Lee's Bidding Basics

I'd ask some of the newer players to just consider the following issues and yes, I'm trying to brief...

BIDDING ACES AT SIX

In any 7 or 8 call (your strength) you are going to take, on average, around 4/5 tricks with your trumps (all things going well). This means you will need to take at least 2/3 in "offsuit" tricks.

If you have no idea what offsuit aces your partner holds, or you don't communicate your aces to your partner, significant disavantages will result. You will have little, if any, idea of what to keep or throw out if you get the bid and kitty ("shortsuiting"). We've all seen how Huey, Luey and Duey keep one of every suit to lead in offsuit and how disasterous it is. Often you'll also find you've underbidded a good hand through being completely in the dark as to how many tricks you might have - taking both your hand and your partners hand into account.

It's for these reasons the orthodox style of play is to bid your aces at 6, before calling your strength.

What holds some players back is the fear that "I'll get left on it". The accepted convention (certainly on this site) is that no one gets left on their six call. If you don't have a viable 7 bid, call your partner off their 6 bid with 7 Spades. Expect the same of your partner.

If you get left on 7 Spades, don't fret. It may be the 7 call that your partner wanted. Even if it turns pear shaped, remember 140 points is only 20 - 100 points more than a 6 bid and its a small price to pay as insurance against losing a good 7 or 8 bid.

BIDDING STRENGTH

Just some small advice - be realistic, unless you're forced by the scoreboard to do otherwise. In a Red suit bid there's 13 trumps, in Black there's 12. Think about how many you have, how strong they are and how many you're likely to have left after you've bled all of the trumps out of the opposing players.

If you have a bauer and three rags - the math and probability is totally against you. The probable scenario is "murderation". It often takes up to 4 or 5 leads to get the trumps out and you aren't going to win them all anyway. Even worse, an Ace with a few rags just plainly isn't a strength bid (unless you're forced to do so by the scoreboard).

Bidding strength in an unforced situation on the hope that you'll pick up two or three high trumps in the kitty is just plainly silly. The likely scenario is murderation.

CALLING THE JOKER

Always call the joker at 6. Always. It's a very important card in a suit bid and the ultimate card in a no trumps bid. It's the key.

Again, what holds some players back is the fear that "I'll get left on 6NT". The accepted convention (certainly on this site) is that no one gets left on a 6NT bid. If you don't have a viable 7 bid, call your partner off their 6NT bid with 7 Spades. Expect the same of your partner.

Again, if you get left on 7 Spades, don't fret. It may be the 7 call that your partner wanted. Even if it turns pear shaped, remember 140 points is only 20 points more than a 6NT bid and its a small price to pay as insurance against losing a good 7 or 8 bid.

AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, BLEED ALL TRUMPS BEFORE PLAYING OFFSUIT

Try to get as many of your opponents' trumps off them before leading your offsuit. If you have the high trump cards, keep playing them until the opposition have no more trumps. Don't keep leading them if you're only taking trumps off your partner - you're eliminating them from possibly taking a cheap trick or two by trumping the opposition's good offsuit.

Nothing is sillier than seeing a good offsuit ace that is definately worth a trick getting trumped by the opposition.

WORK CO-OPERATIVELY WITH YOUR PARTNER, NOT AGAINST THEM

Co-operative play starts with the bidding. It's easier to win a 500 bid playing with 20 cards as opposed to 10. Approach the bidding from the footing that your objective is to share as much information about your hand with your partner as you can. You have a better chance of winning and also getting maximum value for your bid.

Conflicting bids - think carefully about overbidding your partners red call with a black one, or vice versa. There is an old maxim - those who overbid, must get.

Always call into your partner's hand rather than against it - this is the situation where one player wants (for instance) 7D and their partner wants 7H. Yeah, sure, you have this real pretty hearts hand. So what. The game is about taking a bid, not which one of the partners gets the kitty. Think carefully about whether your pretty hearts might be more useful as offsuit tricks and whether a better bid is 8D instead of 7H.

Also, discussing bidding styles with your partner prior to a bid is much better than discussing it as a post mortem of "what went wrong". If you are a fan of the 7S for misere or 9S for open bids, tell your partner up front if you're not sure they know.

Be open to polite suggestions of how you might improve your play. Don't be needlessly argumentative or defensive. I've certainly learnt heaps off the permanent (and not so permanent) fixtures on the site.



I recommend in the strongest terms that newer players read the information at:

play500.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-500-top-10.html

With the qualification that some of this player's tips (like "avoid 7S for misere calls") are probably fairly described as personal preferences that you can eventually make your own mind up about.