It’s always a good idea to think about what your second bid options might be before you choose your opening bid. This is especially true when you have one of two problem hand shapes as opener: Five clubs and four diamonds, or five diamonds and four hearts.  Why?  Watch the video below to find out.

So you see that usually you can show your second suit in a way that doesn’t force the bidding higher but if your second suit does cause that problem and you don’t have a strong enough hand to reverse you need to find a different bid.

If your partner has made a 2 level response (game forcing) then you can bid your second suit at the two level without it showing a stronger hand – for example, 1D-2C-2H does not show extra strength in the same way that 1D-1S-2H does. But if you have to show your second suit at the 3 level – for example 1S-2D-3C then this does show some extra points.