How high to bid.

Answer 1

There are numerous answers. It depends upon whether you are playing contract bridge or part bridge, if the auction is contested or uncontested, on the vulnerability of both you and your opponents and whether you are playing in an IMP game or not. For starters let me assume on the following: it is a contested auction (both teams are bidding), both teams are non-vulnerable (less to gain by bidding and making a game (or slam) then if you were vulnerable), and it is an non IMP game (you and your partner are actually competing against the other teams that are playing your cards and your opponents at the table are doing likewise, so your goal is to achieve as good a score as possible (even if it is negative as long as it is less negative then the other teams playing your cards). The deciding principle is called the law of total tricks. this tells you how high you should bid with a reasonable probability that you will make your contract, as well as how high your opponents can bid with same criteria. If you are bidding spades and between you and your partner you have 8 spades that you should be able to make 2S and if your opponents have 8 hearts that can make 2H. So according to law your opponents should bid 3H over you 2S bid. They will probably not make it. If you pass and they only take 8 tricks you will score 50 points. This is less than making 2S which is 110. Therefore you will get a bad result. If you double them you will only get 100 points still not enough (but more than those pairs that passed 3H) but that is still less than 110 but if the make 3H doubled you get a very bad score. So what do you do? If you bid 3S only 2 good things can happen and 2 bad things. The good things are you can make 3S (perhaps 40% of the time), or your opponents can bid 4H and not not make it and if you double them and they only take 8 tricks you score 300 points. The bad things are that you do not make 3S and thus get a negative 50 instead of a positive 50 or they may bid 4H and make it (perhaps a 20% chance) and get a much better score than making 10 tricks but only bidding 3H. So how does do you decide? It depends on the relative point strength and distribution. If the points are even and there is no distributional advantage, you should pass. If you believe you have superior high card point strength (23 vs 17) you you should bid 3S. If you have a distributional benefit (like a void in hearts) you should bid 3S (or perhaps 4S if you also have a significant hcp advantage).