Bridge On One Page

13 to 15 Opening Points

If no one has already bid, and the value of your hand is 13 to 15 points, when it comes to your turn to bid, you should open with your longest suit. If you have 2 suits of equal length you should open with the highest ranking (spades is highest, then hearts, then diamonds, then clubs). 'Length before strength' is the motto to remember.

Example 1

Here you have an ace, a king, 2 queens, and 2 doubletons, giving you exactly 13 points. Clubs is your longest suit, so you bid 1 Club.

Example 2

Here you have an ace, a king, 3 queens, a jack and a doubleton, giving you 15 points. Hearts and clubs are of equal length, but hearts is the higher ranking, so you bid 1 Heart.

Example 3

Here you have an ace, 2 kings, a queen, and no distribution points, giving you 12 points. You have insufficient points to open the bidding, so your bid is 'no bid' or 'pass'.

Note

If there has already been a bid from the opposition, and you have opening points, but the ranking of the suits forces you to open your bidding at the 2 level, you should only bid if you have 15 points, and at least a 5 card suit. On this basis, if the opposition had bid 1 Spade, you could not bid on any of the example hands given, in examples 1 and 3 because of insufficient points, and on example 2 because you do not have a 5 card suit.