Why balancing works
Suppose your left-hand opponent opens 1♠, and both your partner and the responder pass. If you also pass, the auction is over and they play 1♠. But stop and count: the opener has, say, 13 points, and the responder has shown nearly nothing. That leaves roughly half the deck between you and your partner. Partner could not act earlier, but that does not mean partner has a bad hand — many perfectly good hands have no safe bid to make directly over an opening.
In the pass-out seat, bid as if your hand were about three points (one king) stronger than it is. This is called “borrowing a king” from partner: the auction has told you partner holds cards. In return, when partner replies, partner subtracts those three points.
After a one-level opening is passed round
After an auction such as (1♠) – Pass – (Pass), BidMaestro reopens with:
- Double
- For takeout, asking partner to choose a suit, with shortness in the opener’s suit and support for the others. It needs about 9 points, a king lighter than the 12 a direct takeout double needs. A hand too strong for the balancing 1NT or a suit bid also doubles first: a balanced 15 or more high-card points with a stopper and at most three cards in their suit, or 17 or more points counting length with at most three cards in their suit (any number when balanced with 19 or more high-card points). As in the direct seat, 18 or more high-card points, or 17 with a good five-card suit, also doubles first.
- 1NT
- A balanced hand of 11–14 points with a stopper in their suit (a holding, such as the ace or king-and-another, that stops them running the suit against notrump). This is lighter than the 15–18 a direct 1NT overcall shows.
- A suit of your own
- A decent suit may be bid a king lighter than a direct overcall would need. At the one level: five or more cards and 5 to 16 high-card points, the suit holding one of the ace, king or queen and another honour, or six cards with one of the ace, king or queen. At the two level: 7 or more points not vulnerable and 9 or more vulnerable, counting length, and the suit holds two of the ace, king and queen, or six cards with one of them and another honour.
After a weak two is passed round
Opposite a weak two, say (2♥) – Pass – (Pass), the same logic applies one level higher, so the requirements rise a little:
- Double
- Takeout, with shortness in their suit and support for the unbid suits, about 13 high-card points (12 over a weak 2♦), again a king lighter than the direct double.
- A good suit
- With 10–15 points and a good suit (two of the top three honours, or three of the top five), bid it. Five cards are enough at the two level; at the three level you need six or more. At the two level the app counts length as well as high cards, so a fair 9 with a good five-card suit qualifies when not vulnerable.
- Weak-two values
- A hand that would itself have opened a weak two in its suit bids that suit at the two level here too, as it would in the direct seat. That means six cards, the honours a weak two needs at this vulnerability, and about 5–10 points. What is good enough to open at the two level is good enough to bid at it, and partner is told to allow for either a weak-two hand or a sound suit.
- Stronger hands
- With a good suit and 16 points the app bids the suit. With 17 or more it doubles or bids a self-sufficient suit, as it would in the direct seat; the pass-out seat never acts more cautiously than the direct seat.
- 2NT
- A balanced 15+ points with a stopper in their suit. Partner raises to 3NT with about 9.
When they have found a fit or pre-empted higher
Coming in costs a level more if the weak two has been raised, as in (2♥) – Pass – (3♥) – Pass – (Pass), or if the opening was a three-level pre-empt. The hand must then be sounder:
- Double
- Takeout, from 13 points counting length with shortness in their suit and three or more cards in each of the others, where the direct seat would need 17.
- A good six-card suit
- Over a raised weak two or a three-level pre-empt, 8 or more points counting length (at most 16 high-card points) with a good six-card or longer suit that can be bid at the three level. Over a three-level pre-empt a good five-card suit that ranks above theirs is enough, with the same 8 or more points counting length, and the double needs 13 or more points counting length with two cards or fewer in their suit and three or more in each of the others.
- 3NT
- A strong balanced hand of 16+ points with a real stopper in their suit: two of its top three honours, or the ace.
| LHO | Partner | RHO | You |
|---|
| 3♣ | Pass | Pass | 3♠ |
| Pass | 4♠ | Pass | Pass |
| Pass | | | |
Holding ♠A K Q J 10 8 7 4, a jack outside and nothing else, you reopen 3♠ over the pre-empt. Partner, with 13 points and support, subtracts the three points your bid already assumed and still has enough to raise to game.
Responding to a balance
Replying to a balance calls for restraint, because the balancer has already bid some of your values:
- Subtract a king: respond as if you held about three points fewer than you do.
- Raise to game: a fit for the balancer’s major and about 16 support points, the 13 a direct game raise needs plus the three points the balancer already assumed. With about 13–15, invite; with 9 to 12, a simple raise. A raise needs a fit: three cards for a major, four for a minor. Without one, bid 3NT with 16 or more high-card points and their suit stopped; otherwise pass with fewer than 17 points counting length. You have a fit, so count your short suits as well as your high cards for all of these.
- Do not bid again. If the balance pushes the opponents a level higher, pass, and do not double them.
The aim is not to buy the contract. Balancing gains in two ways: sometimes you play the hand at a comfortable level, and as often you push the opponents one level higher, where they can be beaten. Either result beats letting them play it cheaply.
When to pass
BidMaestro passes the auction out, and so should you, with under about 10 points and no shape worth showing. After the opponents raise a major to two and stop, BidMaestro doubles with two or fewer cards in their suit and 10 or more high-card points, or a balanced 16 or more. It bids a good six-card suit with 11 or more points counting length. With fewer than 17 points counting length and neither of those, it passes. After the opponents open 1NT and stop in a suit, the same two actions apply, with 12 or more high-card points for the double; otherwise BidMaestro defends. It also passes with a poor suit (one headed by the jack does not qualify, however long), and when the opponents’ auction shows an unlimited hand rather than a limited one. A pre-empt sometimes works; accepting that costs less than rescuing the opponents from a poor spot or turning a small minus into a large one.
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