The most important part of constructive bidding (and many times of competitive bidding) is finding fits with your partner. Specifically, the game of bridge is built around Major suit fits. There are many tools that we use to help us find fits with our partner, and we will review these tools below, but the most important tool for finding good fits with your partner is to use what you know from the auction to help you visualize the hand.
When partner opens the bidding and the opponent makes a takeout double, we need to know how to deal with this interference. We first want to consider what is likely to happen in the remainder of the auction. If we have just a few values (minimum hand, less than 10 HCP) then this will likely continue to be a competitive auction – with us having about half the values in the deck and the opponents having about half. In a competitive auction, it becomes important that we are able to show our suits (and find our fits) quickly so that we can effectively compete in the bidding. Thus, we want to construct a system that will allow us to do this!
How to respond to a takeout double is an important topic to discuss with your partner, but a discussion that most partnerships forget to have for many years. The question that you need to ask partner is “What do my bids mean in response to your takeout double?”
2 Over 1 Game Forcing (2/1 GF) bids are the core of a modern approach to bidding. The primary idea is that when partner opens at the 1-level and we bid a new suit at the 2-level (not including jump shifts), this is a game forcing bid – meaning neither Opener nor Responder can pass below game. This allows both players to confidently describe their hands – knowing that all their bids are forcing and they won’t get “dropped” before reaching game.
In bridge there are many things to learn and to remember. We are often taxed in keeping too many things straight in our heads. But even more important than remembering any specific piece of information about how to play bridge is to have the “correct perspective” on the game – to be able to play bridge with the correct philosophical approach. If you approach each situation with the same set of philosophies, both you and your partner will be far more successful.
Against a NT contract, when the opponents win the first trick and attack another suit they are often leading their best suit. In this case, we have an opportunity to communicate with partner. Smith Echo is an agreement that makes use of this situation to tell partner if the opening lead was good or not.
