Three-card Minors?
What would you open with this hand?
If the answer is 1♦, then you are playing the popular North American style of five-card majors where you open the longer minor with no five-card major.
The 1♦ opening is a natural, non-forcing bid. Partner could pass with fewer than 6 points, even when short in diamonds.
A 1♣ or 1♦ opening is more likely to be made on a four, five, or six-card suit than a three-card suit. Partner, however, is aware that it can occasionally be made on as few as three cards and this is indicated by marking the convention card like this:
What Are The Other Choices?
If the partnership plays four-card major suit openings, it could check off that both a 1♣ and 1♦ opening promise at least four cards. That’s unusual, however. Even playing four-card majors, 1♣ is sometimes opened on a three-card suit . . . when the four-card major is very weak, for example.
Some partnerships like to play that a 1♦ opening bid shows at least a four-card suit. That leaves the 1♣ opening to handle every hand that doesn’t contain a five-card major or a four-card diamond suit. The above hand, for example, would be opened 1♣ instead of 1♦ because there are only three diamonds. So, 1♣ could be opened on two or fewer cards and this style would be indicated like this:
The NF at the top of the third column indicates that even though the 1♣ opening may be made on fewer than three cards, it is still non-forcing . . . partner can pass. Although the column indicates 0-2 cards, the 1♣ opening would not be on a void or a singleton unless the partnership plays some very unusual methods. Partnerships that use an artificial 1♣ opening, however, will sometimes open a non-forcing 1♦ on a singleton or a void.
This column is in blue (grey) indicating that such a bid must be announced. If your partner opens 1♣ and it could be on two or fewer cards, you would say “May be short.”
If the partnership uses an approach in which the 1♣ opening is totally artificial and forcing, such as the Precision Club, then the last column would be checked. This column is in red, so such a bid must be alerted.
What About The Short Club?
Some players still refer to their approach as the “short club,” perhaps putting too much emphasis on the possibility that 1♣ may not show four or more cards. This is fine if they are really using the standard style of opening the longer or “better” minor . . . typically opening 1♦ with two four-card minors and 1♣ with two three-card minors.
If, however, they insist that partner respond to their 1♣ opening, even with fewer than 6 points, they are actually playing a forcing 1♣ opening. If that’s the case, they need to check the red box and be sure to alert the opponents whenever they open with 1♣.
Limit Raises?
Suppose your partner opens 1♦ and this is your hand. What do you respond?
If the answer is 3♦, showing support and an invitational hand of about 11-12 points, you are playing limit raises. You would check the box for Inv. (invitational) beside Double Raise under Responses.
This is the standard use of the double raise of opener’s minor although, for reasons discussed shortly, some partnerships use this as a forcing bid or as a weak bid . . . which would be alertable.
What If There Is an Overcall?
What if you hold the same hand opposite partner’s 1♦ opening bid but the opponent on your right makes an overcall of 1♠ ?
If you would still jump to 3♦ to show an invitational hand, you would check the Invitational box beside After Overcall:
The modern trend is to treat a jump raise as preemptive (weak) after an overcall. The overcall has made two bids available: a double and a cuebid. Most partnerships use the double as takeout (negative) and the cuebid is used to show a limit raise or better in opener’s minor. So, with the above hand, you would cuebid 2♠. That frees the jump response to 3♦ as a weak bid in competitive auctions.
The Forcing Raise?
What if partner opens 1♣ and you hold this hand?
You have support for clubs and enough to take the partnership to game. A jump to 3♣ would only be invitational and you don’t want to go beyond 3NT because that might be the best contract.
Over a major suit opening, an artificial jump to 2NT is often used to show support for the major and enough to reach game. Over a minor suit, notrump responses are usually treated as natural. On this hand, you don’t want to respond in notrump with a low doubleton heart.
Many partnerships skirt this dilemma by having no forcing raise over a minor suit. If the hand is unsuitable for a response in notrump, then there is usually a side four-card suit to bid. If not, as in this hand, a response is made in a three-card suit. A response of 1♦ has the advantage that it is forcing and little can go wrong. If opener raises diamonds, you plan to show the club support and get the partnership to game in clubs or notrump.
If this is your approach, leave the lines beside Forcing Raise blank.
Some partnerships prefer to have a way of showing a forcing raise. One possibility is to use a jump shift (J/S) in the other minor as artificial and forcing . . . giving up on the natural meaning. Using that approach, you would jump to 2♦ on this hand.
Another approach is to use inverted minor suit raises. In this style, a raise of opener’s minor to the two level is forcing for one round, showing either a limit raise or a game-going raise. A jump raise to the three level can then be used as a weak raise with about 6-9 points.
Using this approach, you would show the support by simply raising to 2♣ . Opener would have to make a rebid and you would then make sure the partnership reached game. You would check the box beside Single raise to indicate that this is a forcing raise and you would also put a check beside Weak in the earlier section covering the Double Raise. Since both these bids are in red, you would have to alert when your partner raises a 1♣ or 1♦ opening to the two or three level.
Do You Bypass Diamonds?
What do you respond with this hand if partner opens 1♣?
With a choice of suits to bid at the one level, the basic approach is to bid the longer suit. Even with only four diamonds, a response of 1♦ would be in keeping with bidding four-card suits “up the line.”
Many players, however, would respond 1♥. One reason is that the emphasis over a minor suit opening is to look for a major suit fit before settling on notrump or a minor suit. With a weak hand that is only likely to make one bid, getting the major suit in takes priority. Also, if you were to respond 1♦ and the next player overcalls 1♠, it might become difficult to find a heart fit if you both have four cards in the suit.
If you do tend to bypass a four-card or longer diamond suit after partner opens 1♣, check appropriate box. You don’t have to alert.
Notrump Responses?
It used to be popular to use the response of 1NT over an opening 1♣ (1NT/1♣ ) to show about 9-11 points. With a weaker hand of 6-8 points and no suit to bid at the one level, you could raise to 2♦. The modern trend, however, is to use a range of 6-10 points for the 1NT response.
Similarly, a 2NT response classically shows a balanced hand of about 13–15 points, with 3NT showing 16–17 points. A popular modern style, however, is to use the “limit bid” approach and treat 2NT as an invitational response with about 11 or 12 points and 3NT to show a balanced hand of 13–15 points. With 16 or more, start by bidding a new suit. You would then fill out the last part of this section like this:
And, unless you play any other fancy conventions over a minor suit, you’re done.