Remember that when we make suit bids, our objective is to find an 8-card trump suit between our hand and our partner's hand. To accomplish that objective, we need to know how many cards in a suit a bid shows--both for our partner's bids and our bids. Let's start with opening bids.
Five-Card Majors
The system we are learning is based on five-card majors for opening the bidding. Simply put, if you open the bidding with one heart or one spade, you need five cards in that suit. If you have enough strength to open the bidding, don't have a five-card major, and your hand is not appropriate to open in no trump (see this post), you open your better minor suit. If your distribution is 4-3-3-3 or 4-4-3-2 with the 4-card suits being majors, you might find yourself opening a 3-card minor suit. Don't worry. First, your partner knows that. Second, you will probably get a second chance to bid. If you are unlucky, and your partner passes, the opponents are likely to have some strength and will probably enter the bidding. If your one club bid gets passed out, well, you only need 7 tricks, and there is no shame in going down. You aren't doubled.
Let's digress for a moment. Why don't we open four-card majors? In fact, in Goren's day that was the custom. There really isn't anything wrong with playing four-card major suit openers, as long as you and your partner are playing the same system. Today, however, five-card majors is more of the norm. Five-card major suit openers make it easier for you and your partner to find a 5-3 major suit fit, and it isn't any harder to find a 4-4 fit with the modern system. That's about all I have to say about the history.
You might also wonder why there is so much emphasis on finding a major suit fit, compared to a minor suit fit. The reason we favor the majors is that it takes one less trick to make a game in a major suit. Even in a part score, the same number of tricks in a major scores higher than in a minor. Minor suits aren't poison, though. It is much better to play in a good minor suit fit than a bad major fit.
Which Suit First?
Within the constraints of five-card major suit openings, you should bid your longest suit first. If you have equal length suits, it depends a little bit on where you are in the auction.
Opening bids
If you have two five-card suits, open the higher ranking one. You intend to show your second suit at your next turn. You will probably be bidding at the two level, then, and you want to give your partner the chance to show his preference at the two level.
Suppose you have five cards in both majors. You open 1 spade. Partner responds 1 no trump. You rebid 2 hearts. Now, your partner can leave you at 2 hearts if he likes those better, or take you back to 2 spades if he likes those better. You stay at the two level.
What happens if you bid hearts first? You open 1 heart. Partner responds 1 no trump. You rebid 2 spades. If your partner likes spades better, you are OK, but if he prefers hearts he has to take you to the 3 level. Your bidding order is called a "reverse" and it shows a very strong hand. You might choose this bidding sequence if you had a sufficiently strong hand and had longer hearts than spades. We'll put off any further discussion of reverses until a later post.
If you have two 4-card suits, you are going to bid your better minor. It might not even be one of the 4-card suits. If both 4-card suits are minors, tend to favor bidding diamonds--the higher ranking suit, unless your clubs are notably stronger. You don't intend to show both minor suits, but future bidding might take you there. Bidding the higher ranking one will keep the bidding lower until you find a fit.
Responding to an opening bid
If you have suits of equal length when responding to your partner's opening bid and you are not going to support her suit, bid the cheapest one. For example, if partner opens 1 club and you have 4 cards in diamonds and spades, bid 1 diamond. Conversely, if partner opened 1 heart, you would respond 1 spade, because you can bid spades at the one level. You would need to bid at the 2 level to show your diamonds.
If you have two 5-card suits and you are strong enough to bid twice, it is usually better to bid the higher ranking one first. The logic behind this choice is similar to opening with two 5-card suits. You want to be able the let your partner show a preference at the two level after you show your second suit.
Responding to a Major Suit Opener
OK, partner has just opened one heart. Quiz time. How many hearts does she have? How many hearts do you need to contribute to get to an 8-card trump suit? Unless you skipped the first section, you know that your partner has at least 5 hearts. You need 3 hearts to make an 8-card trump suit. This is known as "adequate trump support." I'll sometimes abbreviate that as ATS.
Responding with adequate trump support
If you find yourself with adequate trump support, don't automatically respond with 2 hearts. The responses in your partner's suit show specific point ranges. A 2 heart response shows 6-9 points (with distribution) with ATS. If you have 10-12 points with ATS, you can bid 3 hearts. This bid is know as a "limit double raise." Make sure that you and your partner know that you are treating the double raise as a limit raise. Some pairs play the double raise as forcing to game, showing 13 or more points with ATS. The limit double raise is a part of the SAYC system, and that is how we are going to play it.
What if you have 13 or more points with ATS? You can't bid 2H or 3H. Those bids show weaker hands. A response of 4H shows something completely different. That bid shows 4 card support, less than 10 HCP, and a singleton or void. It is known as a "shutout bid," meaning that you want to keep the opponents out of the bidding, and you want your partner to pass. Let's not get into that, now.
The SAYC system uses a convention known as Jacoby 2NT for a forcing raise in a major. We won't get into that, now, either. Instead, bid a new suit. A new suit by responder is forcing for one round, so you will get another chance to bid. You'll know more about your partner's hand by then, and you can figure out what to do. Note that you might have to "invent" a suit to bid. If your distribution is something like 4-3-3-3 with 4 cards in hearts, you will need to bid a 3-card suit. That's a little bit of a lie, but you will get another chance to bid to get back to hearts. Choose to bid a 3-card minor rather than a 3-card major when you do this. This sort of bidding is known as "temporizing." If your partner is paying attention, she will figure out why you bid a new suit at your first turn, and came back to her suit at your second turn.
Responding without adequate trump support
Without 3-card support for your partner, you can bid a new suit, with some point-count restrictions. You will generally bid your longest suit first, but if you have equal-length 4-card suits, but the cheapest one first. I mentioned that in the first section. Never mind about the strength of the suits. Bid based on their length. Don't hesitate to bid the 2345 of spades if you have that.
You might choose to bid a good 4-card spade suit in preference to a crummy 5-card minor suit. In that case, just pretend that your minor suit is 4 cards. You might end up bidding it at your second turn.
One important point to remember is that if your new suit requires you to bid at the 2 level, you must have 10 points. Another important point to remember is that you MUST bid if you have 6 points. Your partner could be very strong with her opening one bid. Give her a chance to bid, again.
So what do you do if you have 6-9 points, can't support your partner's suit, and your suit would require you to bid at the 2 level? You bid 1 no trump. Your hand might not look too no trumpy, but that's what you need to bid. It shows 6-9 points, and denies 4 cards in any suit that you could have bid at the 1 level. That bid isn't forcing, so you may end up playing 1 no trump. It might work out.
Responding to a Minor Suit Opener
This time, partner opened one club. Quiz time, again. How many clubs does she promise? How many do you need to add to that to get to an 8-card trump suit? Your partner might have just 3 cards in clubs. If you are thinking of supporting her clubs, you need 5 to get to an 8-card trump fit.
Your partner is probably not that interested in hearing your support her minor suit. You should bid any 4-card suit that ranks above her suit. Bid the cheapest one first. Bid it, even if your holding is 2345. Your partner wants to know about your 4-card suits--especially major suits.
As with the major suit responses, you need at least 10 points to bid at the 2 level. That is only going to come up too often when your partner opens in a minor. If you don't have 10 points, don't have ATS, and don't have a 4-card or longer suit that you can bid at the 1 level. Bit 1NT.
Raises of your partner's suit follow the same point ranges as with major suit raises. A raise to the 2 level shows 6-9 points. A raise to the 3 level shows 10-12 points. With a stronger hand, bid a new suit. Remember that a new suit by responder is forcing for one round. You'll get another chance to bid. Also remember that you need 5 card support, since your partner might have just 3 cards in the suit.
You might also consider bidding 2NT in response to a minor suit opener. This bid is NOT Jacoby 2NT, like it would be if partner opened a major. The 2NT response to a minor suit opener shows at least 13 HCP and denies 4 cards in any unbid major. It is forcing to game.
Rebids
When you bid your suit a second time without getting support from your partner in that suit, you are showing one more card in that suit. For example, an auction like 1H-2C-2H (opponents passing at every turn) promises 6 cards in hearts. The opening bid showed 5. The second bid shows one more.
Recall that as responder, you only need 4 cards in your new suits, so an auction like 1H-1S-2C-2S would promise 5 cards in spades.
Opening a minor suit only promises 3 cards in the suit, but don't rebid a minor suit without 5 cards in the suit. That's sort of an exception to the one-more-card rule. Pretend that your opening bid showed 4.
Any new suit bid after the opening bid only promises a 4-card suit. For example, an auction like 1C-1H-1S only shows a 4-card spade suit for the opening bidder.
Should you choose to bid your suit a third time without support from your partner you are showing still one more card. Let's work through this example one step a time.
Opener: One heart (promises 5 cards)
Responder: One spade (promises 4 cards)
Opener: Two hearts (now promises 6 cards)
Responder: Two spades (now promises 5 cards)
Opener: Three hearts (now promises 7 cards)
These auctions don't happen too often, but it good to remember the principle that each time you bid your suit, again, you are showing one more card in length.
When you rebid your suit, you are also limiting the strength of your hand. A minimum level rebid in the original suit shows a minimum-strength hand. A jump in the suit shows a stronger hand. For example, in this auction, the opener is showing a minimum opening hand: 1H-2C-2H.
If the opener had 16 or more points, she should bid 3H at her second turn.
Overcalls
I'll just briefly mention overcalls, here. We'll explore them more in a later post. A simple overcall requires a good 5-card suit. You may find yourself with an opening hand and your right-hand opponent opens the bidding. Without a good 5-card suit, you might need to pass, even though you could have opened the bidding. It sucks, doesn't it?
If you have a weakish hand with a good 6-card suit, you can make a jump overcall. This bid shows a hand similar to an opening weak 2 bid.
Opening Bids of More Than One
We'll cover these bids in more detail, later, but briefly...
An opening bid of 2 in a suit (except in clubs) shows a strong 6-card suit but not enough strength to open with 1 of the suit.
An opening bid of 2 clubs is artificial and shows a very strong hand. It says nothing about clubs, or any other suit for that matter.
An opening bid of 3 in a suit shows a 7 card (or longer) suit with less than opening strength and little value outside the suit.
Summary
Opening bids promise 5 cards in a major suit, 3 cards in a minor suit.
Support to partner's opening suit bid needs to guarantee an 8-card fit
Any new suit bid after the opening bid promises 4 cards in the suit.
A rebid in your suit without being supported by your partner promises one more card in the suit. (Exception: a minor suit rebid promises at least 5 cards in the suit, even though the opening bid only promised 3).
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