The Bidding Tool is an interactive website designed for beginners, children, and all players who find bidding challenging. You follow the instructions and find the proper bid based on the strength and distribution of your hand.

Bidding step-by-step will teach you practical thinking, and you will reach a good contract without much effort.
The bidding is natural, so it should be intuitive and effective. It uses commonly used conventions after a 1NT opening, such as Stayman & Transfer.

We recommend using it on a tablet, which you can leave in the middle of the table.
That way, everybody can see your bidding. You and your partner will alternate in bids.

Smartphones in the vertical position will not show the content properly. You can either turn the phone into a horizontal position, which should switch the view to a tablet mode, or you must set your browser to computer mode.

1. Click on the button "Bidding Tool" to see all possible openings.

2. Count your High Card Points (HCP) or Honor Tricks (HT) and determine your hand type:

e.g., 16 HCP, 4 HT, balanced hand type

3. Always start from the top-left and continue to the right till you find the criteria that fits your hand. The Tool teaches you how to think during the auction.

4. Choose one of the following possibilities and click on the button with the appropriate opening bid – it will open the following options. With the upper example you will choose the button "Standard".

5. By clicking on the "Standard" button you will see all possible standard openings:

6. When you find the first correct option from the left, you start searching for the option in the respective column. Our example hand has 5♥ so we click on the 1♥ button. The following table shows the responses of the partner who holds the following hand: 

e.g., 8 HCP, 2 HT, balanced hand type

7. Now, it is your partner's turn. He also follows the left-to-right approach in the grey area and stops with the first correct option. You don't have 3+♥, so you skip the first column and continue to the next one. You have 4+♠, so you start searching your bid in the second column.

8. You choose 1♠ bid that fits both your strength 6+ HCP (1.5+ HT) and distribution 4+♠. Now, it is the opener's turn again. He follows the left-to-right structure as well. This is the way you should think during the bidding.

9. The opener does not have 4♠ so continues to the second column. He has a balanced hand with 5-3-3-2 pattern. He searches for the bid in the second column and choose the one that corresponds to his strength of 16 HCP (4 HT). The next bid is 2NT.

10. The responder must now assess the combined strength of our partnership. With a minimum/weak hand, he either passes or bids with an interesting distribution. He should pass in our example. 2NT will become the final contract.

High Card Points (HCP) = Ace = 4 HCP, King = 3 HCP, Queen = 2 HCP, and Jack = 1 HCP. There are 40 HCP in the game.

Honor (H) = one of the high cards – Ace, King, Queen, or Jack.

Honor Trick (HT) = a card that will very likely win a trick in the card play. Ace = 1 HT, King = 0.75 HT, Queen = 0.5 HT, and Jack = 0.25 HT. There are 10 HT in the game. The remaining 3 tricks are length tricks.

Opening bid = the first bid on any hand, other than a pass. There is only one opening bid in each deal.

Response = the second bid made by the partner of the opener.

Rebid = the second bid of the player who made the opening bid.

Balanced hand = the most common hands that have about the same number of cards in each suit. The definition of a balanced hand is 2+ cards in all suits, a maximum of 5 cards in 1 suit, and a maximum of 8 cards in two suits. It contains the following patterns: 4333, 4432, 5332.

(Semi)-Balanced hand = other patterns that are suitable to play NT if we do not find a fit or if we have honor strength in the short suits: 5422, 4441, 6322, 5431.

Fit = number of cards in a suit for both partners together. We primarily discuss the fit when we support each other; we require a minimum of 8 cards, combined with our partner, to achieve a full fit. E.g., 6 cards in one hand and 4 cards in the partner's hand is a 10-card fit.

Game = A contract that is rewarded with a higher bonus. The lowest game contracts are: 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣, and 5♦. The reward for a game is 300 or 500, depending on the vulnerability.

Slam = a contract on the 6^th or 7^th level. The declaring side must make 12 or 13 tricks. 12 tricks is called a small slam, 13 tricks a grand slam. Slam contracts have even higher rewards than the game.

1. By clicking on any bid in the auction (blue field up), you can see all the available information. The pop-up window will appear. You will see the information below if you click on 2NT. If you click on any button in the pop-up window, you will get back to the sequence of your choice.

2. All other bidding sequences are similar. Evaluate your hand and find the appropriate bid. If you pass first, you can follow your partner's bidding. 

3. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. You can use the form below on this site.

4. We do not offer to bid a grand slam in the tool. If you think you have 13 tricks and losing none, just bid it!

5. This tool offers only constructive bidding – the opponents do not interfere.