Inverted Minors

Inverted Minors

A common method for directly raising Opener’s minor suit is the so-called “Inverted Minor” convention whereby 1♣ 2♣ and 1♦ 2♦ show the following:

- At least 4-card support

- No 4-card major

- At least game-invitational values

Try these examples (after an opening bid of 1♦):

♠ A654, ♥ K85, ♦ KJT6, ♣ 32

A 1♠ bid, cannot make an Inverted Raise with 4 Spades.

♠ A43, ♥ KJ7, ♦ T985, ♣ QJT

2♦ here is possible, but 2NT (11-12) is more descriptive with this square hand.

♠ A4, ♥ K8, ♦ QT65, ♣ KQJ75

Bid 2♣ here, creating a force and planning to raise Diamonds next time.

♠ 54, ♥ K83, ♦ QT65, ♣ AQ87

Yes, an Inverted Raise to 2♦!

Follow-Up Method

The two most commonly used natural follow-ups to 1♣ 2♣ or 1♦ 2♦ are:

- Show Stoppers, attempting to determine if a No Trump contract is viable. So, 1♦ 2♦, 2♠ says “I have a Spade stopper but not one in Hearts”. And 1♦ 2♦, 2NT says “I have a stopper in both majors”. Neither bid says anything about the strength of the hand

- Show Hand-Type: 1♦ 2♦, 2NT shows a minimum balanced hand, and may or may not have major suit stoppers. 1♦ 2♦, 3♦ is also minimum, and usually unbalanced or with Diamond length. Responder may pass either of these sequences with a minimum

To us the stopper method seems somewhat unstructured. We prefer the Hand-Type method and that is what we discuss below.

Opener is Minimum

After 1♦ 2♦, Opener bids as follows:

- 2NT is 12-14, balanced

- 3♦ is minimum, unbalanced

- Other bids are game-forcing

Some examples after 1♦ 2♦:

♠ A743, ♥ K6, ♦ KQJ7, ♣ 987

Balanced and minimum, an obvious 2NT bid

♠ A743, ♥ 86, ♦ KQJ7, ♣ K97

With a worthless doubleton in Hearts, we’d bid 3♦ here. Partner has no more than three Hearts, of course, and if the hand belongs in 3NT it may well play better from Partner’s side. However, with three small in a major and a balanced hand, we’d bid 2NT, that third card greatly reduces the probability of them running 5 tricks.

♠ A743, ♥ Q8, ♦ KJT6, ♣ K97

Here, the Hearts are still not stopped, but 3NT is likely to play better from this side (picture Partner with Kxx or Axx), so we’d bid 2NT anyway.

♠ A74, ♥ K6, ♦ QJT653, ♣ Q6

With a 6-card minor (and a minimum hand), rebid 3♦. And with a 5-card minor? It depends on the rest of the hand, so rely on good judgment.

Opener Has Extras

Other than 2NT and a re-raise to 3 of the minor, all rebids by Opener are game-forcing, as follows (after 1♦ 2♦):

- 3NT: This is not 15-17 HCP’s due to the failure to open 1NT, so the obvious interpretation is 18-19.

- 2♥ or 2♠: Most of the time this will be a 4-card suit because the semi-balanced hands will be bid differently (1NT opening or 3NT rebid). Responder should feel free to raise to three of the major with good 3-card support and with reason to think that the 4-3 major fit might be the place to play.

- 3♥ or 3♠: Splinter bids.

Some examples after 1♦ 2♦:

♠ AQ, ♥ JT65, ♦ AQJ76, ♣ KT

There doesn’t seem to be much point to bidding 2♥ with that weak suit, our choice would be 3NT showing 18-19.

♠ 8, ♥ AQ65, ♦ AQJ76, ♣ KT2

Is this a 2♥ bid or a 3♠ Splinter? Our choice would be 2♥, keeping 4♥ in the picture.

♠ 8, ♥ A65, ♦ AQJ765, ♣ KT2

Yes, this one is a Splinter.

One More Sequence

How about 1♦ 2♦, 3♣? Our own suggestion is that this shows shortness, with or without extras. If that is the case, 3♦ now would be non-forcing. If you don’t like that idea, then you can play it as natural, or, alternatively, as showing shortness, but with extras.

The Weak Inverted Raise

The other half of Inverted Minors is the preemptive double raise. 1♣ 3♣ and 1♦ 3♦ show:

- At least 5-card support

- No 4-card major

- Weak hand

The HCP range is played by some as 0-8, with 9+ and a 5-card suit the hand is usually worth an invitational raise). But 0-8 seems excessively wide to us, sometimes making it impossible for Opener to judge accurately. To get around this problem we suggest splitting the range into two chunks:

- 0-4 is an Inverted Raise to three of the minor.

- 5-8 is expressed some other way. One common method is to use 1♣ 2♦ and 1♦ 3♣ for this purpose, giving up on whatever other meanings are available for those bids. If you don’t like that, and if you cannot remember the last time your auction started 1♣ 2♠ or 1♦ 2♠, then consider using it for the upper end of your preemptive minor raises.

After 1♣ 3♣ or 1♦ 3♦, there’s no need for too much science. A simple and natural approach would be that a new suit at the three-level shows values in the suit and is trying to get to 3NT.

Inverted Raise by Passed Hand

Most partnerships play that the Inverted Raise is still on by a passed hand. The subsequent auction follows much the same rules as before, the major difference being that Opener is not obliged to bid again opposite a passed hand.

Inverted Raise in Competition

The common style is not to play the Inverted Raise after the opponents have interfered:

- If the opponents overcall, then, with a hand that wishes to show strong support, simply cue-bid the enemy suit first.

- If the opponents double, then 2NT is generally used to show support and at least invitational values, and a direct raise to 3 of the minor is preemptive. This is the so-called Jordan (aka Truscott) convention, and some players also use the Flip-Flop version, whereby, after 1♦ Dbl, 2NT is the weak raise and 3♦ the stronger raise.

Slam Bidding

If you are using 4NT for minor-suit Blackwood (or Roman Key Card), then you have probably noticed that it doesn’t work very well! Here are the two obvious defects:

- There’s precious little space between 4NT and 5 of a minor, so the response has a tendency to get the partnership to slam with insufficient controls.

- Even if the partnership discovers that it has insufficient controls and can still play in 5♣ or 5♦, it may well wish that it was playing in the better-scoring 3NT or 4NT.

Naturally, we would not mention this problem unless we had a solution, and that would be Minorwood and/or Redwood, a couple of methods which offer a more economical way of invoking Blackwood:

- Minorwood: Here, 4 of the agreed minor is Blackwood, as in 1♦ 2♦, 4♦, or 1♠ 2♣, 3♣ 4♣, or even 1♠ 2♣, 4♣. We like Minorwood, but must stress the importance of having clear-cut partnership rules for when 4 of a minor is Minorwood and when it is not.

- Redwood: Here, the suit above the minor is used for Blackwood, as in 1♦ 2♦, 4♥, or 1♠ 2♣, 3♣ 4♥, or 1♠ 2♣, 3♣ 4♦. We also like Redwood, but things get messy when the Redwood suit has previously been bid naturally. For example, what does this auction mean: 1♥ 2♦, 3♦ 4♥?

- Bothwood: Playing this, 4 of the agreed minor is Minorwood, provided that the auction satisfies the aforementioned rules. If that is not the case, then Redwood applies.

For examples of Inverted Raises from actual play, please follow this link to the Archives