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. 1