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rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_5c43635f-5465-55a0-aa3a-c54b7824ae1e.jpg" alt=""/> and 5 is required to score ‘game’ (100 points). Hearts and spades, the majors, score at 30 points each, so 4 and 4 win game. Notrumps – literally playing without a trump suit – score slightly more than the suits: 40 for the first trick (over six), reverting to 30. Thus 2NT scores 70 points and 3NT gives game. The three most attractive game contracts are 3NT, 4. Holding 25 high-card points between the partnership is a good guide for attempting one of those games. After winning the game, you become ‘vulnerable’: half way to rubber (the first side to two games). If you now fail in a contract, your opponents receive 100 per trick as opposed to 50. Playing Duplicate Bridge (or Chicago – four deal Bridge) a bonus is given for making a game: 300 (non-vulnerable) and 500 (vulnerable). In Duplicate an extra 50 points is added to the score resulting from a making part-score. Thus Four Hearts bid and made (non-vulnerable) scores 300 (the non-vulnerable game bonus) + 120 (the tricks) = 420. Two Hearts making three (i.e. one overtrick) scores 50 (part-score bonus) + 90 (tricks made) = 140. Note that overtricks score at trick value (i.e. 30 a trick for notrumps and majors; 20 for minors).

      OPENING THE BIDDING Dealer starts the bidding. If he has a bad hand, he does not open the bidding, instead saying ‘No Bid’ or ‘Pass’. If he has a little above average or better, he opens. Typically he will open One of his Longest Suit.

      Question: What is a little above average?

      Answer: Always open the bidding with 12 or more points. You should also open when holding slightly less with a useful shape. Use The Rule of 20, which states that you should open when the number of cards in your two longest suits added to your high-card points totals 20 or more (Tip 1).

      With a choice of two equal length suits, open the higher ranking (Tip 2), except with precisely four cards in both majors in which case prefer 1

(Tip 3).

      NOTRUMPS That you can win game in notrumps with just nine tricks gives it a huge significance and arguably the most important opening bid (and perhaps the most common) is 1NT. This shows a balanced hand and 12, 13 or 14 points.

      Question: What precisely is a balanced hand?

      Answer: It is a hand with no void (a suit with no cards), no singleton (a suit with one card), and at most one doubleton (two cards). There are just three balanced distributions: 4432, 4333 and 5332.

      With one of the above shapes and 12–14 points, you MUST open 1NT (Tip 4). It is a very precise bid, so don’t open 1NT with more than 14 points, even if balanced (Tip 5), and do not open 1NT with an unbalanced hand, even if holding 12–14 points (Tip 6).

      RESPONDING TO ONE NOTRUMP When responding to partner’s 1NT opener, bear in mind that, because you know so much about partner’s hand, you as responder are in charge. Partner will not bid again unless you make a strong bid. Although there will be occasions where responder needs more information, essentially the basic principle is:

      1NT opener: ‘This is what I’ve got’.

      Responder: ‘OK – I know so much about your hand that I can place the final contract right now.’ (Tip 7).

      Note that it is much better to have a go at the nine-trick game of 3NT rather than the 11-trick games of 5

and 5 (Tip 8). Also note that you should never bid to increase the size of the part-score: thus raising 1NT to 2NT invites 3NT, rather than trying for 70 points as opposed to just 40 (Tip 9).

      RESPONDING TO ONE-OF-A-SUIT When partner opens One-of-a-Suit, he could have anything from 12 points (even less if he satisfied the Rule of 20) up to 19 (with 20 or more he would open at the two-level). Because he could have as many as 19 points, you as responder should keep the bidding open with at least six points (Tip 10).

      The top priority response is support – always support partner with a known eight-card major-suit fit (Tip 11). And the stronger your hand, the more you should bid in support. Use the Responder Line (Tip 12), noting that no supporting bids, even jumps, force partner to keep bidding (Tip 13).

      When you have less than four-card support for the suit opened, you should try to find a fit in another suit – the general principle being to bid your longest suit at the lowest level. Thus avoid precipitate leaps to 2NT (Tip 14) and 3NT (Tip 15). Also, to avoid a very common mistake, you should prefer a four-card suit at the one-level to the nebulous 1NT response (Tip 16). Note that with two four-card suits, you should prefer the cheaper (Tip 17).

      The level of the response must be considered, however. Whereas a one-over-one response can be made with just six measly points, a two-over-one requires a modicum of extra strength. The partnership is already at the eight-trick level and has no guarantee of a fit. A useful guideline is The Rule of 14 (Tip 18): respond in a new suit at the two-level when your total high-card points added to the number of cards in the suit you are planning to bid gets to 14. Otherwise respond 1NT (Tip 19), the only occasion you should respond notrumps to a one-of-a-suit opener.

      OVERCALLING If an opponent opens the bidding, you become the overcalling side. You do not need an opening hand to overcall, merely one chunky suit of at least FIVE cards (Tip 20). It is worth overcalling on relatively weak hands: even if you do not ultimately declare, you have disrupted the opposing auction and indicated a lead to partner. On the other hand, there will be some hands of opening strength that should not bid after an opponent’s opening (Tip 21), especially with no five-card suit (Tip 22).

      The knowledge that partner has at least a five-card suit for an overcall means that three cards are sufficient for support (Tip 23). And the more cards you have in support, the higher you should bid – straight away (Tip 24).

      Bidding 1NT as an overcall over the opponents’ one-of-suit

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