Submitted by Vil Gravis on Tue, 17/03/2026 - 13:56
Responding to 1 Level Suit Opening Bids:
A 1NT response to a 1C, 1D, 1H, or 1S opening bid is GAME FORCING, with no reference to any particular suit or denomination. Bidding after this continues in the normal way, but a rebid in a major shows at least a six card suit, 2C or 2D should be natural but can be a good three card suit, though with a balanced 5332 hand the rebid should be 2NT
In such a game forcing situation, any suit agreement or a new suit by the 1NT responder, can be treated as a KEY CARD ASK, which will be covered later
Submitted by Vil Gravis on Sun, 15/03/2026 - 14:53
Vil is starting a new series which he's picking will be of interest to only a few players. The concept is simple: 5 card majors, a strong (15-17) 1NT and a GAME FORCING 1NT response to all 1-level opening bids. Anyone interested in following the series can get the articles first hand by registering with him (villyn@xtra.co.nz). His articles will be published on this site while he continues to answer any questions anyone may have and helps juniors as much as possible
This system is based on “Five Card Majors”
We have all gotten used to responding to partner’s opening of one of a suit in time-honoured fashion: bid our suit at the one level, or bid 1NT with “6-9” if we haven’t enough points (usually 10+) to bid at the two level. But how often do we really need to bid 1NT? With ‘five card majors’ that is something that I find can be circumvented, with the 1NT response being far more useful to create a game going scenario, with many, many advantages to off-set the loss of the 6-9 1NT response. Read on if getting more out of your system interests you
Submitted by Vil Gravis on Fri, 06/02/2026 - 14:21
We saw in No.7 how a slam might have been bid using “splinters” but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Let me show you another and very similar layout, where you might consider splintering but a slam is
near impossible.
South
West
North
East
1
Pass
2
Pass
?
You are sitting South and your hand is:
AT964
AQJ9
9
KQ9
A much better hand than earlier, so surely a splinter bid of 4D is in order. And responder also has a
better hand than we saw last time:
Submitted by Vil Gravis on Thu, 29/01/2026 - 15:32
Not enough people play strictly major oriented takeout doubles, and then they find that because they
don’t trust partner to be on the same page, end up in the wrong contract. Here is a good example
Submitted by Vil Gravis on Tue, 27/01/2026 - 04:46
Not enough use is made of the DOUBLE and REDOUBLE in our bridge bidding. These bidding
problems and answers revolve around the use of the “X and XX”. To make it more meaningful to the
club player, all questions and answers come from match point play.
You are SOUTH, EW vulnerable, dealer North.
The Bidding has been:
South
West
North
East
-
-
1NT
Pass
2
X
XX
Pass
?
Your partner’s 1NT is 12-14 and your 2C is Stayman. You play Stayman with no specific point count.
Stayman, as you play it, simply asks a question: “do you have a four card major?”
West doubles and partner (the 1NT opener) redoubles
Submitted by Vil Gravis on Tue, 20/01/2026 - 16:05
Here is another one that has a 100% answer. It should be easy for anyone who can count but despite the
fact that the giveaway clue of “Precision 1C” should have told us everything, there were a number of
players who would still take a finesse that was certain to lose, and not take a finesse that was certain to
succeed!
Let me show you the full deal as it was at the time it was played some years ago
Dealer W NS Vul
QJ7
AQT93
972
K3
K
KJ7
AKJT6
J986
6542
654
Q54
754
AT983
82
83
AQT2
West is dealer, NS vulnerable; the bidding has been:
South
West
North
East
-
1
1
Pass
1
2
2
Pass
3
Pass
4
Pass
Pass
Pass
West’s 1C was alerted and explained as a PRECISION 1C 16+ high card points, any shape. East’s
pass, after partner’s 1H overcall, has been explained as 0-5. West leads the ACE OF DIAMONDS, East
follows with the three (‘reverse attitude’) and West continues with the king, then another diamond, East
producing the queen. Declarer ruffs.
JT
52
Q86
T85432
