This Week in Bridge
(638) Opening Bids: Which Suit to Open?
©AiB Robert S. Todd
Level: 3 of 10 robert@advinbridge.com
Introduction
The opening bid is the start of our conversation with partner (and often the opponents). It is very important that we get this conversation off to a good start – make the right choice for our opening bid. If we start off with the wrong opening bid, we often have trouble properly describing our hand as the auction progresses. Here we review the basic opening bid agreements and look at some of the classic problem opening situations.
Major Suit Openings
When we have a 5-card Major, we usually open it. What do we do if we have two 5-card Majors?
Example 1
With both 5-card ♠ and 5-card ♥, we have two 5-card Majors, we open 1♠ and rebid ♥. We do the same with 6-6 in the Majors.
Example 2
What do we do with 5-card ♠ and a 6-card ♥?
This is a more complicated distribution. If we have only a minimum opening bid, we treat it like we are 5-5 in the Majors and open 1♠. If we have extra values (enough to reverse), then we open and bid more naturally – starting with 1♥ and bidding ♠ twice after that.
Opener Responder
1♥ 1NT
2♠ 2NT
3♠
This bidding sequence shows a 5-card ♠ suit and 6+card ♥ suit. This is a reverse.
Minor Suit Openings
When we do not have a 5-card Major and do not have a hand that can open some number of NT, we must go to our backup plan. That is to open the bidding with a minor. If we have both minors, we have a choice of which suit to open. Our planned rebid and the rest of our hand will help us determine which suit to open.
Example 3
With a 5-card ♦ suit and a 5-card ♣ suit, we open 1♦ and play to rebid ♣. This is also true if we are 6-6 in the minors.
Example 4
With a 4-card ♦ suit and a 4-card ♣ suit, we open 1♦ and rebid NT if we have a balanced hand or something else if unbalanced hand. This 1♦ opening bid gives us flexibility in our rebid.
Example 5
With a 3-card ♦ suit and a 3-card ♣ suit, we open the bidding 1♣. This is done because we usually plan to rebid NT.
Example 6
With a 5-card ♦ suit and a 4-card ♣ suit, we open the bidding 1♦ . We do this with a similar plan as if we were 5-5 in the minors.
Example 7 – Difficult Hand
With a 4-card ♦ suit and a 5-card ♣ suit, we open the bidding 1♦. Our plan is to rebid 2♣ showing “both minors”. This is a slight distortion of our distribution, but this is a small lie.
Note: We will treat some 2-2-4-5 hands as balanced and open 1♦, planning to rebid 1NT. Or we open 1♣ planning to rebid 2♣ with a strong 5-card ♣ suit. Again, trying to find the “least lie”.
No Good Suit to Open (4-4-3-2 Distribution, Rule of 5-4-3)
We generally promise 5-cards when we open a 1-Major, 4-cards when we open 1♦, and 3-cards when we open 1♣. There is one hand that does not meet any of these requirements: the distribution 4-4-3-2 (4-4 in the Majors, 3-card ♦, and 2-card ♣).
With this hand, we usually open 1♦ - our longest minor. This is the only hand in which we open 1♦ with only a 3-card ♦ suit. But with some hands, it might be best to make a small lie.
Example 8
♠ KJ83
♥ Q873
♦ 432
♣ AK
Here it seems practical to open the bidding 1♣. This club suit "looks like a 3-card suit" and our Diamond suit is just horrible. This seems like the "Least Lie".
Problem Hands (Advanced Topic)
When we have a 4-5 shape and an unbalanced minimum hand, we can open 1♦ if our suits are ♦ and ♠ and usually not have a rebid problem. But if we have a 4-card ♥ suit and a 5-card minor, we may be faced with a very difficult bidding problem.
Example Problem Shapes
1-4-5-3
1-4-3-5
With a minimum hand, we would open our 5-card minor (let's say ♦ in this case), but if partner responds 1♠ we will not have a good rebid. We can rebid 2♦, 2♣, 1NT, or reverse into 2♥, but all of them are "bad bids". The question is which one is the least bad bid. Rebidding 1NT or reversing into 2♥ are the worst two bids. 1NT shows a balanced hand (which you don't have) and 2♥ shows lots of extra values (which you don't have). Rebidding 2♦ shows a 6-card ♦ suit and rebidding 2♣ shows a 4-card ♣ suit. All of these bids are lies.
So what to rebid? As a general rule in bridge, it is better to lie in a minor than a Major or NT, so rebidding 2♦ or 2♣ are the best rebids! Our general rule is not to lie to partner about our hand type. By rebidding 2♦ or 2♣, we might lie a little bit about our length in the suit, but at least we haven't lied about our hand type: partner knows we have an unbalanced hand.
Conclusion
Opening the correct suit allows us to find our Major suit fits, when they exist. But in addition to searching for a Major suit fit, opening the correct suit allows us to have a reasonable rebid. This is particularly important in modern auctions, where the opponents often compete in the bidding. Plan ahead and think about opening a suit that will allow you to have a reasonable rebid.