Priority Bidding Goals

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The two most important questions to answer in your auction:

1. Do we have a game?
2. Do we have a major suit fit?

Why are these questions important?

1. Bridge scoring provides a bonus for making a game. If your partnership has the strength to make a game contract, you want to bid the game to collect the bonus.
2. Bridge scoring rewards major suit contracts and notrump contracts more than minor suit contracts.

Bidding should focus on finding major suit games and notrump games which require fewer tricks and pay more per trick. There is a similar bias for partscore contracts because minor suit contracts pay only 20 points per trick.
Playing in an 8-card or better major suit fit typically scores better than playing in notrump because the ability to ruff often provides an extra trick.

• Ruffing a loser in the short hand (the hand with fewer trump) provides an additional trick.
• Trumps can act as a stopper. In a notrump contract, if the defenders establish winners in a suit and gain the lead, there is nothing you can do to stop them from cashing their winners. In a suit contract, your trumps act as a stopper. When you are out of their suit and have trumps remaining, you can ruff to prevent the defenders from cashing their winners.

This explains why bidding systems are designed to find 8-card or better major suit fits. Standard American and 2/1 Game Force are popular bidding systems where a major suit opening shows a 5-card or longer suit. A minor suit opening shows a 3-card or longer suit.

Making it Easy to Find 5-3 Major Suit Fits

When your 1♥ and 1♠ opening bids promise a 5+ card suit, responder can raise opener’s major with 3-card support in accordance with their strength, knowing they have an 8+ card fit.

Responder’s raise confirm an 8+ card major suit fit. Responder’s raise should reflect their strength (HCP + Short Suit Points). This helps determine whether a major suit game is available. Typically, a combined 25+ points is needed for a major suit game.

• Raising to the 2-level shows 3+ card support and 6-10 points
• Raising to the 3-level is invitational, showing 11-12 points and 3+ card support. Some partnerships promise 4+ card support for a jump raise. With that agreement, responder shows their 3-card invitational raise with their 2nd bid.
• To force to game with 3-card support, bid a new suit at the 2-level and then support opener’s major. To show a game forcing raise (13+ points) with 4+ card support, it is common to use an artificial Jacoby 2NT raise or a Splinter Bid.

Finding 4-4 Major Suit Fits

If you have an opening hand with no 5-card major, you open 1♣, 1♦, or notrump. A minor suit opening shows a 3-card or longer suit. Responder’s priority is to look for an 8-card or better major suit fit. A 1♥ or 1♠ response shows a 4+ card suit. If opener has 4+ card support for responder’s major, opener should raise responder’s major in accordance with their strength (HCP + Support Points).

• A raise to the 2-level shows 12-15 points and typically 4+ card support
• A jump raise to the 3-level shows 16-17 points and 4+ card support
• A raise to game shows 18+ points and 4+ card support.
  Note that opener can use a double jump shift Splinter Bid to show a game forcing raise with shortness in the bid side suit.  A jump to the 4-level in opener’s minor shows a game forcing raise for responder’s major with length and strength in opener’s minor.

When you or your partner confirm a major suit fit and describe their strength, they confirm a major suit fit and make it easy to determine whether a game is available.

When Conventions Are Needed

If your partnership doesn’t find a major suit fit in your first 3 bids, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a major suit fit. On many deals, it will not be clear whether the partnership has a game, or whether a major suit fit is available. For example, responder might have an 11 HCP hand with a 5-card major.

On the auction below, does South’s 3♠ rebid show a 14 HCP hand like ♠AQ985 ♥952 ♦A73 ♣A4 or does it show an 11 HCP hand like ♠AQ985 ♥J52 ♦A73 ♣74?

South has a need to show both hands. South cannot jump to 4♠ with the 14 HCP hand. South doesn’ know whether they have an 8-card major suit fit.

Natural bidding alone doesn’t allow responder to reliably get the answers they need to determine whether a game is available, and whether a major suit fit is available. Since there are billions of bridge hands and only 9 bids available between 1NT and 3NT, it isn’t surprising the natural bidding needs to be supplemented with conventions to find the right contract.

If your partnership is intermediate or beyond, you should begin adding conventions to help determine whether a game is available, and whether a major suit fit is available. The convention used depends on the auction. So memorization and practice is required. Understanding the need for a convention makes it easier to learn and use a convention. Here is a list of the conventions to use. See our articles (at LoebBridge.com) and our video lessons (at LoebBridge.Locals.com) for more information.

• After opener’s 1NT rebid, use 2-Way New Minor Forcing
• After opener rebids 2 of their minor, use 3^rd Suit Forcing
• After 3 suits have been bid, use 4^th Suit Forcing