responder second bid

Responder’s 2nd Bid

/ Sunil Khanna

In a non-competitive bidding, at this stage opener has bid twice and the responder himself has bid once. Therefore, the responder has sufficient information about two things

  • Hand strength of the partnership
  • Strain of the suit that may be selected to play or No Trump

Now we may have to move away from rigid rules and use our experience and judgement to sign off at Part score, Game or Slam.

  1. Sign Off or Invitation – Non-Forcing

Two rounds of opener’s bids, which are non forcing most of the times, are sufficient for responder to ascertain that the combined strength may not be game worthy. Signing off in many cases is prudent.

  • Responder can pass leaving the auction in part score in opener’s 2nd bid.
  • Showing 6+ cards in 1st bid, responder can rebid the same suit showing length but 6-9 HCP hand. Jumping a level will be invite with 10+ HCP hand.
  • Responder can choose opener’s 1st bid a level up and sign off. It shows preference but no extra strength.
    • Opener can pass, subsequently, if he so desires, or bid 100% forcing control bids for game try.
  • Responder’s 2nd bid as 1NT will appear, very rarely, when all previous bids are at level 1.

If there is contention between suits, partnership may decide to play No Trump. With a combined strength of 22+ HCP, responder can make an invitational bid of 2NT. It is also non forcing.

  • It is much safer to play a 7 card trump suit for part scores then to play NT.
  • Responder can never bid 1!C (and very rarely 1!D). Also, 2!C/2!D is 2 over 1 game forcing. Hence, if responder has a 5+ card minor with 8+ suit  quality, he can bid 3!C/3!D to sign off.

2. Conventions-Forcing or Game Forcing

  • Opener’s 2nd bid is 1NT and responder is holding 5 cards of major in his first bid (1st response only showed 4+ cards):
    • 6-9 HCP Pass and play 1NT
    • 10+ HCP use convention The New Minor Forcing. It indicates 5+ cards of the bid major. Opener has been directed to vacate NT and play in major. This bid is 1 round forcing.
  • Fourth Suit Forcing convention comes into play when responder has 13+ HCP and all previous bids are in 3 different suits. This bid is game forcing.
  • Responder’s Reverse does not have minimum Points restriction but must be able to confirm game. Hence, Reverse bid by the responder, is game forcing.