Conventions

Home

M J Bridge

Bidding

Hands

Theory

Beginner and above

Balanced hands - fifteen to nineteen points


This page applies to those hands which are outside the ranges appropriate to opening bids of 1NT, 2NT, or a strong 2NT sequence.  If you have chosen to play a 1NT opening on twelve to fourteen points, and a 2NT opening on a range of twenty to twenty two points then these observations will apply to balanced hands of fifteen to nineteen points.  You will open such hands with one of a suit intending to rebid in no trumps.  If you have chosen a different range for your 1NT and/or your 2NT opening bids then the range for opening a balanced hand with one of a suit will have to be adjusted accordingly.


The same considerations apply as for a 1NT opening bid as to what constitutes a balanced hand.


Which suit?


There is one specific point which tends to be insufficiently addressed, and that is which suit to open if you have a choice.


There are as many rules about which suit to open as there are writers. All such rules have arguments in their favour.  The important thing as that you and your partner are agreed.


A simple and sensible approach (which I think of as ‘the standard method’) is:-


if you have a five-card or longer suit (and a hand of 15 to 19 points) then you bid it;

this applies, at least in principle, even when the suit quality is poor - you will not have to rebid it;


if you have one four-card suit (and a hand of 15 to 19 points) then bid it (but see below for a fuller discussion).


If you have two four-card suits (and a hand of 15 to 19 points) then open according to the following table (but see below for a fuller discussion):-

Which suit should I open with a 4-4-3-2 hand in the 15-19 point range?

With both majors bid hearts;

with a minor and a major bid the major;

with both minors bid the better suit.

Question

My guideline

Extending the discussion


Just one poor quality four-card suit


Once in a while you will find yourself with a 4-3-3-3 hand and all the points in the short suits.  It follows that your four-card suit is of miserable quality.  Both the shape of the hand and the disposition of the high cards are weak features.  Such a hand has only very limited prospects for making tricks beyond the high cards.

My recommendation is that you start by subtracting one, or even two, points from your raw count.

This will lead to your not opening most twelve (and possibly even thirteen) point hands of this type, and opening most fifteen or sixteen pointy hands of this type with 1NT.


With seventeen (possibly sixteen) or more you will still open one of a suit, but which suit you choose is a matter for partnership agreement.

When your four-card suit is a minor then open it.  When your four-card suit is a major some partnerships will agree to open it - others will agree to open one of their three-card minor suits.  Such an action should be a rare choice.  Only use this stratagem as a last resort, and expect partner to assume a four-card suit (see fuller discussion below).


An old maxim


You will, not infrequently, hear the maxim ‘bid four-card suits up the line’ quoted in the present context.


in itself this is wrong


You may agree to open with the lower-ranking of two four-card suits (see below) - that is a partnership decision - but the maxim belongs to responder’s first bid - not to the opening bid, in which context it provides an excellent guideline.


With a balanced hand you have no intention of bidding both of your four-card suits, and so any discussion about the order in which you should bid them is irrelevant - either your opening bid or your rebid will be in no trumps.  As opener with a balanced hand in the fifteen to nineteen point range decide which four-card suit you will choose to open according to the following discussion.


Two four-card suits


Everyone is agreed that with two four-card majors in a balanced you should open with 1.  Partner must respond 1 rather than 1NT with four spades, and any major suit fit will not be lost.


With both minor suits styles vary, but the effects of the different choices are not significant.

I have suggested ‘the stronger suit’ above, but any one of ‘always clubs’, ‘always diamonds’, ‘the weaker suit’ or ‘random’ provides a perfectly playable alternative.


It is when you hold both a minor suit and a major suit that the experts are split down the middle.  You should feel free to follow your own choice of expert, but do be certain that you and your partner are agreed on the choice.


Many players have been taught to open the lower suit when holding a minor and a major in a balanced hand.

Early Acol theorists would happily open 1 and rebid 1 with four cards in each suit (or even three clubs and four in the major).  For me this is a hand-me-down from the days when opener never opened a four-card major, but it is contrary to the basic philosophy of modern Acol, and it misses an opportunity to give useful information to partner.

Such a sequence now promises five clubs and four spades in an unbalanced hand.


Much better is the modern style in which you open one of a suit and then rebid in no trumps, thereby showing the balanced nature of the hand and a closely defined point count.

Once you have chosen this style then you will have committed yourself to showing just one of your four-card suits.  Which one do you want it to be?


In general, when you open with one of a suit and follow with a suitable rebid you will be able to give partner two pieces of information.

As my two primary target contracts are four-of-a-major and 3NT then my two pieces of information will be ‘I have a specific major suit’ and ‘I have a balanced hand in a given range’.


So, my simple suggestion is:-


if you have a major and a minor bid the major suit first


and this is in line with modern teaching on the matter (Andrew Robson and EBED)


If for example I hold sixteen points with four cards in each of diamonds and spades, the last thing I want to do is open 1 and hear my partner respond with 1.  If I rebid 1 he will not know that I am balanced and that I have fifteen or sixteen points and in addition he will think that I have five diamonds, and if I rebid 1NT he will not know that I have a four-card spade suit.  The situation will be even worse if the opponents choose to muddy the waters.

So I open 1 with such a hand.


A possible exception to the above rule is to open 1 when holding both red suits, on the grounds that partner will not bypass any four-card heart holding that he might hold.  This is the only situation in which I would consider opening the minor rather than the major.  The method works well in the uncontested auction, and can usually be made to work in the contested auction provided that responder’s double is carefully defined, but it can be harder to locate your major suit fit if the opponents’ intervention is particularly vigorous.

My choice remains 1.


A further question arises when your natural four-card opening major suit is of totally disreputable quality.

You might like to promise something along the lines of ‘when I open a four-card major it will always contain at least one of the three top honours’.  Such an agreement is not without merit.


If you have an agreement along these lines then in this specific circumstance you will open one of your minor.

Your decision here should be consistent with your choice when opening a three-card minor on a 4-3-3-3 hand (above).


But note that it is perfectly acceptable, and easiest, to agree that you will bid the shape, whatever the quality.

Post-beginner and above

K J 8 6

A K 4

Q T 5 3

K 8

Sixteen points in a 4-4-3-2 shape.

Open 1 planning to rebid in no trumps.

Some partnerships would open 1.  Make sure that you and your partner are agreed on your methods.

A K 4

K 8

K J 8 6

Q T 5 3

Sixteen points in a 4-4-3-2 shape with no four-card major.

Open 1 planning to rebid in no trumps.

1 would certainly not be a sin, but diamonds are marginally more robust.

K J 8 6

Q T 5 3

K 8

A K 4

Sixteen points in a 5-3-3-2 shape with two four-card majors.

Open 1 planning to rebid in no trumps unless partner raises hearts or bids spades.

Partner must respond 1 rather than 1NT if holding four spades, and so any four-four major-suit fit will not be lost.

J T 8 6 4

A K 7

K Q 3

K 4

Sixteen points in a 5-3-3-2 shape with a weak 5-card major.

Open 1 planning to rebid in no trumps.

Note that you will not have to repeat your rather feeble spade suit.

Context  -  Acol bidding - the opening bid - opening balanced hands.

This page last revised 1st Jun 2022

Responder’s continuations

Post intermediate and above

However, the ‘bid the major’ approach is by no means the choice of all expert partnerships.

I prefer it as a teaching method, and also in the context of pairs play, but if you are considering something different for high-level play at IMPS scoring then you might like to join a number of top partnerships with a different approach.


For an excellent take on the ‘minor first’ approach you will find find an article by Chris Jagger in the September 2020 edition of English Bridge.


A summary of my understanding of Chris’s article will be found on the page


Four and a half card majors