What to Respond?

Here is your hand:

♠KQ54
♥A4
♦T872
♣AQ4

Partner opens the bidding with 1♥. Your RHO (Right Hand Opponent) bid 1♠. What is your call?

Show Answer

How about 3NT?

You don't want to tell Partner you have four ♠. You don't have a fit. Even if you have a fit there is a REALLY bad break in the trump suit! Your RHO has FIVE of them!

But you do have stoppers for NT and a balanced hand. So now it is all about point count.

1NT would show 6 to a bad 10 HCP.

2NT would show about 11 or 12 HCP.

3NT shows about 13 to 15 HCP. Which is what you have. You need to force Partner to game with your opening hand!

What to Rebid?

Here is your hand:

♠72
♥JT
♦AK953
♣AQ62

You are Dealer and decide to open the bidding 1♦. The Opponents "Pass" during the auction. Your Partner responds 1♥. What is your call?

Show Answer

2♣

This should show a four card ♣ suit but ALSO a five card ♦ suit.

If you just rebid your ♦ suit Partner will think you have six of them. (You should because you are not rebidding NT so you have an unbalanced hand. Unbalanced hands either contain a six card suit or a five card suit and a four card suit. But you cannot have another four card suit because with four ♥ you would support Partner's ♥, with four ♠ you would rebid 1♠ and with four ♣ you would rebid 2♣.)

In any case, it is nice for Partner to get to choose between two suits rather than just being told to play in one suit only. Choices are nice.

What to Open?

Here is your hand:

♠AJT86543
♥9
♦J
♣K87

RHO (Right Hand Opponent) opens the bidding with a "Pass". What is your call?

Show Answer

4♠

This should show an eight card ♠ suit with less than an opening hand.

Lead Problem

Here is your hand:

♠KQ87
♥9875
♦862
♣84

You are on lead against 2♥. Your Partner opened the bidding 1NT (15 to 17) and the Opponents settled in 2♥. You decide to lead a ♠. What card in the ♠ suit do you lead?

Show Answer

The K♠

Do NOT lead your fourth best ♠. In a trump contract you can lead the top of TWO touching honours. In a NT contract you need to lead top of THREE touching honours.

If you lead a low ♠ Declarer got to win their J♠ and still had their A♠. You do not get a ♠ trick. If you lead the K♠ you forced out Declarer's A♠ and will score a trick with your Q♠.

What to Open?

Here is your hand:

♠JT42
♥KQ
♦KJ4
♣KQJ9

You are Dealer. What is your call?

Show Answer

1NT

You have a balanced hand with 16 HCP. This is the only way to show a balanced hand with this range of values.

The problem with opening 1♣ is what do you do when Partner bids 1NT showing 6 to a bad 10 HCP?

Do you invite with 2NT? That shows 18 or 19 HCP. A hand that was too good to open 1NT to begin with but not good enough to open 2NT. Partner will bid game with 7 HCP.

Do you "Pass" 1NT? Partner might have 9 or 10 HCP and you just missed a game.

Get your point count off your chest with your original bid. That way Partner knows what to do.

Responding

Here is your hand:

♠J95432
♥
♦AT3
♣A973

Partner is Dealer and opens the bidding 1♥. The Opponents are silent during the auction. What is your call now?

Show Answer

1♠

You are too weak to bid 2♠ to show a strong hand with a six card suit and too strong to bid 2♠ to show a weak hand with a six card ♠ suit.

So if you play Strong Jump Shifts you are too weak.

If you play Weak Jump Shifts you are too strong.

Rebid dilema

Here is your hand:

♠QT9
♥AK9432
♦A
♣K32

You are Dealer and open the bidding 1♥. The Opponents are silent during the auction. Partner bids 1♠. What is your call now?

Show Answer

How about 3♥?

This shows 16 to 18 HCP with a GOOD six card ♥ suit. Your suit is pretty good and it does describe your hand. The problem with bidding 2♥ is that Partner will never believe you have this good of a hand.

What to Rebid?

Here is your hand:

♠KJ7
♥AKJT2
♦T5
♣A32

Partner is Dealer and open the bidding 1NT. The Opponents are silent during the auction. You and your Partner have agreed to play Jacoby Transfers so you bid 2♦ which forces your Partner to bid 2♥. What is your call now?

Show Answer

4NT

This shows a slam invitational hand (16 or 17 HCP -- Partner, with a minimum hand "Pass" and with a maximum hand bid 6NT) with a five card ♥ suit. Partner can choose whether or not they want to be in a slam AND whether or not they have a ♥ fit. You will "Pass" whatever they now bid.

Lead

Here is your suit: ♣K987

You are on lead and decide to lead this suit. What card do you lead? Doesn't matter if the contract is NT or a trump contract. You lead the same card. Which card?

Show Answer

Lead the 7.

Some people think you should lead the 9. Top of a sequence.

It is a sequence but it is an INTERNAL sequence. There is a higher card above the sequence. With an internal sequence you only lead the top card if it is an honour. The Ten is considered an honour but the 9 is not.

So from K987 lead your fourth best.

From KT98 you lead the Ten.

Responding to 2NT

Here is your hand:

♠Q86
♥QJ52
♦73
♣KJ43

Partner is Dealer and opens the bidding 2NT. This shows 20 or 21 HCP. No one is vulnerable. What do you bid?

Show Answer

If you play Stayman you can bid 3♣.

This asks Partner is they have a four card major. They might have four ♥ in their hand.

If you don't play Stayman you need to just raise to 3NT.

What to Open?

Here is your hand:

♠J43
♥K7
♦KJ95
♣AKT9

You are Dealer. You are vulnerable. What do you open the bidding?

Show Answer

How about 1NT?

You are balanced. You have 15 to 17 HCP. If you play 15 to 17 NT's you have the perfect bid!

The problem with opening 1♣ is that later on, if Partner reponds with 1 of a major, you will need to bid 1NT. If Partner thinks you are balanced they will never believe you have 15 HCP. After all with a balanced hand and 15 HCP you would have opened 1NT. So Partner with 10 HCP will probably "Pass" your 1NT rebid. But your 15 and Partner's 10 make enough for a game. If you had opened 1NT Partner would have forced you to game.

Open

Here is your hand:

♠T92
♥2
♦AKJ7654
♣J2

You are Dealer. Both sides are vulnerable. What do you open the bidding?

Show Answer

How about 3♦?

Bidding 3♦ shows a weak hand with SEVEN ♦. Don't open the bidding 2♦. That only shows a six card suit. Bidding 3♦ will make it way more difficult for the Opponents to bid. That's what pre-empts are all about.

Responding

Here is your hand:

♠T854
♥87
♦AT75
♣AT6

Partner is Dealer and open the bidding 1♥. Your RHO (Right Hand Opponent) Passes. What is your call now?

Show Answer

How about 1♠?

Bidding 1NT shows your point count but bidding 1NT also denies having a four card ♠ suit. Show your major!

Responder must bid

Here is your hand:

♠6
♥
♦QT98542
♣A8643

Playing matchpoints and you are not vulnerable. The Opponents are silent during the auction.

Partner is Dealer and open the bidding 1♥. What is your call?

Show Answer

You are stuck with bidding 1NT.

You cannot "Pass" because you have at least 6 HCP.

You cannot bid a new suit at the 2 level because you need 10 or more HCP.

You cannot raise ♥ because you do not have three of them.

You cannot bid 1♠ because you do not have four of them.

That leaves you with 1NT. This says "Partner I have 6 to a bad 10 HCP, fewer than three ♥ and fewer than four ♠." Which describes your hand perfectly!

Responding 1NT does not show a balanced hand.

Responding to a Big, Balanced Hand

Here is your hand:

♠K95432
♥932
♦8
♣643

Playing matchpoints and you are vulnerable. The Opponents are silent during the auction.

Partner is Dealer and opens the bidding 2♣. You bid 2♦ just to see what Partner has to say. Partner bids 2NT which should show 22 to 24 HCP with a balanced hand.

You have agreed to play Jacoby Transfers so decide to bid 3♥. Partner dutifully bid 3♠. What is your call?

Show Answer

I know you are weak but Partner has at least 22 HCP remember? You have enough for a game. You need to decide where to play that game.

How about 4♠? You have a fit. Partner must have two ♠ in order to have a balanced hand.

If you bid 3NT instead Partner will "Pass" (they only have two ♠) and go down. Bidding 4♠ will result in Partner taking 10 or 11 tricks.

Another Rebid

Here is your hand:

♠A9532
♥AKQ987
♦6
♣5

Playing matchpoints and everyone is vulnerable. The Opponents are silent during the auction.

You are Dealer and open the bidding 1♥. Your Partner bids 1♠. What is your call now?

Show Answer

How about 4♠? This should show about 20 points with support in ♠. You do have that. You have 3 points for your singleton ♣ and another three points for your singleton ♦.

Until you have a better way to show this hand that's probably the best way to show Partner how strong you are.