The Opening Bid of One of a Suit

Last Updated on 17^th August 2008

With a natural system, based on a weak no trump structure, an opening bid of one of a suit shows about 10-20 points and at least four cards in the suit opened. In first or second position, it promises a sensible rebid if partner makes a simple change of suit response.
ª A53 © K65 ¨ 9 § AK9852	A single suited hand can plan to rebid the suit. This hand, from the match between Glenfield A and Leicester Bridge Centre B on 19^th March 2003, was worth an opening bid of one club as it could rebid two clubs over any change of suit response.

With two non-touching four card suits, which is it best to open?
Board 15 Dealer S NS Vul	North ª A764 © T8 ¨ KQ94 § AK3		North had this problem, after two passes, on this deal from Glenfield Bridge Club on 17^th September 2003. Paul Bowyer would have no problem; his recommendation would be one spade, to make life easy for partner should East overcall. However, Tim Glover and Peter Neville have fairly comprehensive methods to deal with overcalls in a suit and their style is to open in the lower ranking suit. They caught a cold on this hand after Peter opened one diamond and East overcalled one no trump. Tim was fixed. There were insufficient points to double; bids of two hearts or two spades would be complete guesses so he passed. West passed and then it was Peter’s turn to be fixed. Again he has no certain route to steer the partnership into two spades so he passed. Worse was to come after Tim elected to lead the six of diamonds and Peter later led the ace and king of clubs. East emerged with an unlikely looking eight tricks to gain a good score for Ray Sherwood and Thomas O’Rourke. However, even this wasn’t enough for a top. One South had elected to double one no trump. They defended slightly better than Tim and Peter but could not prevent East making seven tricks and taking all the match points for David Taylor and Ray LeVesconte. There was only one other plus score in the East/West column; that went to Mike and Helen Purser who defeated four spades by one trick. Only three North/South pairs managed to play in the sensible looking spade part score. Mostly they made nine tricks. Most pairs chose to defend one no trump but they beat it by one or two tricks after South found a spade lead. Best North/South score went to Jim Wilde and John Morrey who had the enjoyable experience of defending a three heart contract by West. They hadn’t doubled, but then they didn’t need to. They took it four down.
West ª T2 © J543 ¨ J73 § T862		East ª QJ8 © AK2 ¨ AT85 § Q75
	South ª K953 © Q976 ¨ 62 § J94

Paul Bowyer would have had no problem on this hand either.
	North ª 985432 © 64 ¨ T876 § 9	Board 23 Dealer S Game All	He would have opened one heart on the South cards. As did eight of the nine pairs at Glenfield Bridge Club on 19^th July 2005. Seven times out of eight, this was enough to dissuade East/West from bidding three no trumps. On the eighth occasion, while three no trumps was reached by Mary France & Tom Wright, North led a heart and it was held to ten tricks. At the ninth table, Tim Glover opened one diamond, West bid three no trumps and Peter Neville led a diamond. The five was played from dummy, giving declarer eleven top tricks (seven clubs, three diamonds and the ace of spades). In an effort to recover something from the board, Tim bared his king of spades as declarer cashed the first ten tricks but declarer wasn’t fooled and played the ace of spades, felling the king for twelve tricks. Indeed, all thirteen could have been made but declarer had discarded a spade from dummy. Even 690 wasn’t enough for a top for Watts and Stevens. John Morrey & Bernard Beauchamp had bid five clubs, been doubled and made eleven tricks. The other East/West pairs stayed in club part scores making either ten or eleven tricks according to whether they remembered to ruff a diamond or not before drawing trumps. I think playing for the diamond ruff is better technique than finessing in spades twice, which is a 75% chance. The diamond ruff will worh whenever diamonds are 4-4 or 5-3 (79.84%) or when diamonds are 6-2 but the hand with the doubleton diamond does not have the jack of clubs (5.45%). This gives a chance of success of 85.29%. The chances are further improved by playing one round of trumps before playing on diamonds as the jack of clubs could be singleton. This increased the total chance of eleven tricks to 87.12%. Finally, if all else has failed, we can play North for the king of spades, This will work half, the time, increasing our chances of eleven tricks to 93.56%
West ª 76 © 9 ¨ AK9 § AKQ7632		East ª AQT © JT8752 ¨ J5 § T4
	South ª KJ © AKQ3 ¨ Q432 § J85

But would he have fared so well on this deal?
Board 21 Dealer N Love All	North ª K942 © A6 ¨ AQJ7 § K97		The hand comes from Glenfield Bridge Club on 10^th January 2007. The deal was played eight times; seven times the final contract was spades; five times played by West and twice played by North! If North opens one spade, they are likely to play there, giving East/West a score of several hundreds. The best East/West score went to John Day & Barbara Corlett who took one spade three down. Then there were two East/West scors of 200; Cynthia & Dave McLoughlin beat one spade by two tricks and the runaway East/West winners, Bill Youngs & John Thomson, took one no trump two down. Your author avoided the problem, on this particular hand, by opening one diamond, and found himself defending one spade and holding it to nine tricks. This was beaten by the North/South winners, Gordon Musson & Geoff Mead, who got a top on the board, by holding two spades to eight tricks. The results, travellers and personal scorecards are online.
West ª AQT765 © KQ9 ¨ 853 § J		East ª J8 © 7543 ¨ KT2 § AQ84
	South ª 3 © JT82 ¨ 964 § T6532

With 4-4-4-1 distribution, in a natural system structure, it is usually correct to open with the suit below the singleton.

ª AKJ7 © Q854 ¨ A843 § 3

The exception is when, as in this deal from the the National Masters Pairs., the singleton is in clubs. Then it is correct to open one heart. Those who opened one spade heard partner bid two clubs. They then have a problem because their rebid is going to promise five spades. As a consequence they played in four spades on a 4-3 fit, making just nine tricks, while those who opened one heart played in four hearts on a 4-4 fit, making ten tricks.

So when is a hand good enough to open?
ª Q43 © AKJ74 ¨ 76 § J72	This is a borderline collection. Opening this can pay when a fit is found. However, if there is no fit but partner has about 12 points; you are headed for a substantial minus as occurred when East opened this hand one heart as dealer in the match between Glenfield A and County C on 5^th March 2003.

However, the opening bids vary within the structure of artificial systems.

ª 7 © J74 ¨ KT94 § AKQ54

Playing Precision this hand from the Glenfield Club pairs of 14^th May 2003 could not be opened one club as that would promise sixteen or more points. Nor could it be opened one heart or one spade as those bids would promise five or more cards in the respective major. Nor can the hand be opened one no trump as it could hardly be considered balanced. Instead, it is opened one diamond, a bid that shows opening values that is unsuitable for any other opening bid.

Precision covers all the hands that Acol takes nine opening bids to describe in just five. This frees up the opening bids at the two level to convey special meaning.
Board 4 Dealer W Game All	North ª JT9 © T932 ¨ 764 § 632		For example, an opening bid of two diamonds, in traditional Precision, shows 11-15 points and a three suited hand. It does not specify the three suits. On this deal, from Glenfield Bridge Club on 25^th June 2003, Geoff Mead opened a Precision two diamonds third in hand. Tim Glover was sitting with the massive collection as South and doubled. This was for takeout. North/South would have been in trouble had Dennis Bradley passed for Peter Neville would have had little option but to bid two hearts. This appears destined to lose two spades, two hearts, a diamond and two clubs for –200; more if doubled. Dennis let Tim off the hook by bidding two hearts. This doesn’t show hearts but asks Geoff where his singleton is. Geoff bid two no trumps to show a singleton heart. Tim doubled again; this time for penalties. This was tight, but two no trumps would probably finish one down on a spade lead. However, Dennis removed to three diamonds. Once more Tim doubled. With the knowledge of the singleton heart in declarer’s hand Tim can see precisely four defensive tricks; two red aces and two black kings. That is exactly what he made. Shortly afterwards Peter was writing –470 on the card. This might not have been a bottom had some of the East/West pairs matched Tim’s aggressive style of doubling. One South bid three hearts and finished three down while one North went even further and reached four hearts, failing by four tricks. Unfortunately for Tim neither contract was doubled. The most bizarre contract was two hearts by West, which failed by two tricks.
West ª Q3 © QJ83 ¨ KJT9 § 975		East ª A762 © 7 ¨ Q832 § AQJ4
	South ª K854 © AK64 ¨ A5 § KT8

Blue Club’s openings are canapé: an opening bid may possess a longer suit of lower rank.
Board 5 Dealer N NS Vul	North ª Q6542 © 84 ¨ T85 § Q83		One advantage of such a method is it is possible to conceal the main attacking strength of the hand when you are out-gunned. In this deal, from the Derbyshire Green Point Swiss Pairs on 8^th July 2006, Tim Glover and Harry Gordon were enticed into bidding three no trumps with the club suit wide open. After two passes, South opened one heart. Harry doubled, North passed, Tim bid two no trumps and Harry bid the game. South led a small club, won by North’s queen. The club return allowed South to take the next five tricks for two down and 95% of the match points. Of course, the bidding is much easier against a natural club opening and would lead to the making red suit part-scores.
West ª AKT3 © J6 ¨ AJ732 § J6		East ª 98 © KQ973 ¨ KQ4 § T95
	South ª J7 © AT52 ¨ 96 § AK742

Statistics at MPs – We open 1 of a suit	Partner	Hands	MPs	Top	%
Gimson Final	Peter Neville	15	149	20	49.67