1ª opening bid, responses and rebids etc.

The opening bidder must at least hold five cards in a major suit in order to open on 1-level in that suit.
But there is more. He is not allowed to bid anything else if he possess that 5-card and 11-19 HCP's. When the strength of the hand in "total points" exceeds this interval, it is possible to open the game at 2- or 3-level in another suit

Opponent's overcalls are noticed but further neglected with respect to interpretation of the bids made by and your partner after the intervention, in the same way as earlier explained at the 1NT opening bid.

A hand with two 5+cards in each of the major suits and 12-16 HCP's (15-19 total points) is always opened in hearts, to enable a weak partner to show his possible 4-suiter in ª.
A hand with two 5+ cards one spades and the other one in a minor suit is always opened in spades (Majors Always First) even if the minor suit is longer and/or more beautiful. Such hands are opened may be opened on 2- or 3-level when they are on the very borders of the range of required points. This small overlap in the requirements for doing certain calls occurs often in MAF. In those cases you should have good second look at your hand and choose freely, taking into account the bidding before.

Of course there is a diagram, in which all responses and rebids are defined. It is recommended to read first the now following general reflection about responding a major suit openings before studying the diagram.

 
If you arrived here because you wanted to read about the "sohl principle" then we give you the opportunity to link to various other paragraphs where remarks are made about "sohl":

1§-Sohl 1¨-Sohl 1©-Sohl 1NT-Sohl 2©/ª-Sohl 2NT-Sohl 3NT-Sohl
the SOHL overview

To American bridge players the "1NT-forcing" convention is probably very familiar. In the Netherlands, and perhaps elsewhere too, nearly nobody has ever heard of it. This as well as the power of the convention were reasons for me to describe this convention extensively here. A more important reason is the fact that this convention is part the concept of "Sohl-responses". This concept is an essential part of MAF and was in fact inspired by the convention just mentioned.

The responder, having in mind that his partner just told him that he holds a 5-card and knowing that spades score always well, must answer the question: Will ª be a good trump suit? You can imagine three possible responses:

  1. Yes it is
  2. No, with my hand definitely not
  3. May be
    • if the opener has six spades or more
    • NT is probably a better contract
    • I would prefer to play low in another suit
    • I prefer a contract in no matter which minor suit
    • yes, but there might be a better contract
For all three cases counts: TELL THE OPENER AT ONCE about your type of hand.
The first two cases are simple. The "multi-way forcing Sohl" convention (in fact the same as the "1NT-forcing", which name is used by me now for the last time) is used here by the responder to establish the trump suit and to inform the opener about his strength. Furthermore the "multi-way forcing Sohl" convention is used more extensively, since here responder needs more information about the opener's hand in order find an appropriate final contract.
As a matter of fact the responder always applies the convention, because responding 1NT shows the possession of one of a limited number of well defined hands. Any other response denies the possession of those particular hands. To get this more clear, it is wise for the partner to distinguish between the next three cases:
  1. with at least 2 cards support in the opening suit:
    • A direct call in the opening suit on a proper level, corresponding with your strength: 2ª with a 3-suiter and 6-9 points and 3ª with 4+suiter and 10-12 points.
    • If you are relatively short in the opening suit, call first the "multi-way forcing Sohl": 1NT, and on your next turn 2ª with a 2-suiter and 6-9 points or call 3ª with a 3-suiter and 10-12 points.
    • In case you are very strong (the game is sure) you bid the conventional Jacoby 2NT. The spades-sohl has freed this bid. The balanced 10-12 hcp hand is shown after the bye-pass.
    • If you have a void or a singleton in a different suit, at least 3 spades support and enough strength to play a game contract in the opening suit, should show your singleton by bidding a splinter and successively exchange controls, in order to examine if a slam is possible.
      In MAF you can do a splinter bid by performing a single jump. For weak hands containing a long suit, there is the Sohl response of 1NT and for strong hands we have the Jacoby 2NT convention, or a forcing 2 in a minor suit. So the single jump is free, MAF takes it for splintering.
  2. with no support in the opening suit - void or singleton:
    • If your are weak without extra's: PASS
    • If you are weak, but you possess a long different suit, call the "multi-way forcing Sohl": 1NT, and on the next turn call your long suit without jumping. Your partner knows all this of course. He will keep open the bidding on his next turn, but pass later on.
    • If you have 10 points or more, it is allowed to bid on the 2-level. There are however conditions for the lengths of a suit to call.
      • for calling § and ¨ you need at least a 5-card in that suit.
      • to call 2© a 4-card is sufficient (in the chapter about opening in hearts will be explained why).
      The opener knowing your type of card and realizing (important!!) that his partner is not forcing with 1NT, 2NT or a splinter, can draw his conclusions. He knows the 5-suiter,the singleton in spades, the 10 HCP's and also the 2-suited hand. The last fact he knows from you not bidding 1NT, as a start to tell about a hand without spades, but balanced remaining; you would have told so be calling 2NT the next time.
  3. if you are not certain that your support is sufficient:
    • with a doubleton support and some strength:
      • With 6-9 points you could think of playing:
        • either 1 or 2NT
        • or 2ª
        • or 2 in the 6-card minor suit you possess.
        • or when the opener is strong, doing a limit bid or even a game bid.
        You need more information about strength an distribution from the opener. So call the "multi-way forcing Sohl": 1NT, with the intention to learn about the opener's hand. The opener will inform you in his the rebid. He can distinguish between even 7 possibilities around his fine 5-suiter:
          1. a normal 5-suiter, without a 5-card minor or a 4-card hearts and 11-14 points, by rebidding 2§ or 2¨. This indicates that he holds at least 3 cards in the called suit. If the opener calls ¨, it may be concluded that ¨ are longer then § are. It should be clear, that any minor suit rebid always denies the 4-card in hearts.
          2. a normal 6-suiter of 11-14 points by rebidding 2ª.
          3. a strong 5-suiter (>=15) in a balanced hand, by rebidding 2NT.
          4. a normal 5- or 6-suiter with a 4+card hearts, by rebidding 2©.
          5. a strong 5- or 6-suiter with a 4+card hearts, by rebidding 3©.
          6. a strong 6-suiter (>=16), by rebidding 3ª.
          7. two 5-suiters one in spades and one in a minor in a strong hand (>=16), by rebidding 3§ or 3¨.
          Now knowing what kind of hand the opener has, it must be easier to establish the kind of contract you should play. You can make the right choice now, just bid natural. Your bid is nearly always a final bid, because you know both hands exactly and your partner knows that. In some cases the opener may have hidden strength then he is allowed to consider the response limiting.
      • With 10-12 points you might think of contracts like:
        • 2NT when the opener has five spades.
          In dutch and british (?) Acol you would probably call directly 2NT having balanced.
        • 3ª when the opener has five spades and 11-14 hcp's.
        • 4ª when the opener has six spades and 13-14 points.
        • many other final contracts are imaginable, also in one of the minors; it depends on your type of hand.
        You more information about opener's hand, so apply the same trick. Again call 1NT first and the engine starts moving. The meaning of any rebid is precisely defined. We don't repeat all 7 possibilities, they must be the same. On your next turn you know what you have to do.
  4. With very particular hands you may imagine anything.
    • It is very difficult to write what anything can be. It has to be a strong hand that offers perspectives
      By nature a hand like that is secret and mysterious
      • You need more information and want to do a forcing bid. You may choose from three: 1NT, 2NT and 4NT. Doing Blackwood generally is not clever, a pity for the lost bidding space. 2NT is fine for strong hands and a clear fit, thus the hand is revealed (Jacoby 2NT). It is also imaginable that you are not interested in controls, but far more in the information the opener will give you after a 1NT response. In MAF you have three ropes at your disposal of which you may pull one to open your partner's correct secret drawer, while being very mysterious for everybody about you own hand.
There is a condition for introducing a minor suit by the responder. He must be very short (void or singleton) in the opening (major)suit. This implies that you only can respond in the opening suit (at several levels), in NT and with a jump in a new suit. Most of the latter bids being conventional, there is only one possible response left for those kind of hands that are not yet mentioned. This response is: 1NT. (It is of course possible, with a strong hand, to bid 3NT, but we think it is always better to bid 1NT or 2NT first.)
The reason for this restriction is caused by the strong belief of the (very small) MAF community, that there is no point in trying to find more then one trump suit, especially when know better ones don't exist. It is allowed however to call 2© with a 4-card. In the chapter about opening hearts this matter is discussed more extensively. Only NT contracts are better. Therefore NT contracts are far from being excluded to be found, as we have seen above.
Due to the application of sohls, 1NT contracts have become impossible. This is a disadvantage of sohl. It may occur that 1ª or a contract on 2-level has to be played while 1NT would have been better. Of course I am biased, but I think the advantages of MAF are bigger than the disadvantages.
After opponent's doubles of the opening bid, the meaning of some responses is changed. This is governed by the Truscott convention.
A weak opener with a 5-card in spades and 3 or less cards in hearts, always possesses 5 cards in the minor, so there always must be a 3-suiter to rebid after a 1NT response. These rebids are never forcing. At the end of this chapter some summarizing remarks are made which you also can read now already if you want.

Now that you have read the reflections on the opening, you may have a look at the "diagram", where everything is repeated in the standard compact style.
The opening hands are analyzed again. The results, in terms of chances of occurrence, calculated with the help of the unique probability tables, mentioned elsewhere on this site. They are presented again in a separate small white table which is incorporated in the diagram. The points mentioned in the diagram are HCP's.
In this respect next remark should be made. When hcp's are mentioned generally "total points" are meant. The effect is that in practice strong distributional hands occur more often then the table says, if of course, the cards are shuffled properly (which regrettably is not always done).




 
1 ª a: 5-card ª rebid after 1NT: relay 2§/¨* 11-14 pass weak 0 - 5
  b: 6+card ª rebid after 1NT: 2ª 11-14 1NT always forcing, MaS-Sohl** >=6
c: 5-card ª rebid after 1NT or 2 §/¨: 2NT 15-19   next bid: p: stop bid with a 2-card ª:     2ª 6 - 9
d: 6+card ª rebid after 1NT or 2 §/¨: 3ª 15-19   q: limit bid with a 3-card ª:     3ª 10-12
e: 5+ª, 4+© rebid after 1NT or 2§/¨: (2)/3© 11-19 r: balanced, but sgln/void ª:    2NT 10-12
f: 5+ª, 5+§/¨ rebid after 1NT or 2§/¨: 3¨/§ 15-19 s: weak, 6+card «:  2/3[cheapest]« <= 9
2nd response after the rebid
responder's
hand		 the opener's hand
a: b: c: d: e: f:
p: 2ª pass pass 3ª 3©/ª NT/fit
q: 3ª 3/4ª 4ª 4ª/NT 4ª/NT 4ª/NT
r: 2NT 2NT 3NT 3NT 3NT? 3NT?
s: pass pass pass pass pass? pass?
t: ?*** ?*** ?*** ?*** ?*** ?***
t: inquiring (secret motifs) ***:   ??? >=12
2 § 5-card §, singleton/void ª >=10
2 ¨ 5-card ¨, singleton/void ª >=10
2 © 4+card ©, 2--card ª, forcing >=10
2 ª stop bid with a 3-card ª 6 - 9
2NT Jacoby 2NT fit, no void/sgln,GF, ctrls? >=15
3 § splinter, void/singleton §, GF, controls? >=12
type frequency %
absolute relative
a: 3.382 50.36
b: 1.403 20.89
c: 0.573 8.52
d: 0.508 7.57
e: 0.251 3.74
f: 0.559 8.92
total: 6.716 100.00
3 ¨ splinter, void/singleton ¨, GF, controls? >=12
3 © splinter, void/singleton ©, GF, controls? >=12
3 ª limit bid: 4-card ª 10-12
3NT to play >=12
 
 
* The response 2 § or 2 ¨ may always be a 3+card (¨ is always longer then §). Normally never exceed 2 ©. Your partner might like to call that, so be prepared for this.  
** The second response also depends on the opener's rebid. This rebid describes the type (one out of six ++) of the opening hand. © Chiel
*** This is often done with a strong hand, without an obvious fit, wanting information about strength and distribution in order to establish level and nature of the final contract. Verwoest

return to : LINKS GENERAL OVERVIEWS



Here comes a final word to the "multi-way forcing Sohl": 1NT forcing convention.
The convention is not new in bridge. It is known (maybe well known, I do not know) in the USA, though more restricted as was described here (with only four opener's hand-types and without the single jump splinter bids). If you compare this convention with Stayman, Jacoby and Lebensohl, you see something strange:
Sohl has similarities whith each of these three conventions: 3 "look-alike"s:

The Sohl reponse could also be defined as:
Sohl is a Stayman-like asking response to an opening bid, after which the rebid is Stayman-like describing. The second response describes the responder's hand in a Lebensohl-byepass/Jacoby-revealing-like way.
We did mention this, not to confuse you, but to show you that fundamentally "there never is something genuinely new in bridge". This makes seemingly new things easier to understand, to learn and to practice.
If you think through, you'll observe that the four conventions have more correspondences. In the former chapter 1NT-Sohl this was discussed already. Especially Stayman is a pure Sohl which enables Jacoby through its bye pass function. It is also, like all other Sohl responses, the minor suit sohls included, the cheapest response possible.
Having read this, certainly after having experienced the convention and knowing that thanks to the "multi-way forcing Sohl" convention you can splinter with single jumps, every reader must be convinced of the power of this convention.
Reading this chapter again I must tell that I would not be surprised if you came to three conclusions.


If you want to see examples of bridgames in which the matter, treated in this section, is practiced you should click on examples and choose for the appropriate convention or for any typical opening bid.

The introduction of the sohl responses makes the system very vulnerable to bidding disturbances by the opponents. The defense system contains agreements how to handle these disturbances. As to the subject of this page, you should have a look at overview DEFENSE after 1MaS openings where most of the possible interventions are discussed shortly.




Als je voorbeelden van bridge spellen, waarin het voorgaande is toegepast, wilt zien dan moet je op voorbeelden klikken. Je komt dan op een ander blad waar je in staat wordt gesteld passende voorbeelden te kiezen