Long Suit Trial Bids ♥

When you open 1 of a major and your partner raises to 2 of that major, often you are in a position where you would like to invite to a possible game. In classic ACOL, a simple raise to 3 of the major would be invitational to 4, this however is very one-dimensional. Responder either bids game or they pass, there are no other real choices. This is often known as ‘book passing’ because you haven’t taken any particularly strong action and have given the responder the problem of whether to bid game or not. Simply raising to 3 of your agreed suit is wasteful, because you have all of the other suits available to describe your hand further.

A ‘trial bid’ is a name for bidding a new suit over your partner’s raise to 2 of your major. This is still invitational as you are bidding beyond 2 of your suit, but you can give the responder more information about your hand. To be considered ‘invitational’ is somewhere in the region of a 16/17 count – obviously your shape also influences this too.

‘Long suit trial bids’ are an agreement that when you make a trial bid it is showing a 3+ card suit (hence the name ‘long suit’) and you are trying for game. More specifically, the trial bid shows a weakness in the bid suit and asks for help from responder in that particular suit.

The above paragraph can be condensed into:

After your major opening is raised to the 2 level, a bid of a new suit shows at least 3 cards and weakness in that suit.

Imagining we are the other player now and we have just raised our partner’s major to the 2 level and they have made a trial bid. They are expressing concern about the trial bid suit, so we need to look at our holding in that suit to see if we can help them. If we can reduce their losers in the trial bid suit, then our hands should be well suited to have a go at game. Reduction of losers in the problem suit can be either with high cards (2 of the top 3 ideally) or with shortage (a singleton/void). It could also be a combination of the two if you held something like Ax or Kx – essentially you want a 1 or no loser suit to consider it helpful to partner.

Responder’s guideline (shortened!) is:

If your partner makes a long suit trial bid, look at your holding in the trial bid suit. If you can reduce their losers by at least 2 then you should bid game.

Below are some examples of trial bids in action:

Here North implements the long suit trial bid perfectly. Their bid of 3♦ tells South that they are worried about diamond losers, but South has the perfect help for North so bids 4♠, confident that their ♦AK must be of great help. Game here isn’t a dead cert, but it would be very unlucky to go off. You would need the ♠K to be in the wrong hand, the ♥A to also be wrong, and spades to be 3-1 or worse! Notice here that ‘traditional’ methods of North inviting to game with 3♠ would get a pass from South as they are minimum for their 2♠ raise.

Okay let’s try another:

East’s 2♠ bid is a trial bid as discussed above (note that a trial bid doesn’t necessarily have to be at the 3 level as here!). West now knows that their 4 small spades are of no help, and game is a highly unlikely prospect. Even though they have 2 Aces, West should sign off in 3♥, and even then that is not a guaranteed contract by any means!

One more:

North’s 2♥ raise was based on the losing trick count (9 losers) and South implements the long suit trial bid. Whilst North’s responsive hand was super-minimum (4 points!) they do have a very useful holding in partner’s trial suit. Here their singleton will reduce South’s losers in clubs greatly, and as such game should be bid! Whilst this game does not have a 100% chance to make, it is one you want to be in. For 4♥ to go off you would need the spade finesse losing, the hearts to be breaking 3-1 or worse (with no singleton ♥Q) and the opponents not to allow you to ruff 3 clubs in the dummy. This low point (21) game is only biddable using trial bids.

Hopefully you can see the power of describing your hand further and allowing your partner to make an assessment of how well their cards are fitting yours. If it all possible it is always a good idea to consult your partner (assuming your trust them!). Whilst trial bids are a small fragment of partnership agreements, they are a tool to help you bid more major games, which is the bread and butter of bidding.