Valentines Bidding in Bridge

Few bidding systems surprised me like Valentines (No, I do not play it). Being the brainchild of Colin Ward, it excels in novelty while still being a playable system. I know that there are a lot of bidding systems enthusiasts out there, and I am sure some approaches if not all of Valentines will provide many hours of musing and tinkering. This, from the introduction:

Unlike strong club systems, Valentines is a forcing club system which prides itself not so much on its slam-bidding as on its part score and competitive bidding. As such, it is an excellent duplicate system while retaining a capability to generate huge swings in teams play.

In learning Valentines it is important to unlearn everything known about standard, approach-forcing systems. For example, reverses do not show extra strength. Opener never bids 3-card suits as "natural". There are no jump rebids on 3-card suits. In this regard Valentines is more natural than standard approaches.

Valentines derives its name from its concentration on the Heart suit. After the forcing (but not necessarily strong) 1♣ opening and negative 1♦ response it is a 1♥ rebid which shows a strong hand. In many slam-bidding sequences 4♦ invites a slam in Hearts while 4♣ invites a slam in any of the other three suits. The reader will see many other instances where the heart suit affects the auction more than any other suit.

Valentines is a distributional bidding system. Players open their four card suit, not their 5-carder. This is true regardless of the relative strengths of the suits.

The Opening Bids:

1♣ : either

• Canapé from a 4+card club suit into a 5+card suit, 12-16 HCP, or
• Club 1-suiter with 6+ clubs, 12-16 HCPs, or
• Flat hand with 4-2-3-4 or 4+ Clubs only, 12-16 HCP, or
• Strong hand with 17+ HCP and any distribution.

1♦ : either

• Diamond one-suiter, 15-17 HCP, or
• Balanced with 4 diamonds and not 4 hearts OR 4-3-4-2, 12-16 HCP, or
• Canapé diamond 2-suiter (diamonds are shorter), or
• 3-suiter with short clubs.

1♥ : either

• 4+ hearts in a flat hand (less than 4 Spades) 12-16 hcp, or
• Canapé 2-suiter with hearts, or
• suiter with 6+ hearts, 15-17.

1♠ : either

• 1-suiter (6+ Spades or 5-2-3-3 distribution) 15-17, or
• Canapé 2-suiter with spades and a longer second suit, 12-16.

1NT: Balanced with 5-3, 4-3 or 4-4 in spades and hearts (in that order) and 12-16.
2♣ : 3 suited with clubs (Roman) and 12-18.
2♦ : 1-suiter with 6+ diamonds, 11-14.
2♥ : 1-suiter with 6+ hearts, 11-14.
2♠ : 1-suiter with 6+ spades or exactly 5-2-3-3, 11-14.
2NT: Your choice.

As a teaser, let me give you the responses to 1♣ opening:

• 1♦ : 0-7, negative but don't be fooled before seeing other responses.
• 1♥ : Artificial positive; 8+ HCP unbalanced or 9+ balanced.
• 1♠ : 4+ spades, natural and non-forcing, 0-10 HCP.
• 1NT: balanced (includes all 5332 shapes), 6-8 HCP.
• 2♣ : 4+ clubs and 5+ diamonds, 0-6 HCP.
• 2♦ : 1-4-5-3-ish shape or 1-3-6-3 with weak diamonds, 8-11 HCP.
• 2♥ : 1-5-4-3-ish, denies a second spade or a fourth club, 8-11.
• 2♠ : 6+ spades, 0-5 HCP.

Read the rest at Colin Ward's.