BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

Your LHo opens with a Weak Two in hearts (6-10pts) and your partner bids 3 ♥ . What action do you take after rHo passes?

First of all, you need to remember what partner’s bid of the opponent’s suit means in this situation. He is asking you to bid 3NT if you have a heart stop. It is a bid made with a long solid minor with some outside values, but not in hearts.

From your own hand, you can tell that his suit must be clubs and, as you can’t possibly treat ♥ Qx as a heart stopper, you raise to 5 ♣ .

If partner has ♠ A or a singleton heart, you’ll have a fair chance of making game.

The danger about using useful, common sense bids for conventional purposes is that appropriate situations for them arise so rarely; it is likely that the partnership will not have discussed the bid, or that partner will forget when it happens.

However, it won’t be difficult to recognise that the bid cannot be natural!