Non-Forcing, One Round Forcing or Game Forcing?

Let's play a game. The name of the game is "Non-Forcing, One Round Forcing or Game Forcing?"

I will give you a bid and you have to tell me whether or not it is a Non-Forcing bid (Partner is allowed to Pass the bid), a One Round Forcing bid (Partner must respond at least one more time) or a Game Forcing bid (neither Partner can Pass until a game is reached)

Bid 1

Partner opens the bidding 1♠. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?



Bid 2

You open the bidding 1♥. Partner responds 1♠. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?



Bid 3

You open the bidding 1♠. Partner bids 1NT. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?



Bid 4

You open the bidding 1♥. Partner responds 3♥. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?



Bid 5

Partner opens the bidding 1♠. You respond 2♣. Partner rebids 2♠. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?



Bid 6

Partner opens the bidding 1♠. You respond 2♥. Partner rebids 3♣. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?



Bid 7

You open the bidding 1♦. Partner bids 1♠. You rebid 2♦. Partner bids 2♥. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?



Bid 8

You open the bidding 1♥. Partner responds 1♠. You rebid 1NT. Partner responds 2♦. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?



Bid 9

You open the bidding 1♥. Partner responds 1♠. You rebid 1NT. Partner responds 3♠. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?



Bid 10

Partner opens the bidding 1♣. You respond 1♥. Partner rebids 3♥. Is this a Non-Forcing bid, a One Round Forcing bid or a Game Forcing bid?

Choices on What to Open

Here's a hand that came up the other day.

You hold this hand:
♠A9
♥Q8
♦AK763
♣K974

You are the Dealer. What is your bid?

Think about it.

What would you bid and what does that show?

Here you have a couple of choices. You can open the bidding 1NT. This should show 15-17 HCP with a balanced hand.

The problem is you do not have a balanced hand. You have two doubletons.

You can also open the bidding 1♦. If you choose to open 1♦ you must now decide what to do after Partner makes a 1 level response. So say 1♥. What will you bid if Partner responds 1♥?

If you rebid 1NT that would show a balanced hand with 13 or 14 HCP. You have too much to do that. If you are going to rebid 1NT you should just open the bidding 1NT.

If you instead rebid 2♣ that would show a hand with 5♦, 4♣ and a hand with about 13 to about 18 points. Not quite enough to game force opposite a minimum from Partner.

I would tend to recommend opening the bidding 1♦ for newer Players.

If you choose to open 1♦ Partner will respond 1NT.

Now you should choose to rebid 2♣. Partner will Pass and you are in the best contract.

Partner had the hand from yesterday!

They held this hand:
♠T76
♥973
♦54
♣AQJ86

If you open 1NT, Partner will Pass and the opponents will take the first 5 ♥ tricks.

If you open 1♦ and rebid 2♣ you will play it there and take 10 tricks.

1NT taking 8 tricks is worth 120 points.
2♣ taking 10 tricks is worth 130 points.

Plus more new Players tend to dislike NT. Things can get out of control very easily.

Responding to 1 Diamond - Real Life

Here's a hand that came up today.

Partner opens the bidding 1♦.

You hold this hand:
♠T76
♥973
♦54
♣AQJ86

What is your bid?

Think about it.

What would you bid and what does that show?

Here you would like to tell Partner about that wonderful ♣ suit but bidding a new suit at the 2 level shows 10 or more HCP. You don't have that much.

You can't Pass -- you have more than 6 HCP. You need to bid.

Here the correct bid is 1NT. This does NOT show a balanced hand. It just shows about 6 to a bad 10 HCP, no four card major and no support for Partner's minor.

That is your bid.

P.S.

After you bid 1NT guess what Partner bids? 2♣! You can now Pass and you are safe in that ♣ suit after all!

Rebidding that Heart suit

Here's a hand that came up the other day. You hold this hand:
♠AQ6
♥AKJ842
♦Q8
♣T2

You get to open the bidding and everyone opened 1♥. Your LHO Passes and your Partner bids 1NT. Your RHO Passes and it is your turn to make a rebid. What will you bid now?

Think about it.

How many HCP do you have? What did you promise Partner when you opened the bidding?

Most players rebid 2♥ on this hand. This shows six ♥ (which you have) but also LIMITS your hand to about 13-15 HCP. You have more points than that. You need to not only show Partner you have six ♥ but also show Partner you have a better hand than just a minimum opening.

On this hand you should rebid 3♥. That shows six ♥ and about 16-18 HCP.

Partner had:
♠K8
♥Q6
♦K7532
♣9853

and Passed the 2♥ rebid. Everyone took 10 tricks on the hand. If you had rebid 3♥ Partner would have raised to 4♥ and you would not have missed a game.

Responding with two five card suits

Here's a hand that came up a previous game. Partner opens the bidding 1♣. RHO Passes. Your turn to bid and you hold this hand:

You hold this hand:
♠Q9843
♥QJ862
♦T75
♣

Do you bid? You don't have 6 HCP.

True but bridge players these days are pretty aggressive. Nothing wrong with responding on this hand. The question is WHAT do you respond?

Most players responded 1♥ on this hand. Which is incorrect. If you are going to respond on this hand you need to respond 1♠. With two five card suits you always bid your HIGHER ranking suit first. ♠ are ranked higher than ♥. Respond 1♠. That way when Partner makes the inevitable NT response you can rebid some number of ♥. If Partner puts you back to your first bid suit you are still at the SAME level.

So on this hand you respond 1♠. Partner bids 1NT. You can now rebid 2♥. Partner can either Pass 2♥ OR bid 2♠. Either way you are playing at the 2 level. Which is fine by you. You don't want to get any higher!

Declarer Play - 6 Hearts

Contract is 6♥
Lead is the 6♣

Dummy
♠AKT9763
♥AT64
♦7
♣3

Declarer:
♠2
♥K8752
♦AJ3
♣A942

So I have arrived in a contract of 6♥

Dummy is quite nice. Since it is a trump contract I need to count my LOSERS. I can count losers from either hand. Normally I would do the hand with the longest trump but this time I think I'll count the losers in Dummy since that ♠ suit is so powerful!

♠3 losers if there is a really bad break -- I'm not expecting a bad break though.
♥2 losers if there is a really bad break
♦0 losers
♣0 losers

This is an easy hand to play. First I need to draw the trump. If one opponent has all four of them I will go down but I'm not expecting that and really can't do much about that anyhow. I win my A♣ and play two rounds of trump. Luckily both opponents follow suit to both rounds so I have no trump losers! Now what should I do next? Here's where we are at:

Dummy
♠AKT9763
♥T6
♦7
♣

Declarer:
♠2
♥875
♦AJ3
♣942

At the table Declarer went about trumping her losers in Dummy. So she trumped a ♣ in Dummy and then played a ♦ back to her A♦ and then trumped another ♣ in Dummy. So now she came down to this:

Dummy
♠AKT9763
♥
♦
♣

Declarer:
♠2
♥875
♦J3
♣9

Do you see the problem with this? She is now in Dummy. Which is great BUT those ♠ are not all good. Declarer needs to trump at least one ♠ to set them up. Once Declarer leaves Dummy there is NO WAY BACK.

That is NOT the way to play this hand. What would YOU do at this point in the hand? Trump are all gone. You are in your hand. What do you do next?

Dummy
♠AKT9763
♥T6
♦7
♣

Declarer:
♠2
♥875
♦AJ3
♣942

The key here is to set up your next best suit. If I can set up all those ♠ in Dummy my Dummy will be all good. But I'll need trump to get back to Dummy so I can't waste them by trumping ♣.

So right away I play the A♠ and then the K♠ and trump a low ♠. The ♠ split 3-2 so now I have come down to this ending:

Dummy
♠T976
♥T6
♦7
♣

Declarer:
♠
♥87
♦AJ3
♣94

I am in my hand (I trumped the ♠ remember?) but my Dummy is good. I just have to get back to Dummy and run the rest of those ♠. I can easily get back to Dummy by trumping a ♣. Making 7!

Here are the four hands.

	Dummy ♠AKT9763 ♥AT64 ♦7 ♣3
LHO ♠Q54 ♥Q3 ♦T642 ♣QT76		RHO ♠J8 ♥J9 ♦KQ985 ♣KJ85
	Declarer ♠2 ♥K8752 ♦AJ3 ♣A942

If I had started to trump in Dummy before setting up my ♠ suit I could have gone down. Generally it's a good idea (once you have taken out trump) to set up winners in your next best suit right away. When you trump other suits you shorten your trump and it's always nice to have lots and lots of trump.

Double - Penalty Double

What does a bid of "Double" mean in bridge?

This is perhaps the single most difficult question a new or even a more experienced player can ask. Depending on the auction "Double" can mean many, many different things.

I will start with the one that started them all. Double that means penalty.

You hold this hand:
♠A852
♥A972
♦93
♣642

and your opponents have bid up to 6NT. With your RHO opening the bidding 1NT and your LHO bidding 6NT. Pass, Pass back to you. Hmmm. This seems a little too good to be true. You are on lead with two Aces and the opponents are in 6NT. Here you shouldn't feel sorry for these opponents and just Pass. They are not going to make their contract and you know that. You want to extract maximum points for your partnership. You can DOUBLE.

Double is just like a regular bid. Once you double the bidding continues until there are three Passes. So your LHO gets another bid as do your Partner and your RHO.

But on this auction I think it is pretty clear that no one else has anything more to say so the final contract becomes 6NT doubled.

If your opponents make, they will get extra points! Much more than they would have if you didn't double.

However, if you defeat the contract you and your partner get extra points.

Here's a table that shows the difference between doubling and defeating a contract and simply defeating the contract.

Amount of points you will collect

Number of tricks the opponents went down	Non-Vulnerable	DOUBLED and Non-Vulnerable	Vulnerable	DOUBLED and Vulnerable
1	50	100	100	200
2	100	300	200	500
3	150	500	300	800

Pretty much all doubles in bridge that are at a game level (3NT, 4♥ and 4♠, 5♣ and 5♦) and above are penalty doubles. That means that if the opponents double they expect you will play in that contract and they think they can defeat you.

Sounds easy so far? It's really not. Let's take a look at some hands.

You hold this hand:
♠852
♥972
♦93
♣AKQJT

Here your RHO opens the bidding 1NT. Your LHO bids 2♣ (Stayman). Your RHO bids 2♥ and your LHO bids 3NT. Pass. Pass. Back to you. Do you double? Well, SURE! I am on lead and I can win the first five tricks! There is no way the opponents are going to make 3NT! I say DOUBLE to extract my maximum penalty for this hand. So now my LHO Passes, my Partner Passes and my RHO starts to think.

Oh, oh. That's not good.

My RHO now bid 4♠. Can I beat that contract? No. So the opponents were happily playing in a contract I could defeat but when I doubled them they ran to a contract that I cannot defeat. Now I feel very silly I doubled in the first place. I wish I could go back in time and Pass.

Lesson number 1: When you double the opponents for penalty in a contract make sure they do not have a better contract to play in!

Here's another similar hand.

♠852
♥QJT9
♦93
♣7642

RHO opens the bidding 1NT. LHO bids 2♦ (Transfer). RHO bid 2♥. Now LHO bids 6♥. Pass. Pass. Your bid. You have two sure trump tricks. 6♥ is going down. Do you double?

No. Good job. You can defeat 6♥ but you are not so sure you can defeat 6NT!

Bidding in a Standard American 2/1 Auction

Let's try more of those rebids by Responder.

This one I will walk you through since I have not taught you very many of the implications covered here. Bridge is complicated enough!

This is my hand:

Hand
♠KJ54
♥-
♦K76
♣AQJ987

Partner opened 1♦. My turn to bid. What do you think I will bid?

Here I will bid 2♣. This shows 10 or more HCP (which I have) and says I have at least 4♣ (which I have).

This does NOT deny having a 4 card major. If I bid a major later on (which I probably will) it just shows I had more ♣ since I bid them first. Which is true.

So now let's look at what happens when Partner bids. 2♣ is a FORCING bid so I KNOW Partner will bid again.

So say Partner bids 2♦. This is a FORCING bid for me. I MUST bid again. Once I bid a new suit at the 2 level I am committed to bidding again unless my Partner raises my suit 1 level OR bids 2NT. So that means if Partner had bid 3♣ I would be allowed to Pass or if Partner had bid 2NT I would be allowed to Pass. Any other bid from Partner and I must bid again at least once.

However I am happy to do that. Believe it or not Partner's bid does not deny having 4♠. If Partner in this auction was to bid 2♠ instead of 2♦ this is a GAME FORCING bid. We must go to game even if I have my minimum 10 HCP. So Partner with a minimum opening bid might not be able to tell me about their 4♠.

So after my Partner's 2♦ bid I will bid 2♠. This does several things.

1) It tells Partner we are going to game. A reverse bid by Responder is GAME FORCING. This allows me to stay lower in the bidding in order for us to find a fit.
2) It tells Partner I have 4♠. That is all I need in order to bid the suit.
3) It tells Partner my ♣ are longer than my ♠. If they were the same length I would have bid my ♠ first.
On this auction if Partner were to now bid 2NT I will bid 3♦.

Is 3♦ forcing on this auction?

Absolutely! I made a game forcing bid with 2♠. We are not in game. Partner MUST bid again. Who knows what will happen now but I have shown my hand.

Forcing or Invitational?

Here is a hand I observed in last Tuesday's novice game. Let's see if anyone can bid this right.

This is the hand:

♠KQT92
♥KT72
♦K8
♣Q5

You the Dealer and you get to open the bidding. You have 13 HCP so you decide to open the bidding 1♠. Now Partner says 2♣. Your bid?

The correct bid on this hand would be 2♥. You have a 4 card ♥ suit you need to tell Partner about. Now Partner says 3♠. What is your bid?

Hmmmmmm. If someone gave this question to me I wouldn't be able to answer. It's actually a tough question not because it is a tough decision for me to make, but because I have NO IDEA whether or not that 3♠ bid is FORCING or not.

Back when I was a kid, all jump bids were forcing. So historically the 3♠ bid from Partner WOULD be FORCING. I would have to bid again. Since it is forcing I'd bid 4♠ and we'd be in game.

However modern methods have taught that this bid is INVITATIONAL. Not forcing. (If the hand wants to force to game they just bid it themselves!) So I can Pass this bid if I am minimum for my opener. Which I am. So if this bid is invitational, I have an easy Pass.

Anyhow, the person said Pass and Partner meant it as FORCING. They missed a game.

The other hand was:

♠A85
♥AQ9
♦T43
♣K974

Anyhow these are the things you need to discuss with Partner because it is so easy to misunderstand what Partner means during an auction.

Do YOU know if your Partner would mean that as FORCING or INVITATIONAL?