GENERAL APPROACH
SSS by Danny Kleinman
SAYC. Normally open 5-card majors in all seats. SSS. Normally open in your best suit, but (a) plan your next bid to avoid creating a
nasty rebid problem for yourself, and (b) avoid opening in a 4-card major. If your hand is too strong to pass, and not in your notrump ranges, you may open a decent 3-card minor (Qxx or better) or SAYC. Open the higher of long suits with equal length (5-5 or 6-6). SSS. Plan
ahead. If you hope to be able to bid both suits, start with the higher-ranking of TOUCHING suits in the "spiral of suits" (which goes clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs again, etc.). Spades and clubs are TOUCHING in
this sense, and with equal black suits, you should normally bid CLUBS FIRST. If your suits are non-touching, you should USUALLY start with the major, but there are exceptions, especially if you SAYC. Normally open 1D with 4-4 in the minors, 1C with 3-3 in the minors SSS. Plan ahead. If your plan is to bid both minors, do open 1D with 4-4, but if you can reasonably raise partner's major-suit response or
rebid in notrump, or if you plan to rebid 1S over partner's 1H response, open in the stronger suit. Likewise, open in your stronger 3-card minor if you must open one or the other, for you may wind up playing in the suit you open,
or having partner lead it against your LHO's contract. If all else is roughly equal, prefer to open the bidding-space-conserving 1C rather than 1D. SSS. Hands that otherwise qualify for notrump openings MUST be opened in notrump with despite a 5-card suit, UNLESS that suit is spades. Then, provided you and your partner understand that 1S-two of a new suit; 2NT
shows substantial extra values, you can afford to open 1S instead of 1NT.You should also open 1NT on otherwise suitable hands with 2=2=4=5,2=4=2=5 or 2=4=5=2 patterns (hands with a 4-card RED suit and a 5-card MINOR). If you don't
open 1NT on these hands, you will face an insoluble rebid problem when partner responds 1S. SAYC. 1NT = 15-17. SSS. 1NT shows a GOOD (or at least DECENT) 15 to 18. You needn't open a junky 15-HCP hand 1NT to get to game. If you
have such a hand, you'll need partner to have at least 11 HCP to make game worth bidding. You won't miss a good game if you have a bad 15 HCP and start with a suit bid. If partner has 11 HCP, he'll make a game-invitational bid at
his second turn, and you'll have opportunity enough to bid game then. Those who open 1NT with a bad 15 will sometimes go down in 2NT when their partners invite game on 8 HCP (as the 15-17 notrumpers usually do) and suits break
badly or finesses lose, while you'll open in a suit, wind up in 1NT, and make. With 18 HCP, you shouldn't want to have to open in a suit and rebid 2NT over partner's 1-level response. Lots of bad things can happen if you do: (1)
Partner may pass with a marginal responding hand, and bad breaks or losing finesses may put you down in 2NT, while a 1NT opening would get you to a cheaper and easier-to-make partscore. (2) Partner may have a weak hand and want to
get out in three of a major. Do you play 1C-1H; 2NT-3H as forcing? If so, have you any way for partner to get out in 3H? Do you play 1C-1H; 2NT-3H as a signoff? If so, then how can partner, with five hearts and a decent hand, offer
you a choice between 4H (when you have three hearts) and 3NT (when you have only two)? There are complex solutions to these problems, but believe me, you don't want to teach them to a partner and HOPE he understands and
remembers---leave them to well-established expert partnerships. (3) You may wind up as dummy in 4H or 4S (the major suit partner bids in response to your minor-suit opening). Don't you think that as the strong hand, perhaps with
AQx or Kx in a suit that the defenders may lead, you should be declarer? You can be, via a Stayman or Jacoby Transfer sequence, when you open an 18-HCP 1NT. SSS. Take your choice between (a)
2NT = 22-24, 3NT = 25-27 (the very simplest ranges); and (b) 2NT = 21-22, artificial means of bidding balanced 23-27 HCP hands, and 3NT = slightly unbalanced 9-tricker like S-Ax H-Axx D-Ax C-AKQxxx or S-A H-Kx D-AKQxxxx C-Axx. Why
use a slightly higher 2NT range than SAYC? Because you really don't figure to make 2NT with 20-HCP hands facing partner's possible balanced near-yarborough, and you may go down even when he has a king or a couple of queens, for
you'll be short of the dummy entries you need to cash winners or lead towards your own potential winners. If has the 6 points you need to justify bidding game, he won't pass your ordinary suit opening. Simplicity favors (a).
Efficiency favors (b): higher notrump bids should have narrower ranges than 1NT (partner has no room to INVITE game and little room to EXPLORE for the BEST game). 3NT, especially, precludes safe exploration for the right game, for
Stayman and transfers often commit your side to 4NT or higher. SAYC. Strong artificial 2C opening. Weak 2-bids in diamonds, hearts and SSS. Natural, game-forcing 2-bids in all suits. Nobody I know (including world
champions and Bridge Hall-of-Famers) knows how to handle the Omnibus 2C that is a necessary concomitant of weak 2-bids in the other suits. I'll spare you my reports of how the great Bob Hamman messed up with it. As for those weak
twos, they sound logical enough, but in practice (I've done some empirical studies) they don't work out well. Maybe that's the fault of players who don't use them with proper disclipline (tired of waiting for just the right hands,
even experts open weak twos with the wrong ones), maybe that's the fault of players who don't have good methods of responding to weak twos. Do your partners have efficient structures for responding to weak twos? Mine don't.
strong 4-card major (AJ10x,
KQ10x or better) with nothing better to do.
Why be reluctant to open in a 4-card major when you're happy enough to open in a similar 4-card minor? For two reasons: (1) When partner has 3-card support for your major, he'll
be little inclined to start hunting for alternative trump suits (major-suit games require only ten tricks, minor-suit games require eleven). (2) The lower-ranking the suit you open, the more often partner will be able to bid his
suits at the 1-level (to respond in a new suit at the 2-level requires a better-than average hand, a "good" 10 points or better). Why take suit-quality into account in close cases? Again for two reasons: (1) You may have
to play in the suit you open if partner passes or raises. (2) Your partner will (and should) usually lead your suit if your LHO becomes declarer.
are 5-5 in your suits with a void
in a red suit. With a void in hearts, bid diamonds ahead of spades (you anticipate that partner will respond in your void, and you can afford to bid 1D-1H; 1S on many hands that are not strong enough to go to the 3-level via 1S-2H;
3D). Similarly, with a void in diamonds, bid clubs ahead of hearts (you anticipate that partner will respond in your void, and you can afford to bid 1C-1D; 1H on many hands that are not strong enough to go to the 3-level via 1H-2D;
3C). Exceptions may also arise if there is a discrepancy in suit quality: with S-A9743 H-9 D-KQJ82 C-K7, for example, you will usually do better to open in your 3-honor diamond suit than your 1-honor spade suit (2-honor
discrepancy).
SAYC. Notrump openings show a balanced hand and can be made with a 5-card major
or minor.
SAYC. 2NT = 20-21, 3NT = 25-27.
spades.