Lesson 3

The bidding.

1. Opening bids of 1 in a suit.

The distribution of the cards between the 4 suits has an important effect on the trick taking capacity of the hand. To take an extreme example,
a hand containing all 13 cards of the Spade suit will have a point count of just 10, yet, with Spades as the trump suit, it will win all 13 tricks.

As a general principle, given a hand of the same high­card point count, the more unbalanced the distribution, the greater will be its trick-taking potential.

If these hands (total high-card point count 23) are played in NO Trumps, then the defence will be able to start by winning at least 5 tricks in Spades.
If, however, the hands are played with Hearts as the trump suit, only 1 Spade trick will be lost, since any subsequent Spade can be ruffed.

Distributional points are counted as follows.

For a void count 3 points.

For a singleton 2 points.

For a doubleton 1 point.

Important Notes.

1. Do NOT count these distributional points when considering a bid of No Trumps.
2. Do NOT open 1 in a suit if you have the values & distribution to enable you to open 1NT.

If you have 12 or more points you can make an opening bid of 1 in a suit.

To be biddable, a suit must contain at least 4 cards.

To be rebiddable (i.e. bid twice without support from partner) a suit must contain at least 5 cards. With 2 biddable suits bid the longest, not the strongest!
That is, holding 9 8 7 5 4 of Spades and A K Q 9 of Hearts (and of course 12+ points) you open 1 Spade.

With 2 suits of the same length you open the HIGHER­-RANKING suit, except that with Spades and Clubs you open 1 Club.

When you open the bidding by bidding 1 in a suit you promise your partner that, if he responds by bidding a different suit (not by raising your suit or bidding No Trumps), you will bid again, thus giving him a second chance to bid. This is because the first response in a new suit has a very wide point range (unlike bids of No Trump and direct raises of the opening suit) and needs at least 2 bids to explore the possibilities.

To summarise: an opening bid of 1 in a suit promises partner:

1. that you have at least 12 points (maximum about 19-20)

2. that you have no suit LONGER than the suit bid. (You may have a second suit of the same length)

3. that if he responds in a suit, you will bid again.

2. Responding to opening bids of 1 in a suit.

Immediate raises of partners suit.

To be able to deal comfortably with a contract involving a trump suit you need to hold at least 8 cards in the suit between Declarers hand and Dummy's. So when partner opens the bidding with 1 Heart, he is promising at least 4 cards in Hearts. To be sure of 8 cards between the two hands and therefore be able to raise his suit to 2,3,or 4 Hearts, you need to hold at least 4 cards in the suit yourself. We call this a trump fit.

Assuming you have a fit for partners opening bid of 1 Heart :

Examples: (Assume Partner has opened 1 Heart)

3. Openers rebid after partner has raised your suit.  

Again you have opened 1 Heart.

Play in a suit contract. Putting trumps to work.                                  

1. Winning extra tricks by ruffing.

Contract 3 Spades

You need to make 9 tricks. If you count your top tricks, you have 5 tricks in Spades, 1 in Hearts and 1 in Clubs, total 7 tricks.
If the contract were No trumps, that is all you could make. The fact that you have a trump suit changes all that.
You can take advantage of the Heart shortage in dummy to make extra tricks. You play the Ace of Hearts, followed by a small Hearts which dummy ruffs (i.e. plays a trump) with the 4 of Spades.
You then return the lead to your hand by leading a small club from dummy to your Ace, and then play your last Heart, ruffing this time with the 10.
You have now made 4 tricks (2 Aces and two ruffs) and you still have your 5 trumps in hand to complete your contract.

2. Establishing an outside suit (i.e. a suit other than trumps) by ruffing.

Assume that the South hand has a trump (obviously this would not be the trump suit). Then, after leading the Ace, King and then the 4, South could ruff as the Queen fell.
This would not only make an extra trick but would establish the two remaining small cards as winning tricks.