Responses to Suit – No Fit


If you have 6 or more HCP you  MUST bid

Unwritten Law

Suit Sequence to bid

Same as opening bids:-

Bid your longest
2 x 4 card suits bid the lower ranking
2 x 5/6 card suits bid the higher

You can bid a 4 card major over a 5 card minor at the 1 level

You can only bid at the 2 level if you have 10 HCP or more

Even if you have 10+ points, try to keep at level 1 first

The Dustbin Bid

If you have 6 to 9 HCP but can’t support partner or can’t bid at the 2 level then bid 1NT (known lovingly as “the dustbin bid”)

All change of suit responses are FORCING

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Examples – Points for Length

If you have 10 or 11 points and you have an unbalanced hand, you can sometimes “open light” . For every suit that you have greater than 4 cards in the suit, you can add on one point for each card ‘over the 4’

The examples below show the case

SuitHand 1Hand 2Hand 3Hand 4Hand 5
♠️AK1097KQJ974AQ752JJ8
♥️KJ976KQ1087K979

♦️
674A879KQJ1092KQ92

♣️
864296863AJ8632
Open 1♠️ ♠️ ♠️ ♦️♣️