Rules Of 20 and 15


Rule of 20: Guide to opening weak hands.

Marty Bergen devised this guide for opening weak hands (less than 13 HCPs) in first or second seats.:

Add your total HCP to the length of your two longest suits.

If the total is 20 or more, HCP . If it is less than 20, pass.

Most of your HCP should be in your two longest suits. Widely scattered honors or unprotected honors should be downgraded.

For example:

    J8764 K Q54 AJ62 -- Pass
    KJ764 8 Q54 AJ62 -- Open

A bidding quiz on Richard Pavlicek's web site had this hand: AQJ42 94 KJ8 862. The correct bid is Pass, though we suspect that most club players would open this 1; however, the total HCP (11) and length of the two longest suits (8) also indicates that pass is correct according to Rule of 20.

On the other hand, Larry Cohen says on his web site:

    I think the Rule of 20, is a good guideline, especially for newer players. It gives an immediate (and easy) ballpark estimate of what is or isn't an opening bid. However (and Marty would be the first to agree), it is just "general advice." It is not to be followed religiously.

Also, here are two hands from the 2017 Vanderbilt which were in an article in the ACBL Bridge Bulletin (June 2017). No notes or comments were made about these bids which tends to indicate that the commentator didn’t find them odd or unusual.

  • 5-T92-AKQ62-9632 (9 HCP) – Opened 1D in first seat; vul. not specified.  
  • AQ93-K97432-9-T4 (9 HCP) – Opened 1H in first seat; neither side vulnerable.

The 05-11-2019 Bobby Wolff newspaper bridge column shows T Q9873 KT KJT76 which was opened 1 by Mecksworth in the 2000 U.S. Team trials. Unlike the 2 hands above, the heart suit is mediocre, so it's possible the opening this 9-HCP hand was prompted by nothing more than "5-5 Come Alive".

Rule Of 15: Guide to opening in 4th seat.

This is a guide to whether or not to open in 4th seat (after 3 passes) with a marginal hand.

Add your HCP to the number of spades in your hand. If the total is 15+, open; otherwise, pass.

The idea is that in this situation, HCP will be fairly evenly divided between the two sides, and the side with the spade suit will have the advantage in outbidding the others. For one thing, opening 1 means the opponents would have to come in on the 2 level.