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Have to Bid?  
Q When an opponent opens a strong 2 club bid -- your partner passes and opener's partner passes.You are sitting with 15 points. Do you have to bid??? ( telling them where all the points are).
A The partner of the 2 club bidder has to bid, not you. They shouldn't have passed their partner, even with 0 pts. We would pass as fast as possible unless you have a great hand (remember the strong hand will always play after you). If you bid, both opener and their partner get a chance to correct the mistaken pass before.

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Which is Stronger?  
Q Partner opened 1D and I had a choice between 1H and 2D. I bid 2D to show a trump fit right away and that I had the strength to bid at the 2 level right?
A Bidding 2D is a weak bid showing 7-10 points while 1H is unlimited in it's point count. Plus when opener bids 1D they are asking you to bid a major suit if you have one. 2D denies a 4 card major suit. See our bidding index for more bids.

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Free Bids  
Q Partner opens 1H. With 7 points I would normally raise to 2H. But when the next player throws in a bid of 1S, everyone says I now need to have more points to raise?
A This is called a Free Bid. It used to be the case that you had to have greater strength, but nowadays this practice has fallen by the wayside and you should bid 2 Hearts. Otherwise partner will think you have nothing and be afraid to compete further. It takes 26 points to make game in a major so if partner has 13 and you have 7, together you have 20 and a 2 bid is perfectly safe.

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