Home > Bidding > Big hands > Big balanced hands

He looks pretty 

unbalanced to me

Big balanced hands

With anything from 12-19 points, the Acol system allows us to open at the one level. The stronger the hand, the more dramatic the rebid.

Hands which fall outside this range consequently have a point count of twenty or more.

We are looking on this page at balanced hands with twenty or more points. Unbalanced hands are dealt with on this page.

Balanced hands with 20-22 points

The system gives us an opening bid of 2NT with a balanced hand of 20, 21 or 22 points. This bid is not forcing. Typical hands are given below.

Even if you've thoroughly understood all the preceding, you will still meet some difficult decisions.

Typical responses to a 2NT opener are:-

1. With a balanced hand, stay in no-trumps at the level of two or three. With five points, put partner into 3NT; with three points, pass. With four points, consult the oracle: remember that your partner is playing it.
2. There is no weakness take-out to a 2NT opening. Any bid at the three level should be interpreted as forcing to game. With five points or more and a five-card heart or spade suit, a three-level bid in your suit is worthwhile. Partner will raise to game in hearts or spades with three cards in your suit and raise to three no-trumps with only two cards in your suit (does that ring a bell? It's the same approach as with a one no-trump opener).
3. You can use Stayman in exactly the same way as you would over one no-trump.
4. You may judge that a slam is on and start asking for aces using Blackwood or Gerber.

Some hands will clarify:-

Try these yourselves. Partner has opened 2NT:-

Get the answers from here.

Big balanced hands (continued)

Balanced hands with 23 points or more

We show these hands with a conventional opening bid of 2C. This says nothing about clubs but announces a big hand immediately. Your rebid over any response from partner will be in no-trumps. See below for the difference between positive and negative responses to this two-club opener.

• with 23 or 24 points, rebid 2NT (or 3NT over a 3C response)
• with 25+ points jump directly to 3NT

Responder has a particular obligation here since opener has her sights set on a slam. She must decide immediately if her hand is worth a 'positive' response (showing some values) or a 'negative' reply.

With eight points or more, or an ace and a king anywhere, bid normally. With less than eight points, give a negative response of 2D (note that if opponents overcall, your negative reply now becomes a pass, since partner now has another bid anyway).

Once partner has rebid 2NT, you only need three points or more to take to game.

Note that it is possible to use Stayman after the sequence 2C-2D-2NT. 3C would be asking for a major suit. Just as well to be sure that partner is on the same wavelength!

I have put some complete hands together which you can have a look at. Try here.