Look at example hand A.
You have five spades and
five diamonds. You have
a doubleton heart (i.e., only
two hearts) and a singleton
club (just one card in
that suit).

If we change the
hand around a little
(Hand B).

Now you have five spades
and five diamonds, plus
three hearts (sometimes
called a "tripleton"). That's
13 cards. Where are your
clubs? Did you check and
see if any of your clubs
are in the spade suit? If
not, you have a "void" in
clubs! Now you try one.
You, out there in cyberspace.

Do you have a doubleton,
and if so in which suit?

Do you have a singleton,
and if so in which suit?

Do you have a void,
and if so in which suit?

Answer all three questions please,
before scrolling down. Sharon will answer.

Hand A has
a doubleton
spade, and
a void in
diamonds.
You do not
have a
singleton
this time.

Right,
Sharon!
Now look at
hand B.

Now you
have two
doubletons
(spades and
diamonds),
no singletons
and no voids.

Did you know that the
chance of holding two
doubletons is 16.228
percent?

And this does not include
the chance of holding
three doubletons!

Cool statistic, Prof, but this is not
exactly relative ... err ... relevant.
The point is to distinguish between
"balanced" and "unbalanced" distribution.

When you have a void or a singleton or
more than one doubleton, your hand is
described as "unbalanced." When you
have at most one doubleton, no
singletons, and no voids, your hand
can be described as "balanced."

Let's talk now about
responding to an opening
bid. After your side (you
or your partner) opens the
bidding, the next step is
to make the proper
"response." A regular
conversation will go:

"Hello. How
are you?"
["Opening
bid"]
...

"Fine, thank
you. What's
new?"
["Rebid"]

"Fine, thank
you. How
are you?"
["Response"]

 

 

And so
forth. The
same thing
happens
in bridge.

Wilma, suppose it's your
deal and you are first to
speak in the auction.

I'm going to make you open
the bidding "One club."
Can you tell me what
that means?

Right. Now let's say that
Norm passes (you have a
bad hand, Norm, not to
worry, just pretending
for now).

Earl, it's your turn. What is
your "response" to your
partner's opening bid?

Yes, what should you reply?
What bid will you make?
How will you tell partner
something about your hand?

Don't worry, Earl. I don't
expect you to know this. I
am about to teach it to
you now.

After one partner opens the
bidding with one club or one
diamond, the other partner
is going to "respond" with
a major-suit bid if he can,
at the one level.

In order to do this, he needs
at least 6 high-card points
and at least 4 cards in the
major. Look at this example:

The opener will open the
bidding with "one diamond."
He has 13 points, but he
doesn't have enough points
to open "one notrump" even
though his hand is
"balanced."

He has no five-card major,
so he starts out with his
longer minor.

The responder has two
four-card suits, clubs and
spades. Admittedly, the
clubs are nicer-looking than
the spades, but he's going
to "respond" ONE SPADE
because he can show that
suit at the one level. Also,
when you learn about the
scoring in bridge (which is
a whole course in itself),
you'll learn that major-suit
contracts score better
than minor-suit contracts.

Excuse me,
but I thought
you needed
five cards
in the major
to bid it.

Yes, you need at least five
cards in the major to open
the bidding one heart or
one spade. But to "respond"
one heart or one spade,
you only need four cards. And
you only need six points!

This response, sometimes
called "one over one," is
forcing. The opening bidder
cannot pass; he must bid
again.

Here are both hands and
the first three bids, followed
by what they mean:

Teach, what
if you have
a four-card
major but
less than
six high-
card points?

In that case you must
"pass" partner's opening
bid. Just as a person has
to pass rather than open
the bidding when he has
less than 13 high-card
points, so too "responder"
must pass when he has
less than 6. This conveys
information, too, because
when he passes his partner's
opening bid, he is saying,
"Sorry, partner, I don't have
even six high-card points!"

You aren't always so lucky
to have length in the same
suit as your partner (which
is called having a "fit" with
partner), but there are lots
of other bids you can make
to describe hands without
a fit. Sometimes you don't
locate a "fit" in the first
round of bidding, but you
do locate one later on!

When the two hands have
at least 26 points between
them, the partnership should
bid all the way to a "game,"
which means the two partners
are entitled to a nice bonus
if they take the number of
tricks they've contracted
for. Bidding and making
"game" contracts are the
most basic goals in bridge.
Professor, would you
like to outline this?

Because you need fewer
tricks in notrump and the
majors, these are the
most popular games. By
the way, to score the game
bonus, you need to bid the
game. If, for example, you
only bid up to three spades
(contracting for nine tricks),
but you win ten tricks, you
don't get the game bonus!

Thank you, Prof, for
explaining that. Our students
will learn exactly how big the
game bonus is when they
learn about bridge scoring.
But for now it's enough to
know that you need 26 points
between you and partner
to bid a game. If the
opening bidder's partner has
13 points, he knows right
away that his side has
enough for game!

 

Time for a quiz.