don't rebid in notrump without stoppers in unbid suits, nor with a singleton in partner's suit. You're going to want to, but this rule will get you thinking about potential rebids before you choose your opening call, which is a good strategy. Example: You open 1♣ and partner responds 1♠. With most hands in the minimum range, you will want to rebid 1NT, but don't do it with a singleton spade! Partner expects a balanced hand for a notrump rebid and your hand is unbalanced. You can rebid clubs with a five-card suit, but a bid of 2♦ or 2♥, in a suit higher than your opening bid, shows about an ace more than a minimum opener, so be careful! If you have one spade and four in the other suits, you should have opened 1♦ to make a rebid of 2♣ a no-brainer.

Rebidding with The Hollywood Squares! This is a thought experiment and memory aid for figuring out bids in the middle of the auction. You imagine a 3-by-3 grid and an auction that has come to you, let's say 1♦ (Pass) 1♥ from partner (Pass). The three rows represent stronger and stronger hands, no extras at the bottom (12-15 or so), a few extras in the middle (16-18 or so), and very large opening hands on top (19 or more). The columns from left to right are: supporting partner's suit (a priority since partner has bid a major), rebidding my suit, and new suits or notrump. Your objective in this exercise is to figure out which rebids go in which boxes. Some may fit in more than one box! Others may span more than one box. As you figure out which bids go where, you'll notice the extra little details that go into your decisions. Here is my list for that auction:

1♦ - Pass - 1♥ - Pass - ??? Support Partner's suit Rebid my suit New suit or notrump
19 or more 4♥ (4+) 3NT? 4♦? 1♠? 3NT (20+)
16-18 3♥ (4+) 3♦ (6+) 2♠ (4), 2NT (18-19)
12-15 2♥ (3+, usually 4) 2♦ (5+) 1♠ (4), 1NT

Yes, you can raise partner's 1♥ response to 2♥ with only three-card support. It's almost a last resort, usually you will have four, but sometimes you have to make the 'least worst rebid' from flawed choices. Note that there is no rebid that shows a balanced hand of 15-17, since you should have opened 1NT with that hand, not 1♦. Thinking about such common auctions helps you survive them when they come up. Writing out the grid and filling it in is even better: the things you discover will be burned into your memory.

Traffic Signals. There really are only three types of bids:

  1. RED — Non-forcing bids. 3NT is usually "to play" and thus non-forcing. Minimum rebids are non-forcing. 1♥ (Pass) 2♥ (Pass). You can only bid on with significant extra values.
  2. AMBER — Invitational bids. Not forcing but suggesting going higher if you have extras. 1NT (Pass) 2NT (Pass). With 15 you pass, with 17 you bid 3NT, and with 16 you use judgment.
  3. GREEN — Forcing bids. Some are forcing for one round, others are forcing to game. You cannot pass unless your RHO (right hand opponent) bids, ensuring that partner will get another chance. 1♠ (Pass) 2♦ (Pass). New suits are forcing, so you must make some descriptive call, even if this is the worst hand you have ever opened in your life.

Points Schmoints! This was the title of a best-selling bridge book not too long ago. I didn't read it but I gather that the idea was that high card points are merely a good estimate of how strong your hand really is. Much of the art of good bidding consists of discovering when your hand and partner's hand will (or won't) fit together well to take lots of tricks. Sometimes you get help from the opponents. For example:

You LHO Partner RHO
1♥ 1♠ Dble (minors) 2♠
Pass Pass 3♥ 3♠

If your hand is...
     ♠ 8 6 5 2  ♥ A J 9 6 2  ♦ A Q 3  ♣ 5
...you have very few extras, and many players would not even have opened the hand 1♥. But 4♥ will almost certainly make. Partner will not compete to 3♥ without three-card support, and the bidding seems to indicate he has at most one spade since the opponents surely have an eight or nine card fit on this auction. Your club singleton and diamond holding will go well with partner's hand. Ten tricks should be easy!





Conventional Wisdom

In Vancouver, when you walk up to an intersection and want to press the button to get across, you press the button while standing facing the way you don't want to go; the button turns the walk signal on across the street to your left or right. In Seattle it is the other way around—you press the button while facing the crosswalk you want to use. I've stood at Seattle intersections and wondered what the hell I did wrong. Just when I thought this was a Canadian-American thing, I went to Spokane a few years ago for a tournament and found that they use the Vancouver rule.

Which is more correct? What decides which rule is used? Local convention.

In bridge we have many conventions, so many that the notion of a standard system hasn't been seriously considered since the 1970s. Stayman (2♣ over 1NT asking for majors) and Blackwood (4NT asking for aces) are perhaps the most common, although they have more different strains than the common cold. The oldest convention still in use today is not even a bidding tool. The idea of playing your low cards in a different order than lowest first, to tell partner that you have interest in the suit, dates back to whist in the 17th century! Declarer cashes the ace and king of a suit. If partner plays the seven on the first one and then follows with the three on the second, a message is being sent, probably that he has the queen or perhaps the jack-ten. Like most conventions, the first appearance of this play caused controversy and all kinds of cheating allegations, including invitations to duel! Gentleman's clubs reacted quickly and set some standards that we still follow four centuries later:

We'll get to the way this is done in bridge today another time. For now, here is a list of basic conventions you should know as you start out:

  1. Blue Peter (1650 or so). Defenders sending messages by playing low noncompetitive cards in a different order than normal (lowest first). The most common message is like/dislike of the suit led; other potential messages are count (high-low shows an even number, low-high shows an odd number), or suit preference (high-low prefers the higher of remaining suits, low-high prefers the lower). Named after a naval signal with flags!
  2. Takeout Doubles (1906). A low-level double of an opponent's call is not for penalty, but shows a hand with support for the other suits, especially unbid major suits. Partner is expected to pick an unbid suit and bid it, even with a very weak hand. Passing the double is rare and means you have considerable strength in the suit bid and expect to beat the contract several tricks.
  3. Weak Two Bids (1930). An opening bid of 2♠, 2♥, or 2♦ shows a decent six-card suit and about 6-11 points. Before weak two bids became the norm, strong hands were opened at the two level. Once weak two bids became popular, all strong hands were opened 2♣, with opener using later bids to describe his hand.
  4. Blackwood (1933). Easley Blackwood was an Indiana expert who devised this simple method of checking to see whether two aces were missing before you bid a bad slam. 4NT asks, 5-level bids show specific numbers of aces, then the 4NT bidder decides how to proceed. It was resisted by the New York gurus that published bridge literature for years, but their alternative was so complex even I cannot figure it out from the few remaining references to it.
  5. Stayman (1939). Sam Stayman was a New York expert who discovered that hands with a 4-4 major suit fit usually played a trick better in the major than in notrump. This meant that a way needed to be found to find 4-4 fits after opener opened 1NT or 2NT. Stayman decided to use 2♣ (3♣ over 2NT openers) as an asking bid, with diamonds the response that said "no, I have no four-card major suit."
  6. Jacoby Transfers (1956). American expert Oswald Jacoby grabbed this Swedish idea, based on the notion that many hands take more tricks when the stronger hand is declarer. After a 1NT opener, responder bids a red suit at the two level and opener is supposed to bid the next suit up; 2♥ is a transfer to 2♠, and 2♦ a transfer to 2♥. Responder can drop opener there or make further bids to describe his hand.

That's six conventions to start you off, without a lot of necessary detail. Players today play systems with dozens, hundreds of conventions. Sometimes they forget and need a Director to sort out the mayhem that results! No convention is worth it unless partner understands it as well!

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