Suction is a

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions o ...

bidding convention A bridge convention is an agreement about an artificial or a set of related artificial calls. Calls made during the auction phase of a contract bridge game convey information about the player's card holdings. Calls may be "Contract bridge glossary ...

used to intervene over an opponent's 1NT opening. Using the suction convention, a suit overcall of a 1NT opening is conventional and denies the suit actually bid. It shows either: # a one-suiter in the next higher ranking suit or # a

two suiter In contract bridge, a two suiter is a hand containing cards mostly from two of the four suits. Traditionally a hand is considered a two suiter if it contains at least ten cards in two suits, with the two suits not differing in length by more than ...

in the other two suits. The overcall bids are summarized as follows: If responder passes, advancer is required to bid the next higher ranking suit. If overcaller has the one-suited hand, he passes. Otherwise, he bids yet the next higher suit, showing that suit plus the remaining, unbid suit. Advancer then takes a preference by passing or bidding the remaining suit. Optionally additional overcalls are available to show the two non-touching suit pairs in the foregoing table – namely clubs with hearts and diamonds with spades. The first pair are referred to as the 'rounded' suits and the other as the 'pointed' suits owing to the shape of the tops of their pips. A call of 'Double' would show clubs and hearts (the rounded suits) and a call of 2NT would show diamonds and spades (the pointed suits). This requires the penalty double to be abandoned; if not abandoned, 2NT would show both non-touching pairs, requiring identification.

Use as pre-empts

Suction bids can be used as pre-empts, giving a way of opening many weak hand types cheaply. Responder bids the next suit up with a weak or non-descript hand, and makes any other bid to force for one round. These mean forgoing the artificial 2 opening, so work best in a strong club context. This has the advantage that one can use the same structure for weak 2 openings, a defence to 1NT and (at the 1-level, with a "Double" replacing 2) a defence to a strong 1C opening.

Restricted use

Suction is not permitted in events governed by the ACBL General convention chart, except as a defense to artificial opening bids (such as

Precision Precision, precise or precisely may refer to: Science, and technology, and mathematics Mathematics and computing (general) * Accuracy and precision, measurement deviation from true value and its scatter * Significant figures, the number of digit ...

strong 2 In contract bridge, a strong two-bid (also known as a forcing two-bidFrancis et al (2001), p. 443.Francis et al (2001), p. 163. The strong two-bid was the cornerstone of the Culbertson system.) is an opening bid of two in a suit, i.e. 2, 2, 2 or ...

openings,

Flannery Flannery is a bridge convention using a 2 opening bid to show a hand of minimal opening bid strength (11-15 high card points) with exactly four spades and five (or sometimes six) hearts. It was invented by American player William (Bill) L. Flanne ...

, etc.).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suction Convention Bridge conventions

Use as pre-empts

Restricted use

See also

References