A Bridge Post!

Isn't it funny to add an exclamation point to any title to make it more exciting? So, I would like to talk about bridge bidding, in particular, our system (Meg and I).

We play a Precision-based system with a bunch of geegaws and whatnot, but over the past 2 years that we've been playing it, I feel it works really well, and it's FUN! I'll start with the basic opening scheme:
1C = 16+ HCP, any shape.
This bid is what it's all about. It allows you to start at the lowest possible bid with all hands medium-strength and up. It is true that one of this system's greatest strengths is also one of it's greatest weaknesses; it's darn easy to interfere without much fear of the red card coming down for penalty. But, as long as a system for competitive bidding as well as non-competitive bidding is in place, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. The other great thing about this bid is that by implication (with the exception of weak 2's and 2NT opening) all other openings at the 1 and 2 level are LIMITED TO 11-15 HCP. This is where the real strength of this system lies. When my partner opens 1H or 1S and the opponents start interfering, I already have a good idea about how high we can go or whether we should sack or play defense. So, that leads us to...
1H/1S = 11-15 HCP, 5+ cards in bid suit.
For those of you scared to open 11 HCP hands, you don't have to. Meg and I do if the 11 HCP are well-placed (not spread out) and good cards (K's and A's). Personally, I open any 11 HCP hand because it's better to bid these openings if you can. It relays a bunch of information AND it tells partner not to get crazy in the first place because you're limited to what is traditionally known as a weak opening hand. Plus, this part of the system is the easiest to learn as you can play whatever system of responses to 1 of a major that you already play now! Some Precision bidders believe in the forcing 1NT response and 2/1 GF responses, but we haven't found reason to play that.
So 1C takes care of all the big hands starting at 16 HCP, so we need to take care of the 11-15 HCP hands with clubs and no 5 card major that 1C used to describe.
2C = 11-15 HCP, 5+ clubs.
This is another really great part of the system. You don't have a 5-card major, but you have long clubs, whereas before when you bid 1C you showed at least 3 (which probably makes partner nervous to support clubs if there's interference). So now you're in a fairly safe place for clubs AND you took a whole level of bidding away from the opponents if it's their hand to play! The only downside besides ending up in a doubled contract with only 11 points between you and your passing partner (I haven't seen it happen once) would be that your partner doesn't have the 1-level to explore for a major fit and can't end in 1NT. The latter is the reason I'll bid a NT sequence (more on that later) with a 5332 with 5 clubs (almost always), a 5422 hand with no 4-card major, and even a 6322 hand with 6 clubs if I have some honors in the doubletons. There are ways to find a 4-4 fit in the majors, so not to worry my brave bidders. Let's talk NT!
1NT = 10-12 HCP, balanced (in 1st/2nd seat)
This is known either as a Micro NT or as the Kamikaze NT (a little non-PC, but hey). So, some of you may have gotten brave before and tried a 12-14 NT (known as a weak NT) since Kaplan and Sheinwold did years ago, and they're pros! But this one I find exhilarating, to say the least. This is bid with disregard to the vulnerability as I've found that in duplicate, it don't matter many points your opponents get as it does how many you go down in a contract almost no one else will be in. The danger is that someone doubles you when you and partner are wildly outmatched in high cards. But if you have a run-out scheme like we do, there shouldn't be near as much anxiety over bidding this. And even though it's 10-12 HCP, you can still play your normal 1NT response system of transfers, stayman, etc (that's what we do at the moment). Preempting the opponents is worth the danger with these hands. Now, you may have looked at the bids so far and asked the question: "What about those balanced hands with no 5 card major that are 13-15 HCP?" I'm glad you asked.
1D = 11-15 HCP, 4+ diamonds OR 13-15 HCP, balanced (in 1st/2nd seat)
This is very similar to SAYC or other natural systems using a 15-17 or 16-18 NT. You usually bid a minor, then rebid 1NT. The only difference here is that with this range in these seats, you bid 1D first (no choice of minor), then rebid 1NT. So this bid is announced, "May be short." In most Precision systems, you will find that 1D opening is the "catch-all" bid. That means that for those hands not described in the other bids, we need a place for them. Since we hardly ever want to be in 1D as a contract, we can use it as a stepping stone for describing these outcast hands. That doesn't mean that 1D opening is a forcing bid, though! If you're weak on point (0-5 HCP) as responder and you don't wanna bid, you don't have to. Typically, opponents won't let you play 1D especially since they almost have game values given that you guys could have at most 19 HCP. Now both of these bids are for the 1st and 2nd seat openers. What about 3rd and 4th seat? Since we already know that partner has at most 10 or 11 points, we typically change NT to...
1NT = 12-15 HCP, balanced (in 3rd/4th seat)
So, if no one bids by 3rd or 4th seat and you have this range and this shape, guess what! This is probably where you should end up in partscore-land, so we just bid to begin with. Now, you still have all your 1NT responses from before, and it's less likely that the opponents will try to punish you for bidding a weak NT. There's not much point in opening a 10 or 11 HCP balanced hand across from a partner who didn't open (at most 10), so statistically you as a partnership have less points than your opponents. So we don't open those hands. But this frees up the NT aspect of opening 1D; meaning, that 1D now is totally natural and unbalanced!
1D = 11-15 HCP, 4+ diamonds, unbalanced (in 3rd/4th seat)
You don't have this kind of luxury in bidding with natural systems. Now you can support diamonds without worrying too much about how many diamonds partner has or should we be in NT (actually, I still worry about that sometimes even across from an unbalanced hand, but for the most part if you have diamond support and no 4-card major and unbalanced in response to 3rd/4th seat 1D opener, diamonds is where you should be.) This frees that 1NT rebid to mean something else, too. If you're able to rebid 1NT after opening 1D that means your partner bid 1 of a major. Now we can show partner that their major is out of the question (if you only have a singleton or void in partner's major) by rebidding 1NT. That way your partner can look elsewhere for a contract (or pass and let you play 1NT). Let's talk briefly about some of the bids retained from Standard bidding.
2H/2S = 5-10 HCP, 6 cards in bid suit
These are the traditional weak 2 Bids. Everything is the same for these. Meaghin and I play that 2NT is a feature-ask, new suits are NF, and that the opening has to contain 2 of the top 4 honors in that suit (I lie on that point sometimes). This system originally came from the K-Club Precision created by Ken Allan in Kingston, Ontario. In those notes, he and his partner played 2H opening was Flannery (11-15 HCP, exactly 5 hearts and 4 spades) but I think they have since changed 2H back to a Weak 2 Bid.
2NT = 20-21 HCP, balanced
Again, like Standard bidding, I think this bid belongs here. It makes it easier to describe bigger balanced hands when you don't have to bid 1C to show all balanced hands 16 or more HCP. All responses are the same, Meaghin and I playing 3C is Puppet Stayman, 3D/3H are transfers, and 3S is a Minor-suit Stayman.
Other bids that are like Standard bidding are the 3- and 4-level preempts, and 3NT for us is Gambling (though you can make it part of your NT ladder). With all these bids in mind, every type of hand is accounted for... except for one: the 4441 with 1 diamond. If you have 4 diamonds, you open 1D, but with a singleton diamond, you can't open NT or 1 of a major or 2 clubs (need 5 in the suit at least). Wait... there IS one bid that hasn't been used yet.
2D = 11-15 HCP, 4-4-1-4 shape OR 4-4-0-5 shape (that means the suits: S-H-D-C)
What a fun bid! It doesn't happen near often enough in my opinion, but when it does, you get to bid what is most likely your opponent's suit AND you take a whole bidding level +2 bids away from them AND you are describing your shape almost exactly IN ONLY 1 BID!!! Meaghin and I have included hands in this range that are 3-4-1-5 OR 4-3-1-5 (to make it happen more often). Responses are relatively simple as partner knows the shape fairly well, but 2NT response asks opener to describe his hand exactly (again, I'll discuss that in a later post).

Well, that's about it for opening bids. As far as responses and continuations, 1 of a major can be what you currently play, and 1D can too (just without the diamond support bids, typically). 1NT responses are the same except the range is different (I will discuss the run-out scheme, though. Very important.) So that leaves responses to 2C, 2D (both new bids), and 1C (which is the largest amount of new stuff to learn). See you next time!