Bid Outside the Box Jan Eric Larsson Today’s bidding systems have grown from When our side is weaker. the early days of contract bridge. Most of When the deal is fairly equal in strength. the time, you try to exchange information When there are wilder distributions. about high cards and distribution while naming plausible final contracts. Let us look at each of these situations and see what first principles we would wish for West East in a bidding system. 1h1 1s2 2s3 4s4 Our Side is Stronger First assume that our side holds most of the 1) “I think I can make one heart.” high card strength, and that the distributions 2) “I have spades.” are reasonably balanced, (or at least not 3) “If so we can make two spades.” extreme). 4) “Then we can make four spades.” In this case we want to conduct precise and Of course, many conventions and artificial constructive bidding to find the correct part bids have been invented, but the basis score, game, or slam. At the same time, we remains. Most bids show extra length or do not want to give away more information strength and name a potential final contract. than necessary to the defense. I propose the In the sequence above, 1s is the only following principles, (nothing new here). forcing bid. Keep Low with Strong Hands What would be the result if we tried first to In constructive bidding, we need to preserve formulate general principles for what a bidding space and keep the level low. Each bidding system should accomplish, and then extra bid gives us twice as many sequences designed the system from scratch, based on to use in the search for the best contract. those principles? The Weaker Hand Should Tell This question has been asked many times When a stronger and a weaker hand meet, before. Here are my suggestions. the weaker hand should describe itself to the stronger one. It is easier to tell about fewer Bidding Principles features, and it is easier for the one who sees What do we want a bidding system to be most of the strength to make good decisions. like? Here are some simple criteria: The Stronger Hand Should Declare Precise in constructive bidding. It is also good if the stronger hand becomes Aggressive in competition. declarer. The lead will come towards the Easy to remember. hand with more high cards, and it is more difficult for the defense if less of the This is probably so obvious that no one will strength is visible in dummy. If the weaker object. But let us look at these criteria at hand has described itself in the bidding, it is work in different types of situations. The also better if it ends up as dummy. situations I have in mind are: Analysis When our side is stronger, (and the deal Natural systems are only half good is reasonably balanced). according to the above principles. One 1 (10) advantage in Standard American and similar s A-Q-5-3 s K-8-7-4-2 systems is that an opening bid promises a h K-8 ┌─┐ h 7-5 fairly strong hand, and that this hand d K-Q-7 └─┘ d A-2 immediately grabs a potential trump suit. c A-6-4-3 c 10-9-8-2 We want the stronger hand to declare. In a natural system, the bidding could go: Five-card majors may have a small advantage over four-card majors, since the West East bidding starts lower with some balanced 1c 1s hands. 3s 4s But there are also several weaknesses. First, East grabs the spades and the contract may we open too high with many strong hands. go down with a heart lead. For example, the opening bid 2N is bad. With 20-21 points, the bidding is already at In 5542, the bidding could go: the three level, and the strong hand is describing itself. The same goes for a West East forcing 2c, especially in the sequence 2c – 1c 1h1 2d; 2N. 3s 4s There are more examples of bad sequences 1) Transfer to spades. in the second round, for example, 1c – 1d; 2N. A jump in a suit also tends to violate the West becomes declarer and the contract is principle of saving space, for example, 1h – clearly better. 1s; 3h and we have preempted ourselves. In a strong club system, the bidding may go: Recently, the so-called 5542 system has become popular, especially in Europe. In West East this system, strong balanced hands, (17-19), 1c1 1d2 are opened 1c, and after that responder uses 1N3 2h4 transfers on the one level. In this way, you 2s 3c can avoid raising the level with a strong 4s pass balanced hand. Another advantage with this method is the use of transfers after 1c, 1) 16+ which increases the chances that the stronger 2) 0-7 hand becomes declarer. 3) 16-18 balanced 4) transfer In my opinion, Culbertson’s most brilliant invention was to make 1-over-1 and 2-over- If we could manage to build a working 1 forcing. At the same time, these bids also system around the idea, it seems that a weak are a major weakness in most natural responder should use transfers, or bid systems. If opener is strong (16-20) and shorter suits first. An interesting idea would responder is weak (6-10), it would be much be a structure where the responses mean better if responder described his hand and either 6-12 and a transfer, or 13+ and a opener only listened, and if responder could natural suit. avoid naming good suits first. For example: 2 (10) One possible solution is to use circular describes his hand (with mostly artificial transfer responses at the one level. It works step responses). as follows: Precision has one weakness, the natural suit 1c 1d 6+ four or more hearts responses, but that is easy to fix, by using 1h 6+ four or more spades positive transfer responses: 1s 6+ balanced 1N 6+ four or more diamonds 1c 1d 0-7 1d 1h 6+ four or more spades 1h 8+ five or more spades 1s 6+ balanced or clubs 1s 8+ no five-card suit 1N 6+ four or more hearts 1N 8+ five or more clubs 2c 8+ five or more diamonds 1h 1s 6+ balanced or minor 2d 8+ five or more hearts 1N 6+ four or more spades After a positive response, opener’s relay is a 1s 1N 6-10 negative Beta asking bid, that is, asking for controls. The subsequent bidding is the same as in a In our own strong club system, the natural system, but after opening 1c or 1d, Cottontail Club, responder uses transfers in opener shows a minimal balanced hand by a circle between hearts, spades, and completing the transfer, while bidding 1N balanced hands after 1c – 1d. If opener bids shows 18-19 balanced. hearts or spades, it is taken out of the transfer circle. For example: Using these responses, responder avoids grabbing his own four-card suit as trump, West East and does not immediately wrong-side a 1c 1d contract where opener may be strong and 1h ? responder very weak. Now, 1s by responder shows a balanced Another idea along the same lines is to use hand, while 1N shows spades. combined weak and strong jump shifts, where the strong version is natural and the We have also switched the positive transfer weak is a transfer. For example: responses so that 1N shows hearts and 2d shows clubs. In this way, responder avoids West East grabbing notrump when holding a club suit. 1h 2s A Polish Idea Here, East shows either 12+ and a good six- However, 1c is not the lowest opening bid. card spade suit, or 4-10 and a long club suit. We forgot pass! The pass gives us twice as Opener will complete the transfer with a many sequences up to a certain level, when minimum opening had. compared to 1c. Strong 1c In the eighties, a number of strong pass For strong hands, I am quite convinced that systems proliferated, and many of them Precision and other strong club systems are came from Poland. superior. The opener starts with 1c and responder describes himself. If you use the The theoretically most interesting Polish “Greek alphabet” asking bids, opener asks weak opening system is Delta. The opening (and grabs trump suits), while responder bids are as follows: 3 (10) pass 13+ all distributions This is, without doubt, a negative effect that 1c 8-12 no shortness impacts all conventional bids. My opinion is 1d 0-7 all distributions that the advantages of having the strong 1h 8-12 short h hand as declarer and the weak, “sold” hand 1s 8-12 short s as dummy, outweighs this drawback. 1N 8-12 short d and five in a major 2c 8-12 short d and no major As a counter, you may decide that partner’s 2d 8-12 short c and no major pass (or redouble) invites our side to play in 2h 8-12 short c, 5+ hearts the doubled denomination, while other bids 2s 8-12 short c, 5+ spades continue the constructive exchange. 2N 8-12 short c, 55+ in majors Our Side is Weaker “Short” means singleton or void. After an Let us now look at the case when our side is initial pass, responder uses the same method, the weaker one. Here, the objectives are but with the point limit 6-10 or 11+ instead.