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Bidding

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Theory

The Opening Bid

Many auctions take their first wrong turn with the opening bid.

Hand-type

The guidelines for both your assessment of the potential of a hand, and for the methods of showing that hand in the bidding, differ according to the shape of the hand - and in particular on whether or not it is balanced.

You will therefore not be surprised that before you think any more about your opening bid you should first determine the hand-type.

That is the purpose of the next page

assessing the hand

That page will in turn direct you to the page(s) for the specific hand-type in front of you.

For those with more experience the following links will take you to the appropriate pages rather more rapidly.

opening balanced hands

opening 5-4-2-2 shape

opening 6-3-2-2 shape

opening unbalanced hands

Context  -  Acol bidding.

This page last revised 11th Mar 2020