Choosing an opening bid

Choosing an Opening Bid: Balanced Hands

The first step in the auction for a great many hands. Watch the video to see how to make this important choice. When you have watched the video, have a go at our practice hands to try out your bidding choices and then enjoy playing the hand.

Try some hands

Hand 1

You will only have to make one bid on this hand. See if you can choose the right one first time.

Hand 2

Once you have chosen the correct opening bid, your partner will respond and then you should bid 1NT (this shows that you have a balanced hand that was not strong enough to open 1NT). Your partner will bid game in NT and off you go.

Hand 3

Here again, you will choose your opening bid and your partner will respond in a new suit. You can then show your balanced shape by rebidding 1NT. Your partner will know that you don’t have enough points for game so they will pass.

Hand 4

You will need to make a second bid on this hand also. The same principle applies, that you show your balanced shape with your second bid, as you don’t have the right point count to open 1NT. This time however, you will jump to 2NT to show an even better hand. Now see if you can make nine tricks with your great hand when your partner raises you to game!

Back

Opening balanced hands

Now that you know how to tell which hands are balanced, see how to pick your first bid when you have one of these.

Question 1/8

Is this hand balanced or unbalanced?

The distribution of cards between the suits is as even as it can be: 4,3,3,3 so this is a balanced hand.

How about this one? Balanced or unbalanced?

Here, the distribution of cards between the suits is 4,4,3,2. You may remember from the video that this is one of only three balanced shapes.

Is this hand balanced or unbalanced?

With both a five card suit and a four card suit, a 5,4,2,2 shape, this hand is not one of the three balanced shapes. It is unbalanced.

Last one of these - balanced or unbalanced?

Although this hand contains a five card suit, it is still one of the three balanced shapes: 5,3,3,2. This is the only balanced shape that has a five card suit.

Look at that same hand again and choose an opening bid.

This is a balanced hand with 14 points, so not in the right range (15-17) to open 1NT, so you must start with a suit bid. You always want to open your longest suit, as long as it meets the criteria for opening bids in that suit. Our longest suit here is spades, and to open a spade we need at least five. We have five in this hand, so that’s nice and easy.

What would you choose to open with this hand?

A balanced hand with 12 points. Again, not the right point count for 1NT so you start with a suit bid. You don’t have one suit longer than all the others here. Your two longest suits, hearts and diamonds, have four cards each. You need at least five cards in hearts to open that suit, so that won’t work. Your other joint longest suit is diamonds, which you only need four cards to open, so there’s your opening bid.

What do you think is the right opening bid for this hand?

Another balanced hand - a 5,3,3,2 shape. This one has 16 points, so it does fall within our 1NT opening point range of 15-17. All balanced hands with a point count in this range should be opened 1NT, even if they have a nice five card suit (in a 5,3,3,2 shape).

Finally, what would you open with this hand?

Another balanced hand, this time with 13 points, so not in the 1NT range. We must choose a suit to bid. Hearts and spades are our joint longest suits, but we cannot open either of those, because that would promise five cards in the suit. The next longest suit is diamonds, but we have only three, and a 1♦ opening bid promises at least four cards. That just leaves clubs. With any hand that is strong enough to open the bidding at the one level, but doesn’t fit the criteria for opening spades, hearts, diamonds or NT can always be opened 1♣ , because that only promises a minimum of two cards. This happens quite often with balanced hands.

The links below will take you to the Bridge Training website, where you can have a go at choosing the best opening bid. Because there are aspects of bidding that you have not yet covered, we have given you some notes on each hand that will tell you what to do if you have to make more than one bid. You will then be able to play the hands and see if you can make your contract. Have as many goes as you like if you don’t succeed the first time.