Decisions, decisions, decisions. So many in bridge! Don’t despair. Here are three calls I’d like you to make:

Q. 1—Sitting South and dealing, with no one vulnerable, you hold:

♠️ Q J 3

♥️ A K J 4

♦️ 5 4

♣️ Q 10 8 6

The bidding has proceeded as follows:

South  West        North     East

1♣️.    Pass       1♥️      Pass

?

What do you bid?

A.—Many players would fall in love with hearts and jump to 3♥️. Don’t. A 3♥️ response would show 16-18 support points. You have a simple opener. Raise to 2♥️.

Q.2—Sitting North, with South dealing and both sides vulnerable, you hold:

♠️ 7 6

♥️ K Q 5 2

♦️ K 7 5 3

♣️ K 7 4

The bidding has proceeded as follows:

Sout   West   North   East

1♣️    1♠️    ?

What do you bid?

A.—A tough call. With 11 high-card points, you want to say something, but you can’t bid 2♥️ with only four of them. Some would pass in soul-breaking remorse. Do you remember negative doubles? A double here would show four hearts for sure and possibly four diamonds. More important, it would keep the auction open for a possible game contract.

Q.3—Sitting South, with North dealing and North-South vulnerable, you hold:

♠️A K

♥️ A J 4

♦️ 5 4

♣️ Q J 10 9 6 5

The bidding has proceeded as follows:

North    East    South    West

1♦️      2♥️    3♣️       Pass

3♥️      Pass ?

What does partner’s 3♥️ mean? How should you reply?

A.—It would be easy to forget East’s weak-two bid and assume partner has hearts. If that were the case, North would probably bid 3NT. Instead, North’s 3♥️ is a western cuebid asking you to bid 3NT if you have one or more heart stoppers. If so, bid 3NT.

This is it for 2025. Have a great offseason and schedule lots of bridge parties!