Bridge Opening Bids: Chart, Points and Rules for Every Opening

An opening bid in bridge is the first bid of the auction. In 2/1 Game Force and other standard methods you open one of a suit with about 12-21 points, 1NT with a balanced 15-17, 2NT with a balanced 20-21, a strong artificial 2♣ with 22 or more, and a weak two or a preempt with a weak hand and a long suit.

The chart below gives every standard opening on one screen. After it, each opening gets its own section with the rules for close calls: which minor to open, when 11 points is enough, what to do with a five-card major and 16 balanced, and how far to preempt. At the end you will find how Acol, Precision and Polish Club change the chart, a full deal and a short quiz.

These are the openings of 2/1 Game Force, the default system of BridgeDummy's Bidding Room. Standard American and SAYC use the same openings: 2/1 changes the responses, not the chart.

A balanced hand has no singleton or void and no more than one doubleton. The three balanced shapes are 4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2 and 5-3-3-2. Some players also treat 5-4-2-2 and 6-3-2-2 as balanced for notrump openings, but that is a partnership choice.

The standard answer is 12 high card points (ace 4, king 3, queen 2, jack 1). Opposite an opening bid, partner needs only about 13 for game, so when both of you open, you belong in game.

Shape changes the line. A hand with 11 HCP and two five-card suits takes more tricks than a flat 12. The most 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.

Count your quick tricks too, aces and kings that win tricks early. A hand made of queens and jacks is weaker than its point count, and many good players will not open such a hand without about two quick tricks.

Your seat matters. In third seat, after partner and one opponent have passed, you may open a little light with a good suit, mainly to get the lead you want. In fourth seat, the Rule of 15 helps: add your HCP to the number of spades you hold, and open only if the total is 15 or more. Spades matter because the side with the spade suit usually wins a partscore fight.

Most hands open one of a suit. Use these rules in order:

1. Open your longest suit. With six diamonds and five spades, open 1♦. You can show the spades later.
2. With two five-card suits, open the higher-ranking one. With five spades and five clubs, open 1♠. That leaves room to bid the clubs next.
3. With a five-card or longer major, open the major. In five-card major systems, 1♥ and 1♠ promise five.
4. With no five-card major, open a minor: the longer one. With four diamonds and three clubs, open 1♦.
5. With 3-3 in the minors, open 1♣. With 4-4 in the minors, open 1♦.

Rule 5 has one exception: the shape 4-4-3-2 with both four-card majors, three diamonds and a doubleton club opens 1♦. That is the only time 1♦ has three cards, which is why partner can count on four diamonds almost every time.

What about 5-4 hands? Open the five-card suit, even when the four-card suit is a higher-ranking major. With five diamonds and four spades, open 1♦ and bid spades next if you get the chance. Partner will not raise a four-card spade suit you never showed.

A notrump opening is the most exact bid in bridge. It shows a balanced hand and a strength range of only two or three points, so partner can often place the contract at once.

A five-card major in a 1NT hand. SAYC lets you open 1NT with a five-card major, and most modern players do so with 5-3-3-2 and 15-17. It keeps the strength exact and avoids awkward rebids. If partner holds three cards in your major, a convention called Puppet Stayman can find the 5-3 fit, and without it 3NT is often a fine spot anyway. Some players prefer to open the major when the suit is strong and the doubleton is weak.

Two small cards in a suit are not a problem. A 1NT opening with ♠7 4 is normal. Partner, not you, decides whether notrump is right.

Responding to 1NT has its own small language, built around Stayman and Jacoby transfers. For how the ranges differ around the world, see notrump in bridge.

With 22 or more HCP, or with a hand that can make game almost alone, open 2♣. It is artificial: it says nothing about clubs, only that you are very strong. Partner must not pass.

Typical 2♣ openings:

• ♠A K Q J 7 4 ♥A K 6 ♦A 5 ♣K 3: 24 HCP and a solid suit.
• ♠A K Q 10 8 6 3 ♥A K J ♦K 4 2 ♣-: only 20 HCP, but about nine or ten tricks with spades as trumps.

The usual reply is 2♦, a waiting bid that keeps the auction low so you can describe your hand. A "positive" reply shows a good suit and some values. Most pairs agree that 2♣ is forcing to game, except when opener rebids 2NT (22-24 balanced). The full method is in strong 2 clubs.

Weak openings do a different job. You do not expect to buy the contract cheaply and make it. You take bidding space away from the opponents, who probably hold most of the high cards.

Weak two (2♦, 2♥, 2♠). A good six-card suit and about 5-11 HCP in SAYC (many pairs play 5-10). The suit should have two of the top three honors or three of the top five: ♠K Q J 9 7 3 is ideal, ♠9 7 6 5 4 2 is not. Many players avoid a weak two with a four-card side major or a void, because the hand plays better somewhere else. In 2/1 and SAYC, 2♣ is not available as a weak two because it is the strong opening. Read more in weak two bids.

Three-level preempts. A seven-card suit and a weak hand: ♥K Q 10 8 7 4 2 ♠8 ♦9 5 3 ♣7 4 opens 3♥.

Four-level preempts. An eight-card suit, or a seven-card suit with good shape, opens at the four level. In a major that is already game.

How high is too high? The old guide is the rule of 2 and 3: vulnerable, your hand should be within about two tricks of the contract; not vulnerable, within about three. At favorable vulnerability (you not vulnerable, they vulnerable) you can stretch, because a doubled set of 300 or 500 is still cheaper than their vulnerable game. Our preempts in bridge page has the details and the score math.

The chart above is the North American standard. Other systems keep the rules of the auction but change what the openings mean (see what a 1♣ opening means in all five systems):

The main differences:

• Acol opens four-card majors and plays a weak 1NT of 12-14. The 1NT opening comes up very often and pushes the opponents around. Read the five-card majors vs four-card majors page for the trade-offs.
• Precision puts every strong hand into a forcing 1♣, so every other opening is limited to about 11-15. Partner always knows at once whether you are strong or not.
• Polish Club uses 1♣ for three hand types, including weak balanced hands, which lets 1♦, 1♥ and 1♠ promise real suits.

You can try every one of these systems against robots in BridgeDummy's Bidding Room, which deals random hands and bids them with EPBot in 2/1 Game Force, SAYC, Acol, Precision or Polish Club.

You are South, dealer, with no one vulnerable. You hold ♠K Q 10 8 4 ♥3 ♦A J 10 9 5 ♣7 2: only 10 HCP, but two five-card suits.

The Rule of 20 says open: 10 HCP plus 5 + 5 = 20. With two five-card suits you open the higher-ranking one, 1♠.

North has 11 HCP, three spades and a doubleton diamond, enough for a limit raise to 3♠: about 10-12 points with support. South's hand is now much better than 10 points suggests. It has a singleton heart, a second suit to set up, and a known fit. South bids 4♠.

Double dummy, 4♠ makes ten tricks: +420. Now look at what happens if South passes in first seat. North, with 11 HCP and 3-4-2-4 shape, scores only 19 on the Rule of 20 and passes too. East has 11 HCP and also fails the rule. The deal may well be passed out for zero, or East-West may come in and play a heart partscore: double dummy they can take eight tricks in hearts. One light opening turned a zero into a game.

• Opening a four-card major in a five-card major system. Partner will raise with three cards and you will play a 4-3 fit.
• Opening 1♣ with 4-4 in the minors. Open 1♦. 1♣ is for 3-3 (and for longer clubs).
• Opening 1NT with a singleton. Even a singleton ace makes the hand unbalanced.
• Opening 2♣ on points alone with a weak long suit, or failing to open 2♣ with a hand that has nine or ten sure tricks. Count tricks, not only points, for 2♣.
• Preempting with a strong hand. A weak two with 14 HCP lies to partner, who will pass with a hand that makes game.
• Opening light in fourth seat with no spades. If you open and the opponents hold spades, they win the partscore. Use the Rule of 15.

The chart is easy to learn. The close calls only come with practice on real hands:

1. Ask the engine. On What Should I Bid? you enter a hand and the auction so far, and a strong bridge engine (EPBot) suggests the next call under 2/1, SAYC, Acol, Precision or Polish Club, with its meaning. It is a quick way to check an opening you are not sure of.
2. Bid many deals. The Bidding Room deals random hands, and you bid them with EPBot robots in the system you pick. Ten minutes there shows you more openings than an evening at the club.
3. Score your decisions. The bidding puzzles test one call at a time and grade it with double dummy results across hundreds to thousands of deals that fit the auction.

When you are happy with your openings, the next step is the other side of the table: responding to opening bids.