Bridge Lesson 12: Opening One of a Suit

You open one of a suit in bridge with about 12 to 21 high-card points, and you usually bid your longest suit. In 2/1 Game Force, the system this course teaches, an opening of 1♥ or 1♠ promises at least five cards, and hands without a five-card major open 1♣ or 1♦. Standard American opens the same way.

This is the first bidding lesson of our beginner course. You already know how to count points and what a contract is. Now you make your first real bid.

Count your high-card points. As a rule:

Why 12? Partner needs only about 13 more for game (25 in total), and with an opening hand facing an opening hand, you want to be in game. Opening shows partner that the chase has started.

Hands of 11 points, and some 10s, open when they have good shape. The popular test is the Rule of 20: add your HCP to the number of cards in your two longest suits. If the total is 20 or more, open. A hand with 10 HCP and two five-card suits makes 20, while a flat 11-count makes only 18 or 19 and passes.

Balanced hands of 15 to 17 HCP open 1NT instead of one of a suit in 2/1. That is the next lesson.

These are the rules of 2/1 Game Force, the most popular system among North American tournament players and the default in BridgeDummy's Bidding Room. Standard American opens the same way. Both use five-card majors:

1. Open your longest suit. With six spades and four hearts, open 1♠.
2. With a five-card or longer major, open it. 1♥ and 1♠ promise five or more cards.
3. With two five-card suits, open the higher-ranking one. With five spades and five clubs, open 1♠. You can show the clubs next time.
4. With no five-card major, open a minor: your longer minor. With 3-3 in the minors open 1♣; with 4-4 open 1♦.

So 1♣ can be as short as three cards, and 1♦ nearly always has four or more. The one exception is a 4-4-3-2 hand with four cards in each major, three diamonds and two clubs, which opens 1♦.

In Acol, the main system in Britain, the ideas are similar but the details differ. Acol players open four-card majors, so 1♥ can be a four-card suit. They also use a weak 1NT of 12 to 14, so balanced hands of 15 to 19 open one of a suit and rebid in notrump. Agree with your partner which system you play before the first deal. To compare, see what a 1♥ opening promises in each system.

South holds ♠A Q 10 7 4 ♥K 6 2 ♦8 5 ♣K J 3: 13 HCP and five spades. The rules say 1♠.

Think about what North learns from that one bid: South has about 12 to 21 points and at least five spades. North has four spades, so North knows at once that the side has a nine-card fit, enough for a safe trump suit. With 9 HCP North's hand is worth a simple raise to 2♠ (about 6 to 10 points with three or more spades). Raising partner is the subject of lesson 15.

South now adds up: 13 plus North's 6 to 10 is 19 to 23. Game needs about 25, so even opposite North's best hand game is out of reach, and South passes.

The bidding was right. North-South can take nine tricks with spades as trumps, so 2♠ makes with an overtrick for +140, while 4♠ would go one down. Two bids, and the partnership found its best fit and its best level.

Before your first call on each deal, run the same short routine:

1. Count your HCP and note your shape.
2. Decide whether you open at all: 12 or more, or the Rule of 20.
3. Balanced and 15 to 17? Open 1NT. Otherwise, pick the suit with the four rules above.
4. Think ahead: what will you bid next if partner answers in a new suit? A suit you can show later makes the first choice easier.

The best way to get these rules into your fingers is to bid many hands. In BridgeDummy's Bidding Room you bid random deals with EPBot robots in the system you choose, including 2/1 Game Force, SAYC and Acol, alone or with a partner.

Previous: Lesson 11: Ruffing in Dummy. Next: Lesson 13: Opening 1NT, the most exact opening bid.