Responding to 1NT with Nothing But Distribution

 

Sometimes when your partner opens 1NT you can respond with zero points. The main idea is that when your partner has limited her hand, you are in control. You don’t have to worry about the bidding getting too high if you hold the right sort of hand. Let’s look at some examples. In every case, your partner opened 1NT and the next player passed.

You ♠ 987654 ♥ 2 ♦ 543 ♣ 654

Your side has less than half the points, but you still might end up with the contract. Two spades looks like less trouble than 1NT. If you bid 2H as a transfer, partner will bid 2S automatically. Then, you can pass. Well done.

The same idea would work if the spades and hearts were reversed. Bid a 2D transfer and pass the automatic 2H bid from partner.

I wouldn’t try this with a long minor suit. Transferring with a 2S bid will get you to the 3 level. Passing out 1NT looks less risky.

There is also a special case where you can bid Stayman with fewer than the usual minimum of 8 points. Suppose you hold this hand:

You
♠ 9876
♥ T953
♦ 98743
♣ -

Here, you have the luxury of being able to pass any Stayman response your partner might make. Your partner opens 1NT. You bid 2C. If partner has a 4-card major suit, she will bid it. You found a 4-4 major suit fit and can pass. If partner doesn’t have a major suit, she will bid 2D. Having opened 1NT and denied 4 cards in either major, you can expect her to have at least 3 diamonds. Once again, you have found a trump fit and can pass.

The worst that could happen is if partner started with 3-3-2-5 distribution (going from spades down to clubs). If you are that unlucky, you have a 5-2 trump fit and are probably still better off than being in NT.

The moral of the story is to think ahead about what your partner might respond to your bid. Sometimes you can break the rules if you can tolerate all her responses.

A difficult 5 diamond contract

 

Today we’ll look at a hand that was bid and played much differently in real life.

Norm is the dealer and holds

Norm ♠ K3 ♥ 63 ♦ AJ3 ♣ KJ8643

He has 12 points in high cards plus 2 in distribution for the long clubs. He opens 1 club. The opponents pass at every opportunity.

Norm’s partner Sally holds

Sally ♠ AJT97 ♥ AJ ♦ KT874 ♣ 2

Sally has 13 points in high cards plus a few more in distribution. She wants to be in game. With two 5-card suits and enough strength to bid them both, it is better to bid the higher-ranking suit first. That will make it easier for her partner to show his preference after her rebid. She doesn’t need to show her strength, yet. Any new suit bid by the responder is forcing for one round. She bids 1 spade.

Norm just has a minimum opening hand. If he had hearts stopped he might bid 1 NT, but he doesn’t. He can’t support Sally’s spades with just 2 cards. She might have just 4 little ones. He makes a minimum rebid 2 clubs, showing at least 5 cards in length.

Sally continues with her plan of showing her second suit by bidding 2 diamonds. Again, she doesn’t have to show her strength, yet. She has bid another new suit. As responder, that bid is forcing for one round.

Now, Norm is in kind of a tight spot. He can reason that Sally has at least 5 spades since with 4-4 in diamonds and spades, she would bid the diamonds first. She might be 5-4 in spades and diamonds. He doesn’t have enough length in either of Sally’s suits to guarantee an eight-card trump fit. He could rebid his clubs, again, but a misfit is possible. It might be better to hope that Sally is 5-5 in her suits. Her bidding is asking him to make a choice between those two. No trump is looking scarier still since Sally has bid two suits that are not hearts. Norm is forced to bid. He crosses his fingers and bids 3 diamonds.

Sally is happy with the diamond bid. Now, she needs to decide whether they have a shot at game. It takes 28 points to make a minor suit game. Her partner hasn’t promised anything more than a minimum 13. Sally has 13 points in high cards, and can count a distribution point for the 5^th diamond and another point or two for the second suit. That should be enough for game. She bids 5 diamonds. Everyone passes.

Walt is on lead. He holds

Walt ♠ Q82 ♥ K95 ♦ Q952 ♣ Q75

With 4 trumps, Walt would like to force Sally to ruff in her hand to weaken her trump holding. The way to do that is to lead the suit that he expects to be the longest between him and his partner. His partner has been silent, so that is no help. The opponents have not mentioned hearts, so that seems to be a logical choice. Walt isn’t happy about leading away from his king. It might give declarer a free finesse. Still, if his partner holds the ace or queen it won’t do any damage. He leads the 5 of hearts.

Now, Sally makes a plan.

Dummy ♠ K3 ♥ 63 ♦ AJ3 ♣ KJ8643

Declarer ♠ AJT97 ♥ AJ ♦ KT874 ♣ 2

She’s got a loser in clubs and one in hearts. She can’t afford any more. Unfortunately, she might also lose a trick in diamonds and one in spades. She can finesse both suits, but that only gives her a 25% chance of making the contract. This is going to be difficult.

She plays a small heart from dummy and Edie plays the queen. Sally takes the ace. Sally might be able to avoid a spade loser by cashing two rounds and ruffing one in dummy. That works if the spades break 3-3. That’s less than a 50% chance. The finesse is better. Since Sally won’t be ruffing in dummy, she sets out to pull trump. Here, she can finesse for the queen in either direction. She has no clue as to who holds the queen. It is just a guess. Since she is in her hand, she tries the finesse that way. She leads a small diamond toward the board. Walt plays the 2 and Sally plays the jack from the board. It holds. Now, she just needs a 3-2 break in diamonds to avoid a diamond loser. She plays the ace from dummy and Edie shows out. Well, there is no way to avoid losing the queen of diamonds, now.

There might be a way to avoid a heart loser, though. If Sally can discard a heart in dummy before losing the lead, she still has a diamond in dummy to ruff the jack of hearts. This plan requires Edie to hold the queen and fewer than 4 spades. It is better than nothing.

Sally is on the board and cashes the king of spades. Both players follow suit. Now, she leads the small spade for the finesse. In the actual hand, Walt holds the queen and the finesse loses. He cashes his king of hearts and eventually wins a trump and Edie wins the ace of clubs—down 2.

Let’s say the finesse holds. Now what is the plan? Sally will cash the ace of spades and hope that the queen falls. Or, if Edie started with Qx of spades, she would have to play the queen on the second round and Sally takes the ace. In either case, Sally discards a heart from dummy on the third spade. If Walt started with just 2 spades, the contract is sunk. Edie will still hold a winning spade and only one trump in dummy.

Let’s continue on with the happy version of the hand. Sally leads the ace of spades. Walt follows suit. Sally dumps the small heart from dummy, and Edie drops the queen of spades.

Now, Sally leads her small heart and ruffs it with the small diamond in dummy. Now, the hand looks like this:

Dummy ♠ - ♥ - ♦ - ♣ KJ8643

Declarer ♠ 97 ♥ - ♦ KT8 ♣ 2

Walt still holds the Q9 of diamonds. Sally hasn’t lost any tricks, yet. She leads the king of clubs and Edie takes the ace. Now, Edie would like to force Sally to ruff. She leads a heart. Sally can only afford to lose one more trick, and that is going to be a diamond. She is forced to ruff. She plays the 8 of diamonds. If Walt is also out of hearts at this point, he can overruff, but that is no problem. That is the only trump trick he gets. If he returns the queen of trump, Sally takes the king and her hand is good. If he returns a club, Sally can ruff with the ten and take Walt’s queen of trump with his king. Again, her hand is good.

If Walt still has a heart or chooses not to overruff, he will still hold the Q9 of trump to Sally’s KT. Now, Sally cannot lead trump, or else Walt will take his queen and lead back a club. Sally will need ruff with her last trump and Walt can take his last trump by ruffing a spade.

Instead, Sally must keep leading her good spades until Walt ruffs. At that point, she will still hold the KT of trump over Walt’s now singleton queen. She can ruff Walt’s return and pull his last trump to set up the remaining spades.

If Walt continues to refuse to ruff in, Sally will hold the KT of trump as her last two cards, and Walt will hold the Q9. Sally can cash her king of trump and give Walt his queen. She makes her contract.

That was hard. Wasn’t it?

A Grand Slam if You Can Bid It

 

Today’s hand is practically a laydown for 7NT. The problem is finding it. We’ll start by assuming Norm and Sally found their grand slam and plan the play of the hand.

	Norm ♠ KT ♥ T ♦ AKJ52 ♣ AQ765
Walt ♠ JT976 ♥ 982 ♦ T984 ♣ 3		Edie ♠ Q83 ♥ J7643 ♦ 76 ♣ J82
	Sally ♠ A42 ♥ AKQ5 ♦ Q3 ♣ KT94

 

It doesn’t matter what suit is led. Sally counts how many tricks she can take off the top. She has 2 tricks in spades, 3 in hearts, 4 in diamonds, and 3 in clubs. That’s 12 tricks, no matter what. If the diamonds break no worse than 4-2, she will set up her 5^th diamond. If they don’t she can make her extra trick in clubs. If they break no worse than 3-1, she can take all the clubs. If they break 4-0, she can finesse for the J in either direction, and she will know who holds it after cashing the ace. Wow! That was easy. Now, how do they bid it?

Walt was the dealer and passed. Walt and Edie have next to nothing and pass at every turn.

Norm has 17 points in high cards and can count 1 point in distribution for the 5^th card in whichever 5-card suit he chooses plus 2 more for the strong second suit. That’s 20 points, total. It’s not enough for a strong 2 club opener, and his distribution is not appropriate for a no trump opener. He opens the higher-ranking of his two 5-card suits—1 diamond.

Sally counts 18 points in high cards. She might add 1 distribution point later for the doubleton diamond, but for now, that is her partner’s first suit. No matter. She is going to bid her 4-card heart suit and she isn’t strong enough for a jump shift. She knows that her side has enough for game. She doesn’t need to worry that her partner will pass. She is the responder and a new suit is forcing for one round. She bids 1 heart.

Now, Norm does have enough for a jump shift. A jump shift by opener shows 20+ points. He bids 3 clubs.

Now, Sally adds her 1 distribution point for the doubleton diamond, because she has support for her partner’s clubs. Her 19 points plus her partner’s 20+ adds up to almost all the points in the deck. She has grand slam in mind. She could just bid 7 clubs and be done with it. Instead, she gathers some more information. She wants to make sure that they aren’t missing any aces. They shouldn’t be because of the point count, but maybe Norm counted some distribution points. Asking for aces certainly won’t do any harm. She bids 4NT.

Norm makes his Blackwood response of 5 hearts.

That response was no surprise to Sally. Now, she starts wondering about no trump. If Norm has the two missing kings, 7NT seems likely. She bids 5NT and Norm shows the two missing kings by bidding 6 hearts.

Norm’s Blackwood responses account for 14 HCP, and he said he had 20+ total points. Those other 6 points have to fit somewhere. 7NT looks good. Sally bids it.

What could go wrong in the bidding?

I said the bidding was hard. In the sequence I described, it wasn’t hard at all. Here’s one thing that could go wrong. Suppose that after hearing his partner bid hearts, Norm decides to subtract a distribution point or two. He might re-evaluated his hand as 18 points. That’s not enough for a jump shift. He simply rebids 2 clubs.

Now, Sally is in a tough spot. Her 19 points has her thinking about small slam, but even that might not be there. It is probably enough to ask for aces and bid 6 clubs if Norm shows 1 or 2 aces, but Norm’s hand could be as strong as 19 points with his bidding. She hasn’t said much about her strength either. Her 1 heart response could have been based on a 6-point hand. She’d like to make a forcing bid that shows her strength, but what would that be? A jump raise in clubs only promises 13 points. At least it is forcing to game. She could jump to 3NT, but that only promises enough for game, and her partner could easily pass.

You see? That’s a tough choice.

Let’s say she chooses to ask for aces. She still doesn’t know that her partner has anything more than a minimum opener. She bids 4NT, her partner shows 2 aces by bidding 5 hearts. That’s good enough to bid 6 clubs. Asking for kings is too risky. If her partner has just 1 king, he will bid 6 diamonds, committing them to 7 clubs. It might work, but if Norm had just a minimum opening hand of 13 points, they are likely in trouble.

What actually happened

When I played this hand, I was holding Sally’s hand. My partner opened with 1 club. That’s a mistake. He should open the higher ranking of two 5-card suits. Perhaps he wanted to show his strength with a reverse. As I mentioned in the post on reverses, they are usually not planned in advance.

I responded with 1 heart, and my partner did reverse by bidding 2 diamonds. At this point, I expect him to have 5 clubs and 4 diamonds and 16+ points. His 16 points plus my 18 or 19 points should have me thinking about slam in clubs, but my hand looks like NT will play well. I chose to jump to 3NT to show an opening hand. Now, my partner re-evaluates his hand for NT and subtracts his distribution points. Having just 17 HCP opposite 13 points, he decides to skip any slam exploration and passes.

What’s the Moral of the Story?

Try to bid so that your partner knows your strength to a narrow range whenever it is practical. Sometimes it is not practical. You might need to give your partner the opportunity to narrow the strength of his hand. Some hands are just hard to bid.

Addendum

Let's take a look at what the players know about their partner's range at each bid.

Norm opens with 1 diamond

Sally knows that Norm has at least 13 points, but could be as strong as 23 or so. If Norm were stronger than that range, he would open 2 clubs. 

That's a big range, but there is plenty of time to learn more.

Sally responds with 1 heart

Norm knows that Sally has at least 6 points, but could be as strong as 18 or so. If Sally were stronger, she would make a jump shift to 2 hearts.

That's a big range, but there is plenty of time to learn more.

Scenario 1: Norm rebids 3 clubs

Norm has made a jump shift, showing at least 20 points. Now his range is narrowed to 20-23 or so. Sally is in charge of deciding whether to stop at game or explore slam.

Scenario 2: Norm rebids 2 clubs

Norm decided not to make a jump shift. Now, Sally can narrow his range to 13-19 points. She knows a bit more about Norm's hand, but it is difficult for her to decide where to go with her 18 points. It is also difficult for her to limit her own hand.

Scenario 3: Norm opens 1 club and rebids 2 diamonds

Norm has reversed. That shows at least 16 points. He didn't make a jump shift, so his point range is going to be 16-19. That's a reasonably small range. Sally is in charge of deciding whether to stop at game or explore slam. Sally expects that Norm's clubs are longer than his diamonds since he bid them first.

A Challenging End Play

 

Today, we’ll look at just the last 5 tricks from a hand I played recently. By the end of the hand both the East player and the South player (declarer) knew what the other held based on the previous play. The contract is 4 diamonds, doubled. South needs to take 2 more tricks to make the contract. Conversely, East needs to take 4 of the last 5 tricks to set the contract. South is on lead. North and West will be discarding on every trick. Their play doesn’t matter.

West ♠ AK ♥ - ♦ KJT ♣ -
	South ♠ - ♥ - ♦ Q2 ♣ AKQ

Before reading on, think about how South should play for the best chance to take 2 more tricks. Then, think about how West should play for the best chance to take 4 more tricks. Whose chances do you like better?

…<Think now>…

 

 

If South leads a small trump, West will take it with the ten, pull the Q of trump with the K and take the rest of the tricks. Clearly, that isn’t a good play. Leading the Q of trump is no better. West will take the K, pull the last trump and take the rest. That leaves a club lead as the only reasonable choice for South.

Now, what should West do? If West discards a spade on the club, South will continue leading clubs until West is forced to ruff. That leaves West with the KJ of trumps and South with the Q2. They each get one more trick. West only gets 2 tricks, but needs 4. That’s no good. West must ruff the club. Now, what does West lead back?

It actually doesn’t matter. The key play was to ruff the first club. Now, West can lead a spade and if South refuses to ruff, West takes the spades and cashes the K of trump to set the contract. If South ruffs, she is left with just the singleton Q of trumps. West can ruff the club return, pull the last trump and cash his spades.

Leading a trump works, also. West can cash the K of trump and return a trump to the Q. Then, he ruffs the club return with his remaining trump and cashes his winning spade.

Reverses

Today, we’ll look at reverses in the bidding. A reverse is when a player bids two suits in an order that requires her partner to bid at the three level if he wants to take his partner back to her first suit. An example would be (opponents pass at every opportunity)

Sally: 1 Heart

Norm: 2 Clubs

Sally: 2 Spades

 

Sally’s second bid is a reverse. It requires Norm to bid at the 3 level if he prefers hearts to spades. To put her partner in this difficult position, Sally needs a strong opening hand—at least 16 points. Sally is also showing longer hearts than spades by her bid order. With 5-5 in the bid suits, she would start with the higher ranking suit. 

A player doesn’t ordinarily plan to make a reverse. It usually happens that a player would like to show her second suit, and she happens to have enough strength to do it.

Reverses are easier to understand with some examples.

Sally ♠ AT64 ♥ AKJ52 ♦ A7 ♣ T5

Sally makes a normal opening bid of 1 heart. Her partner Norm responds with 2 clubs. Norm implies that he doesn’t have 4 cards in spades since he skipped over them to bid clubs. With a weaker opening hand, Sally would assume that Norm doesn’t have a 4-card club suit and rebid with 2NT. However, with 16 points, she can show her spades. Maybe Norm has 5 or even 6 clubs and skipped over a 4-card spade suit to show his club length. Sally goes ahead and bids 2 spades—a reverse.

Norm has shown at least 10 points by bidding a 2-over-1 response, and Sally’s bid shows at least 16 points, so this bidding sequence should be considered a game force. Let’s look at Norm’s hand.

Norm
♠ Q52
♥ 93
♦ KQ5
♣ A8763

 

Sally has asked Norm to pick between spades and hearts. Norm knows that Sally has only promised 5 hearts and 4 spades. He doesn’t like either choice. He bids 2NT, knowing that Sally will bid on to game. She might have some extra length to show in one of her suits, or she might be happy with NT.

When Sally hears the NT bid, she has a pretty good picture of Norm’s hand. He doesn’t have 4 cards in spades or 3 in hearts, or else he would have supported her at his second turn. No trump looks pretty good. She takes him on to 3NT.

Now, let’s keep the same hand for Sally, but give Norm this one:

Norm
♠ Q52
♥ Q93
♦ KQ
♣ A8763

 

Norm has 13 HCP plus 1 point in distribution. He has adequate trump support for Sally’s hearts but he is too strong to give a single raise (6-9 points) or a double raise (10-12 points) at his first response.  He expects to be in a game contract but he doesn’t need to make a game-forcing bid at this point. He just bids a new suit to force his partner to bid one more time. As before, he bids 2 clubs.

Now, Sally makes her reverse by bidding 2 spades. Norm prefers to be in hearts. As before, his 2-over-1 response combined with Sally’s reverse lets both partners know that they have enough for game. Neither player knows an upper limit for their partner’s strength, though. Norm pauses to consider if there might be enough strength for a slam.

His 14 points would need to be combined with 19 from his partner to get to a small slam. Sally might be that strong, but with 20+ points she would have made a jump shift at her second bid by bidding 3 spades. Norm decides it is unlikely that they have a slam. He places the contract by bidding 4 hearts.

Let’s try one more hand for Norm.

Norm
♠ 9532
♥ 93
♦ KQ
♣ AQ763

 

Norm would ordinarily bid his 4-card spade suit, but his club suit is so much stronger, he decides to skip over the spades and show his clubs. There is a risk of missing a 4-4 spade fit, but bidding clubs is probably the right choice. Now, Sally makes her reverse by bidding 2 spades. As in the last example, Norm reasons that slam is unlikely. He is pleased that they have found a 4-4 major suit fit and bids 4 spades.

Now, let’s change Sally’s holding a bit.

Sally
♠ AT764
♥ AKJT52
♦ K
♣ T

 

Sally’s hearts are longer than her spades, so she opens 1 heart as before. Norm holds

Norm
♠ 953
♥ 93
♦ Q2
♣ AJ763

 

Norm is not strong enough to make a 2-over-1 response in clubs, so he bids 1NT.

Now, Sally makes her reverse by bidding 2 spades.

Norm considers passing 2 spades. It’s not forcing, and he has not shown enough strength for the players to know that there is enough for game. However, he realizes that his partner chose to bid again when she could have passed and that she could have a few more than 16 points. He also knows that Sally knows that he doesn’t have 4 cards in spades, or else he would have bid 1 spade instead of 1 NT at his first turn. This line of thought leads him to believe that Sally has 5 spades. Also, if she has 5 spades, but chose to bid hearts first, she must have 6 hearts. Either hearts or spades will be an 8-card trump suit. If Norm bids spades, he can count a distribution point for the heart doubleton. Along with one distribution point in diamonds and 7 high-card points, there is enough strength to invite game. Norm bids 3 spades.

Sally has 14 points in high cards (She subtracted one for the singleton king), two in distribution for the 6-card suit, and 2 more for the strong 5-card second suit. That makes 18. She accepts the invitation and bids 4 spades. 

Responding to a Weak Two Opener

Today, we’ll look at responding to a weak two opener and rebids by the opener. First, let’s start by reviewing the requirements for opening with a weak two.

Opening with a Weak Two

The general requirements for a weak two are:

·       A strong six-card suit

·       5-11 HCP

In first or second seat, you should be disciplined with your weak two openers. Your partner hasn’t bid, and you don’t want to put him in a difficult position if he has a strong hand. Therefore, you should be on the upper end of the 5-11 HCP range and your suit should be topped by either 2 of the top 3 honors or 3 of the top 5. The following hand is a good example of a weak two opener in first or second seat.

♠ A2
♥ KQT842
♦ J3
♣ 962

Note that we are only counting high-card points. There are some hands that could be opened with 1 of a suit or as a weak 2. For example

♠ AKQ732
♥ JT84
♦ 3
♣ 62

This hand has 10 HCP and a strong 6-card spade suit. That fits the requirements for a weak two opener. You could also count 3 points in distribution. That gets you to 13 points total. That’s good enough to open 1 spade. Either bid might work, but with a 4-card heart suit, I would favor the 1 spade bid. It will be easier to find a 4-4 heart fit if you have one. It is difficult to find a fit in a second suit after a weak 2 opening.

On the other hand, if we were to swap the hearts and diamonds, I would favor the weak 2 spade opener. Missing a 4-4 fit in a minor suit isn’t much to give up.

In 3^rd or 4^th seat, you can be less disciplined about your weak 2 opener. You already know that your partner doesn’t have an opening hand, so you aren’t worried about preempting his strong hand. You could open a weak two with something as crummy as this:

♠ QJT864
♥ JT
♦ Q2
♣ 843

The opponents probably have the balance of the strength, and you want to make it difficult for them to enter the auction. You might go set, but that might end up being a better score than letting them make a game.

Responding to a Weak Two Opener

When your partner opens with a weak two, remember RONF. That easily remembered 😕 mnemonic stands for “Raise Only Not Forcing.” It means that any bid you make other than a raise of your partner’s suit is forcing for one round. Conversely, raising your partner’s suit is NOT and invitation for her to bid game. She is required to pass any time that you bid her opening suit. A single raise of her suit at this point is a continuation of the preempt. Opposite a 2 heart opener, you might respond 3 hearts with something like:

♠ 73
♥ Q985
♦ Q75
♣ QT75

It looks like the opponents have a game in spades, and you want to make it hard for them to find it.

With a hand that you would have opened, you would like to explore the possibility of game. The most common game try is to bid 2NT. The 2NT bid asks for a “feature.” A feature is an A or K in a side suit. Your partner will bid that suit if she is on the strong side of her opening bid. With a strong hand, but no feature, she will rebid 3NT. With a hand on the weak end of her opening weak two, partner will rebid her suit. Note that this bid does not promise extra length in the suit as it would in a sequence that started with 1 of a suit. She is forced to bid something, and returning to her suit simply means that she doesn’t have anything to get excited about.

Responder could also bid a good 5-card suit. This bid is forcing (remember RONF).  The opener can raise that suit with 3-card support and the upper end of her HCP range. Without support, but with a “strong weak two” 😕 she can bid NT or a second suit. With a weak hand, she will return to her suit.

Rebids by the Opener

We’ve covered the rebids when we described the responder’s bids, but let’s reiterate them and look at some examples.

Let’s start with the easy one. Any time the responder returns to the opener’s suit, the opener must pass. For example,

Sally: “2 Spades”

Norm: “3 Spades”

Sally: “Pass” without even thinking about bidding 4.

Next, remember that the 2NT response is asking for a feature. With a weak featureless hand, the opener returns to her suit. If she is on the strong side, she bids a side suit that has and A or K

Examples

Sally
♠ A2
♥ KQT842
♦ J3
♣ 962

This is the same hand as in the first section. It is a sound weak two opener. Sally bids 2 hearts. Her partner Norm holds

Norm
♠ Q65
♥ 65
♦ AQT2
♣ KQJ5

Norm would have opened the bidding if he was first to speak. Now, with 14 HCP, he wonders if his side has enough strength for game. He has adequate trump support opposite his partner’s 6-card suit. The hand might play well at 3NT if his partner has something to show in spades. He chooses to bid 2NT to ask for a feature. His plan is

·       Pass if Sally rebids hearts. That bid would indicate a weaker weak two, so the team probably doesn’t have enough strength for game.

·       Bid 3NT if Sally shows the A or K of spades and a stronger weak two by bidding 3S.

·       Bid 4H if Sally says anything else.

With the hand shown above, Sally would rebid 3S. She has 10 HCP which is a strong weak two, and her only feature is the spade ace.

Now, let’s have Sally hold the same hand, but Norm holds

Norm
♠ 65
♥ 42
♦ AKQJ72
♣ 762

That’s a nice looking diamond suit, and Norm might be tempted to bid it. However, he would have to bid it at the 3 level, and he has only 10 HCP and maybe 2 points in distribution. His bid would be forcing, and the team could easily end up in a shaky game contract. Norm should pass.

How about this hand?

Norm
♠ 54
♥ 9762
♦ QJ72
♣ 762

With the extra trump support and weakness in spades, Norm should continue the preempt and bid 3H. Sally will be forced to pass. Sally is likely to have a little bit of outside strength, and the opponents look like they might have a game in spades. You expect to take 5 or 6 trump tricks with Sally’s holding, and hope to get a trick or two elsewhere. Going down 2 is better than the opponents making a game—especially if vulnerability is favorable.

One more. Norm holds

Norm
♠ KQJ54
♥ 6
♦ AQJ7
♣ 762

Norm holds 13 HCP and isn’t too fond of staying in hearts. He can bid a strong 5-card suit hoping to find 3 card support from partner. His bid is forcing. Norm bids 2S with this plan:

·       Bid 4S if Sally raises spades showing 3-card support and a stronger weak two

·       Pass if Sally returns to hearts, showing a weaker weak two

·       Bid 3NT if Sally bids any other suit (even diamonds) or NT

Let’s take another look at Sally’s hand.

Sally
♠ A2
♥ KQT842
♦ J3
♣ 962

She has a stronger weak two, so she wants to bid something other than hearts. With the weak holdings in the minors, she doesn’t like NT. Instead, she decides to stretch her spade support because of the ace. She bids 3S. Norm continues with his plan and bids 4S. It’s got a shot.

That’s all for now. The opening weak two bid can make the subsequent bidding difficult. That’s good if it makes the bidding difficult for the opponents. It’s not so good when it causes difficulty for your partner, but he has some resources available. 

 Note to subscribers:

I am experimenting with creating a quiz format. It's still a work in progress.

Today we are going to try a bidding quiz

1. You are the dealer and you hold

♠ A2
♥ K42
♦ KJ3
♣ AJ962

What is your bid?

2. Let's move a couple cards to the heart suit. What is your bid now?

♠ A2
♥ K9642
♦ KJ3
♣ AJ2