opening bids in one of a suit

OPENING BIDS ONE OF A SUIT

AN OPENING BID
An opening bid is the first bid made after the cards have been dealt. (Other then the call of a Pass.) An opening bid in one (1) of a suit says: Partner, I have better than an average hand. (More than 10 points.) I'm giving you an idea of my strength and shape.

Experience has shown that a minimum of
13 points (TPC) is necessary for an opening
bid in one (1) of a suit.

TO BID OR NOT TO BID
To determine if there is an Opening Bid, add up all the High Card Points (HCP) in the entire hand. Then add to that all the Distributional Points (DP) in the entire hand. If the sum - Total Point Count (TPC) - is 13 or more, then you have a bid. Note: you do not need to have points in the suit bid.

TCP	=	HCP	+	DP
TOTAL		HIGH		DISTRIBU-
POINT		CARD		TIONAL
COUNT		POINTS		POINTS

RESPONDER
The Responder is the partner of the Opening Bidder. You just need six (6) points to respond to your partner's Opening Bid of one of a suit. If you have 6 or more points you must respond in a suit or No Trump. Saying "hello" or passing are not valid responses.
Responding to one of a suit openings.

THE FIRST
BRIDGE
NUMBER
13

    13 cards in each hand
    13 cards in each suit
    13 tricks in the deck
    13 TPC for an opening bid
                                (one of a suit)

Proper Bridge etiquette requires that you avoid making any extraneous gestures during bidding or play.

WHICH SUIT?
With Total Point Count (TPC) of 13 - 20 you can open the bidding with one of a suit. But which suit? Bidding theoreticians said: the longest. (In a 13 card hand the longest suit will have at least 4 cards.) That was easy enough. Except of course if you have two suits of the same length. That is you have no longest suit. Then what? These same theoreticians now said: bid the higher of the two touching suits. Spades/Hearts bid Spades; Hearts / Diamonds bid Hearts; Diamonds/Clubs bid Diamonds. This enables the team to keep the bidding at a relatively low level.

POINTED
Some Bridge players get pointed. That is, they have to bid suits that are headed by Honor cards. As Mr. Gershwin said: it ain't necessarily so. You can open the bidding in a suit that has NO honor cards. What is important in bidding is length; do not worry about where the high cards are. Of course it is nice if you have Honors in the suit that you bid. But not required. So do not get pointed. The only pointed thing at the table should be your pen or pencil.
do TEST II E

THE FIT
How many cards do you need in the suit that your partner bid, to make that suit trump? If between you and your partner you have lots of cards in a suit then you have a FIT in the suit. And that suit should be trump. But what is lots of cards in a suit ? A good Fit is when you and your partner have at least Eight (8) cards in one suit. That is there will be 8 cards between in the combined hands of you and your partner.

A Fit with 8 cards is called:
The Golden Fit If this suit becomes trump, then your team will have 3 more trumps than the defenders.
Note: all 8 cards do not have to be in one hand: a 4/4 Fit is where you and your partner each have 4 cards in the same suit; a 5/3 Fit is where one of you has 5 cards and your partner has 3 cards. And there can even be 6/2 or 7/1 Fits. Statistically, the most common Golden Fit is 5/3. Of course if you have a Fit of more than 8 cards, then that is a super Golden Fit. That suit should usually become the trump suit.

ANOTHER
BRIDGE
NUMBER
8
THE GOLDEN FIT

SUPPORT
Since you can open the bidding with a 4 card suit your partner will need 4 cards it that suit to support you.
4 + 4 = 8. This particular bidding system lasted for many years. But many players were frustrated because they need 4 cards to support their partner’s opening bid of one of a suit. What to do?
Answer: FIVE CARD MAJORS