By Peter Rhead
Western Cuebid
The Western Cuebid is known also by the name Texas Cuebid. It is designed to allow a partnership to get to a Three No-Trump game contract when the status of one suit is unknown.
It works as follows:
Suppose you open One Heart with a solid six-suiter. Left-hand opponent passes. Partner bids Two Clubs. Your right-hand opponent bids Two Spades. You have a slightly stronger hand than minimum. Your hand contains some stoppers in the unbid suit as well as your solid six-card suit. To consider Three No-Trump, you want to know if partner has a stopper in the opponent’s suit. You make a Cuebid of the opponent’s suit at the three level (Three Spades) asking partner if he has a stopper. If partner has a stopper, he is to bid Three No-Trump. If he has no stopper but two-card support for your Heart suit, he bids your suit (Four Hearts). Failing that, he bids his own strongest suit at the lowest possible level. There the contract will be played for a part score unless you choose to continue bidding your Hearts.
Guideline one: The Western Cuebid is a three-level bid of the opponent’s suit.
Guideline two: The Western Cuebid is used only to discover the possibility of 3NT.
Guideline three: The Western Cuebid may be bid by the opener or responder.
For more information, Google “Western Cuebid”.
Next Week: Examples of when you and your partner could use the Western Cuebid
Remember, as we all fight COVID-19 with social isolation, if you want your Bridge fix, online competition is available for all skill levels. From the ACBL Bridge website, you can hook up either to play live people or to play robots. Either way you test or consolidate various Bridge skills. At ACBL.org just click on “Play Bridge” and follow the prompts for various choices.
If you wish to promote an activity in your Bridge group or ask a Bridge question, send the information to [email protected] and I will try to include it in this column.
Looking for more bridge tips? You’ll find them here.
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