The Unassuming Cue Bid

Why do we need the "Unassuming Cue Bid"?

Let us consider an auction where your LHO has opened the bidding with 1, your partner has overcalled with 1, and you RHO has passed. We write this auction, using parentheses to enclose the opponents' calls, as follows:

(1) 1 (pass)

It is your call. Let me give you two possible hands with which you might consider raising your partner to 3:

	K 8 6 5
	7
	6 3 2
	9 7 5 3 2

When you have a hand with trump support and distributional values, it is modern practice to bid immediately to the level equal to the total number of trumps you know your side must hold. Here you have 4 spades in support of partner's 5-card or longer suit. You know of at least 9 trumps, so you bid 3

, a contract for 9 tricks, and hope that it ends the auction. But you need to pray that partner does not think that you are inviting him to advance to 4

if he has a strong hand!

	K 10 6
	K 7
	Q 6 3 2
	A 7 5 3

With this hand you think you can make 3

, even if your partner has a minimum hand for his overcall, so you bid 3

. You will be happy for your partner to continue to game if he has a better than minimum hand. If the opponents outbid you, you will be happy for your partner to double their contract if he feels he has the right hand.

You will have noticed, I suspect, a serious flaw in this. We must not bid two completely different hands in the same way, or otherwise how is our partner to know what action to take? If partner has a minimum overcall, he will have no problem: he will pass.

	Q J 9 7 3
	A Q 5
	7
	K J 6 4

But say partner has this hand, which is somewhat better than minimum. Now his best action is to pass if you have the first hand, but clearly he should bid game if you have the second. How is he to know what he should do?

The problem arises from using the raise to 3 with two completely different hand types. It is a poor bidding system that leaves our partner in a position where he must guess what to do. By adding a new tool to our bidding vocabulary, the "Unassuming Cue Bid", we can solve this problem very easily.

The Unassuming Cue Bid

In any competitive auction, it is so rarely right for our side to want to play the contract in a suit first bid by the opponents that we can dismiss that possibility altogether. We would only choose a suit as trumps if we have at least eight of them between our two hands. If we have do have eight cards between us in a suit that an opponent has already bid first, and we were to choose that suit as trumps, then since his bid usually promises at least a 4-card suit, we are very likely to find our trump suit breaking 4-1 or 5-0. Who wants to play in a trump suit that is expected to break 4-1 or 5-0? Nobody. So it costs us nothing to have the simple rule that a bid by our side of a suit mentioned first by an opponent is not a natural bid.

We agree that when we bid a suit that an opponent has already bid we are not suggesting that we play in that suit as trumps. With that in mind we will look again at the auction above:

(1) 1 (pass)

We can now use a bid of 2 or 3 (in fact any bid of diamonds) in an artificial way. We assign to the artificial bid the meaning of showing the values to raise partner's suit with the expectation of making the contract. That is, a bid of 2 by us shows that we expect to make a contract of 2, and a bid of 3 by us shows that we expect to make a contract of 3, etc.

We call such a bid an "Unassuming Cue Bid". In the context of a competitive auction, a "Cue Bid" is a bid of a suit that was first bid naturally by one of the opponents. It is a "Cue Bid", because it cues some response from our partner — he must not pass it under any circumstances. The "Unassuming" part of the name relates to the fact that in making an "Unassuming Cue Bid" you are not promising any more high card strength than will be required to make a contract at the next level of your trump suit. In the mid 20th century any cue bid promised a powerhouse of a hand, the type that you might get once every two years if you are lucky. Modern bridge players have found it good practice to assign meanings to bids that cause them occur more frequently, so that they are more useful and more constructive in everyday auctions.

Having assigned the Unassuming Cue Bid ("UCB") for showing support to a level where we expect the contact to make, it conveniently leaves us with direct raises of partner's suit as having a pre-emptive intent. Thus a bid of 2, 3 or 4 all show weak but distributional hands. How high should you pre-emptively raise? Bid for the number of tricks that are equal to the total number of trumps between the two hands. This pre-emptive principle is called the "TNT" raise (Total Number of Trumps).

Using the "Unassuming Cue Bid"

We will now reconsider the same auction as above, and the same hands, but this time we will be armed with our Unassuming Cue Bid (also known as "UCB"). To remind you, our auction is:

(1) 1 (pass)

Now you can bid the two example hands in a way which clearly distinguishes them:

	K 8 6 5
	7
	6 3 2
	9 7 5 3 2

Bid 3 (TNT): Your partner's overcall promised at least five spades. You have four spades, so bid for nine tricks in spades. This pre-emptive action makes it very difficult for LHO to make a further try. He might have bid 3

or 3

if you had bid only 2

, but will he now bid 4

or 4

over your bid of 3

? Should he bid, pass, or double your contract? Whatever action he takes may well be wrong. You are making him guess — a good tactic!

	K 10 6
	K 7
	Q 6 3 2
	A 7 5 3

Bid 3 (UCB): This Unassuming Cue Bid shows you think you can make a contract of 3

. Partner should sign off in 3

with a minimum hand, but if he has extra values he should bid 4

. If the opponents outbid us, partner will know that we have useful high card values so he will know that the opponents are sacrificing and he can double their contract if he chooses.

Now let's look at how easy it is for partner to make the right decision:

	Q J 9 7 3
	A Q 5
	7
	K J 6 4

If you have made the TNT raise of 3

, partner has an easy decision to pass. He can sit back comfortably and let the next opponent guess what action to take. But if you have raised partner by making the UCB of 3

, partner has an equally easy decision to bid 4

. You have invited him to continue to game, and he is pleased to accept your invitation.

The same principle of distinguishing between TNT (pre-emptive) raises and UCB (value) raises applies at lower levels and higher levels in exactly the same way. After the same start to the auction, (1) 1 (pass), you can describe these weaker and stronger hands, and shorter and longer trump lengths, in this way:

	K 8 5
	7 6
	6 3 2
	9 7 5 3 2

Bid 2 (TNT): The known Total Number of Trumps is eight. It is important to show support for partner whenever you can, so even with rubbish like this you should not be shy of bidding 2

. Partner will know you to have a weak and trashy hand like this, because you had the opportunity to make a UCB at a lower level than your actual bid but you failed to avail yourself of it.

	K 10 6
	K 7
	Q 6 3 2
	Q 7 5 3

Bid 2 (UCB): This Unassuming Cue Bid shows that you think you can make a contract of 2

. Partner should bid 2

with no interest in game, but if he has extra values he can make a try for game, or bid game himself.

	K 8 6 5 2
	7
	6 3 2
	9 7 5 3

Bid 4 (TNT): The known Total Number of Trumps is ten. Bid to this level immediately, and let the opponents try to guess correctly what their best action might be. They will frequently guess wrong. When they do guess wrong you will get a great score, and even when they guess right you will usually get an average score. You should be backing this horse in every race!

	K 10 6
	K 7
	A 6 3 2
	A 7 5 3

Bid 4: This Unassuming Cue Bid shows that you think you can make a contract of 4

. If the opponents outbid you, your side is obliged either to bid to a higher level (but only if you think your contract will make) or to double their contract. Your UCB promises defensive values in high cards.

UCB applies in all competitive auctions

I have presented the Unassuming Cue Bid from the perspective of the overcalling side. But the UCB is an equally useful tool to the side that opened the bidding.

If your partner opened the bidding with 1 and your RHO overcalled 1, you can now make a TNT raise (pre-emptive) by bidding diamonds or a UBC raise (showing the values to make the contract) by bidding spades. For example:

	6 3
	J 9 2
	A J 7 5 2
	7 3 2

Bid 3 (TNT): The known Total Number of Trumps is nine (partner's 3

may be a 4-card suit). With a weak hand that has all its values in diamonds, you wish to make a try at claiming the contract and at obstructing the opponents.

	6 3
	A Q 9
	A J 7 5 2
	7 3 2

Bid 2 (UCB): This Unassuming Cue Bid shows that you think you can make a contract of 3

. It also gives partner space to show a spade stopper by bidding 2NT or 3NT. Partner may have a 15-19 hcp balanced hand and, if he has a good spade stopper, in the light of your UCB he will bid 3NT with alacrity. If you are going to be in game, 3NT is often much easier to make than 5

Extension — An Advanced Agreement

Many partnerships have found it useful to extend their use of a cue bid in the opponents' suit:

A jump cue bid of the opponents' suit is a "splinter" raise of partner's suit and promises good trump support together with a singleton or void in the opponents' suit.
A non-jump cue bid of the opponents' suit is an ordinary UCB. However, the ordinary UCB also has to handle hands that are strong enough for a higher-level UCB but cannot make the "splinter" raise because they have more than one card in the opponents' suit.

If you have this extended agreement with your partner then you will have to bid this hand (which we have seen above) slightly differently. After the auction has started (1) 1 (pass):

	K 10 6
	K 7
	Q 6 3 2
	A 7 5 3

Bid 2 (UCB): To bid 3

would show a singleton or void in diamonds, which you don't have. Because you are forcing the bidding to a contract level that you expect to make (in fact, you expect to make 3

), you must bid 2

, a UCB. But because you are stronger than partner expects, if partner then signs off with 2

you need to show your extra strength by advancing to 3

. Partner can then pass with a minimum or accept the invitation to game with extra values.

There are pros and cons for this extended agreement. Against is the extra complexity and also that a lower-level UCB (as in the example above, where you have to bid 2 instead of 3) can let the opponents back in to the bidding when the higher cue bid would have kept them quiet. For is the advantge of showing shortage in the opponents' suit when you have the right hand, which greatly helps your partner to judge how many tricks your side can expect to make.

This agreement that a jump cue bid is a "splinter" is a good agreement to have, but I suggest that, for the sake of simplicity, you start without it. You can add it later, if you wish, once you are confident in using Unassuming Cue Bids.

Author: Chris Burton
Gravesend Bridge Club