Opening Bids:   1-level Suit

Background

Points to make a game

• Between 25 and 28 points are needed to make a game.
  • The variation is due the difference in levels needed for NoTrump, Major Suit, and Minor Suit games.
• If two parnters each have 13 points, the combination is enough to make a game.
• If both parnters do not start (or open) the bidding with 13 points, many games would be missed.

Opening the Bidding

• 13 points is a "common" requirement for opening the bidding.
  • Note:   a hand with 13 points (HCP + LSP) typically contains 12 high card points (HCP).
  • 12 HCPs is used by some as the opening bid requirement.
• Use of the Rule of 22 generally results in hands with 13 or more points being opened. This rule factors Quick Tricks into the formula to make a slightly better guideline.

Objective of Bidding:   Trump Suit or NoTrump

• 1st Objective:   Play in Major Suit contract with 8+ card suit.
• 2nd Objective:   Play in NoTrump contract with a balanced hand, even with a 8+ card Minor suit.
• 3rd Objective:   Play in Minor Suit contract with 8+ card suit and an unbalanced hand.
• 4th Objective:   Play in NoTrump contract with an unbalanced hand that includes a long solid Minor suit in 1 hand and stoppers in the other suits.
• Otherwise:   Find the best 7-card suit for a trump suit.

5 Card Major Openers

• Most modern bidding systems, require a 5-card Major suit to open.
  • Responder can raise Opener's 1-level Major suit with 3 card support.
  • By opening a Minor suit when a 4-card Major is also held, 4-card Major suits can then be bid so that a 4-4 8-card fit can be found.
  • Using the 5-card-opener/4-card-response scheme, most 8-card Major suit fits can be found.
  • Since an 8+ card Major suit fit is a primary bidding objective, this scheme if an important feature of the SAYJ (SAYC) system.
• The requirements of an opening bid of 1 Heart or 1 Spade are shown here.
• 1st and 2nd seat
  • In 1st and 2nd seat (the 1st 2 bidders in an Auction), the minimum limits are considered sound (safe or conservative).
• 3rd and 4th seat
  • In 3rd and 4th seat, you can be more agressive in opening the bidding. If you open light (a point or 2 less than a sound opening bid), you know that a game is very unlikely. Therefore, once you find a good part-score contract, you will pass or make a non-forcing bid.
  • If in 3rd and 4th seat, you have a sound opening bid or better, you will keep making focing bids until game is reached (if parnter shows he has suitable points. However, you already have an upper limit of 12 points for partner's hand.

Introduction to Responses

• After one player makes an opening bid, other players can bid with fewer points since they have more information. The Auction can go in one of two directions at this point.
  1. A Primary Bidding auction will only include non-pass bids by the opening bidder, the Opener, and the partner of Opener---referred to as the Responder.
  2. If the opponents of the Opener make non-pass bids, then it will be a Competitive Bidding auction. The first opponent to make such a bid is referred to as the Overcaller and the partner of the Overcaller is referred to as the Advancer.
• At this point, only Primary Bidding will be discussed.

Primary Bidding Responses

• There are 2 ways to learn response bids:
  1. learn a set of bidding guidelines AND/OR
  2. memorize the details for each bid.
• General Guidelines are used for most Primary Bidding where the responses (by Responder) and rebids (by Opener) generally show a number of cards (usually 3 or more) in the suit bid and a range of points (total hand evaluation points). These bids are usually referred to as "natural".
• These notes also include a set of Specific Responses that show the detailed bids that result from using the General Guidelines. It is recommended to only use the Specific Responses to confirm correct usage of the General Responses, as memorization of the Specific Responses is nearly impossible and not done even by experts.
• There will be some limited cases where memoriztion is necessary. Examples are the Conventional Bids. These will be introduced later in the course.

Convenient Minor Suit Openers

• Based on the above discussion, it is necessary to open a 3-card Minor suit (sometimes called a Convenient Minor Opening).
• The requirements of an opening bid of 1 Club or 1 Diamond are shown here.
• While some players open the better suit of 2 3-card Minor suits, it is recommended to open with 1 Club.
• Similar to Major suit openers, slightly weaker Minor suit hands are opened in 3rd and 4th seat.

Follow-up

• Opening 3-card Minor suits if sometimes a concern when Responder wishes to raise with a 4-card suit.
• Observation:   Opener has a 3 card Club suit only 15% of the time 1 Club is opened.
• Observation:   Opener has a 3 card Diamond suit only 4% of the time 1 Diamond is opened.
• Conclusion:   Responder should generally not worry if a 1 Club or 1 Dimaond opening are a 3-card suit if the final contract will be a part-score contract. For game and slam contracts more concern is warranted, but the overall bidding will present additional clues.

Primary Bidding Responses

• General Guidelines
• Specific Responses

1 NoTrump Opening Bid

• A NoTrump opening bid is usually made with a narrow range of point requirements.
• A table of different NoTrump opening bids is shown here. These will be introduced later.

NoTrump Responses

• Becuase of the small point count range of the 1 NoTrump opening bids, the responses can be more precise. Only specific responses to an NoTrump opening bid are provided.
• Since the Responder knows a lot about the Opener's hand the Responder becomes the "captain" of the Auction and the Opener generally makes appropriate responses to Conventional Bids that ask specific questions.
• Some Responder bids are "transfer" requests that allow Opener to first bid a suit. If the deal is played with this suit as trumps, Opener is the Declarer. Since Opener usually has the most HCPs, it is desireable for that hand to be Declarer.
  • Hiding the stronger hand makes it harder for the Defenders to know which suits to attack.
  • Declarer's hand is protected on opening lead. Declarer plays cards from the strong hand after both Defenders have played. High cards (A, K, Q and J) in Declarers hand are played only if they will win the trick. If the Defenders play a higher card than Declarer has, that cards gets promoted for use a winner of a trick later in the play of the hand.

Primary Bidding Responses

• The 1 NoTrump responses require some memory effort. However, the conventional meanings follow patterns which reduces the memory requirement.
• The bids that have a different meaning than the suit bid are all (but one) at the two level.
  • A 2-Club bid is the Stayman convention which is used to find a 4-4 fit in the Major suits. (A 4-4 fit meaning, 4 cards of that suit in each hand.)
  • A 2 Diamond, 2 Heart bid are Jacoby Transfer bids that request Opener bid the next higher suit. If Responder has a 5-card or longer Heart suit, a 2 Diamond response is made so Opener bids 2 Hearts. If Hearts is the final contract, Opener (the stronger hand) will be Declarer. Similarly, a 2 Heart bid by Responder allows Opener to play the hand in Spades.
  • A 2 Spades bid is a Minor Suit transfer bid to 3 Clubs or 3 Diamonds. Opener bids 3 Clubs and Responder passes if Clubs is is long suit. If Diamonds is the long suit, then Responder bids 3 Diamonds and Opener passes. Thus, there is no actual transfer of Diamonds, but the sequence does tell open to pass 3 Diamonds since Responder has a weak hand with long Diamonds.
  • Bids of 2NT or higher are natural responses where the point count is the main item that must be memorized.
  • The 4C response is the Gerber Conventions Gerber is used to ask Opener how many Aces and Kings are in the opening hand. If Responder has sufficient points when added to the range specified by the 1 NoTrump opening bid, a slam could be possible. However, 2 Aces or Kings may be located in the Defenders hands. In this case, the point count may be sufficient, but 2 loosers are possible. A 6-level contract is not a good bet. More about this will be discussed when slam bidding is introduced later in the class.