Reverse Majors after 1/
Since spades
are higher ranked than hearts it is important when you have the hearts
and opponents have the spades to make it harder for them to
compete. This is the rationale behind inverted majors. It works like this:
1/ - ?
1: 4+
1: 4+
Both bids are forcing and to be used in a standard system. After the
1 response if opener rebids 1 this
shows 4 cards in .
All other continuations are as when not playing inverted majors,
except for the weak 5-4 hands:
1m - 1 - 1NT - 2 = 5 + 4 NF
1m - 1 - 1NT - 2 = 5 + 4 NF
Remember that you need to think of this before responding to the
opening bid as you have to bid your 4-card suit first. All strong
variations use your favorite Checkback Stayman or New Minor
Forcing convention.
Rationale
When you respond 1 to show hearts you take away one
possible call from the opponents. This makes it harder for them to
find the higher ranking spade suit. In return they get one extra bid
when you respond 1 to show spades. As spades is the
highest ranked suit this is worth less than the bid taken away when we
had hearts as we can outbid them more easily.