Competitive Bidding in Bridge: When to Compete and When to Pass

Competitive bidding in bridge is any auction where both sides bid. Compete when your side has a fit and shape: with an eight-card fit you can usually bid to the two level, with a nine-card fit to the three level. Pass or double when you hold length in the opponents' suit and your hand is better for defense.

Most deals at a club are partscore fights, not slams, and the pairs who win are the ones who judge these fights well. This page gives you a checklist for when to compete, the Law of Total Tricks, the score math behind "-100 beats -110", how to bid when they open and when they overcall, how far to go at the three level and above, and a full deal where bidding one more saved more than 500 points.

A competitive auction (also called a contested auction) is one where both partnerships make bids. It starts the moment an opponent opens and you enter, or you open and an opponent comes in.

Four situations cover nearly all of them:

1. They open, you overcall or double. You fight for the partscore, suggest a lead, or take their bidding room.
2. You open, they overcall. Your side's normal methods change, and doubles take on new meanings.
3. Both sides have a fit. The partscore battle: who bids last at the two or three level?
4. They bid game, you consider a sacrifice. You bid a contract you expect to go down in, because the penalty is smaller than their game.

Two seats get names. The direct seat is right after the opponent's bid (1♥ - you). The balancing seat (or pass-out seat) is when your pass would end the auction (1♥ - pass - pass - you).

Before you bid in a contested auction, ask these questions:

1. Do we have a fit? A known eight-card fit or better is the best reason to compete. Without a fit, extra bidding usually leads to a penalty.
2. Is my hand shapely? Singletons, voids and long suits take tricks on offense and few on defense. Flat hands (4-3-3-3) are better for defense.
3. Where are my high cards? Kings and queens in the opponents' suit win tricks on defense but often nothing on offense. Length in their suit (three or four cards) is a strong reason to pass.
4. What is the vulnerability? Vulnerable undertricks cost twice as much. Not vulnerable against vulnerable (favorable) is the time to push; vulnerable against not vulnerable (unfavorable) is the time for care.
5. Who holds the spades? The side with spades can outbid the other side at the same level. Holding the highest suit is worth a lot in a partscore fight.
6. What level are we at? The two level is cheap. The three level needs a nine-card fit or a good reason. The five level, as the old saying goes, belongs to the opponents.

If most answers say "compete", bid. If you hold their suit and a flat hand, pass and defend.

The most useful rule in competitive bidding is the Law of Total Tricks, first published by the French expert Jean-René Vernes and made popular in North America by Larry Cohen. In its simple form it says: compete for as many tricks as your side holds trumps. Eight trumps, eight tricks: the two level. Nine trumps, nine tricks: the three level.

So with an eight-card fit you can compete to 2♠, but not 3♠. With a nine-card fit, 3♠ is fine. The idea behind it: the total number of tricks available to both sides, each playing in its own best fit, is close to the total number of trumps in those two fits. With 8 trumps for you and 9 for them, about 17 tricks are in play: if they can make nine, you can make about eight.

The law is a guide, not a rule of play. Count it up or down: double fits and shape push the number up, while honors in the opponents' suit and flat shapes push it down. Our page on the Law of Total Tricks has the adjustments.

The score explains the whole partscore battle. Look at the numbers when they play 2♥ and you have a spade fit:

Even going down one doubled not vulnerable (-100) is better than letting them make 2♥ (-110). At matchpoints, where each board is a contest of small margins, that 10-point gap wins the board. Going down one vulnerable and doubled (-200) is a bad result, which is why the vulnerability on the board decides how hard you push.

If you want to check numbers like these at the table, the bridge score calculator gives the score of any contract, doubled or not, and converts the difference to IMPs or matchpoints.

When an opponent opens, you have three main tools:

• An overcall shows a good five-card suit (8-16 HCP at the one level, about 11-16 at the two level). It competes and tells partner what to lead. See overcalls in bridge.
• A takeout double shows opening values, shortness in their suit and support for the other suits, or a hand too strong to overcall. See takeout double.
• Two-suited bids such as the Michaels cue bid and the unusual 2NT show 5-5 shape at once, so partner can judge the fit right away.

And the fourth tool, used more often than the others: pass. With length in their suit and no good suit of your own, wait. The opponents may get too high, and partner may be able to reopen later.

As advancer (the partner of the player who overcalled), raise with support as soon as you can. Raise to the level of your combined trumps: with four-card support for partner's one-level overcall, you hold at least nine trumps and can jump to the three level on a weak hand. With a good hand and support, cue bid the opponent's suit first.

When you open and an opponent overcalls, responder has more to think about:

• Raise with support. It is the most useful bid you can make, and it is a free bid now, so it shows real values (about 6-10 for a single raise). Many pairs play the jump raise as preemptive in competition and use a cue bid of the overcaller's suit as the good raise.
• A double is negative. It shows the unbid major (or both unbid suits) and enough values to compete. This is the negative double, part of almost every modern bidding system, 2/1 included (see what the double means in every system).
• With length and strength in their suit, pass. Since your double is negative, you cannot double for penalty. You pass and hope partner reopens with a double when short in their suit. Then you pass again and collect the penalty.
• Opener can tell the trump count. After 1♣ - (pass) - 1♥ - (1♠), opener can double to show exactly three hearts, a support double, while a raise to 2♥ shows four. Responder then knows exactly how many trumps the side holds.

In the balancing seat, a pass ends the auction. The opponents have stopped low, often because their side is weak or has no fit, so your partner probably holds some values. You can bid as if you held about a king more than you do.

• After 1♥ - pass - pass, a balancing double can be made on about 8-9 HCP with shortness in hearts (see what the balancing double means in every system). A balancing 1NT shows about 11-14 balanced with a heart stopper, weaker than a direct 1NT overcall.
• After 1♥ - pass - 2♥ - pass - pass, the opponents have found a fit and stopped at the two level. That usually means your side has about half the high cards. Do not let them play there: double for takeout or bid your suit. This is the most common competitive decision at a club, and the passive player loses it again and again.

The risk is a penalty double, but at the two level, with a fit somewhere, it rarely happens. The bigger risk is selling out cheaply when your side could make a contract or push them one level too high.

The higher the auction goes, the more each decision costs.

Three over three. When they bid 3♥ over your 2♠, use the Law. With eight trumps, pass: your side has bid enough, and they may go down. With nine, 3♠ is reasonable. When both sides have eight or nine cards, the side that bids last at the three level often goes down. Do not bid 3♠ and double them in the same breath: pick one.

Game and sacrifices. When the opponents bid a game you expect them to make, you may bid one more as a sacrifice. A sacrifice is right when your penalty is smaller than their game:

Their game is worth 420 not vulnerable and 620 vulnerable in a major. So at favorable vulnerability, going down three (-500) still beats their vulnerable game (-620). At unfavorable vulnerability, even down two (-500) is more than their non-vulnerable game (-420).

The five level belongs to the opponents. When they bid 4♠ and you hold a good hand, it is usually right to defend rather than bid 5♥, unless you have a big fit and shape. Doubling them for penalty, or passing, is often better than one more bid.

Forcing pass. Advanced pairs agree that once their side has bid a game in a forcing auction, a pass by either player asks partner to choose between doubling the opponents and bidding on. It stops the opponents from playing undoubled when they sacrifice.

You are South, dealer. You are not vulnerable; East-West are vulnerable (favorable vulnerability for you). You hold ♠K Q J 9 7 4 ♥6 3 ♦8 5 2 ♣7 4: 6 HCP and a strong six-card spade suit.

1. South, 2♠. A weak two: six good spades and 6 HCP.
2. West, 3♥. West has 14 HCP and five good hearts, enough to overcall at the three level.
3. North, 4♠. North counts trumps: three spades opposite at least six is a nine-card fit, so the Law says the three level is safe. But North also has a singleton heart, and East-West are vulnerable. If they have a heart fit, their vulnerable game is worth 620, and North wants to take away their room before they find it. So North bids 4♠ at once.
4. East, double. East has 10 HCP and a heart fit, but there is no room left to explore. Double is the practical call.

Double dummy, 4♠ goes down one: nine tricks. Doubled and not vulnerable, that is -100. Now look at East-West's best contract: 4♥ makes ten tricks, worth +620 to them. North's 4♠ saved 520 points.

The deal also shows the Law at work. North-South have nine spades and East-West have ten hearts: 19 trumps. Double dummy, North-South take nine tricks in spades and East-West take ten in hearts: 19 tricks.

What if East bids 5♥ instead of doubling? Double dummy, 5♥ also takes only ten tricks, one down vulnerable: +100 to North-South. The five level belonged to the opponents here too.

The scoring method changes how you compete.

At matchpoints, every board is compared with every other table, and small differences count in full: -100 beats -110, and beating a score by 10 points earns the same as beating it by 1,000. You compete more often in partscores, double the opponents more often when they push, and fight hard for +140 against +110.

At IMPs, small differences are worth little: -100 against -110 is 0 IMPs. What costs is a big swing: a doubled penalty of 500 or 800, or a missed vulnerable game. You still compete in partscores, but you take fewer risks of a big penalty, and you bid vulnerable games more freely.

• Selling out at the two level when the opponents have a fit. Reopen.
• Bidding the same values twice. If partner has already shown your fit, a second bid at the three level needs extra trumps or shape, not the same points again.
• Competing with length in their suit. Three small cards in the opponents' suit mean fewer total trumps and more defense. Pass.
• Doubling a partscore just because you have high cards. Without trumps in their suit, a double often gives them a big score when they make it: 2♥ doubled and made is 470 not vulnerable.
• Ignoring vulnerability. The same bid that is clever at favorable vulnerability is a disaster at unfavorable.
• Bidding at the five level over their game with a balanced hand. Defend.

Competitive judgment is hard to learn from rules, because the right answer depends on hands you cannot see. That is exactly what BridgeDummy's bidding puzzles measure. You are South at one decision in a contested auction. The hidden hands are dealt hundreds to thousands of times to fit the auction, every option is solved double dummy, and your call is scored 1 to 5 stars at matchpoints or IMPs. After a few dozen puzzles you get a feel for when the extra bid gains and when it goes for a number.

To practice whole auctions, use the Bidding Room: you bid random deals with EPBot robots in 2/1 Game Force, SAYC, Acol, Precision or Polish Club, and the robots compete against you the way real opponents do.