- PRINCIPLE 0: Always open, overcall and respond with your clearly longest suit.
- PRINCIPLE 1: An opening bid or response of 1 of suit always guarantees five or more cards and 8-16 HCP.
- The hand must also satisfy the Rule of 18 — i.e. total HCP plus the combined length of the two longest suits must equal or exceed 18.
- One important corollary is that you cannot respond 1 of a new suit with a four-card suit.
- PRINCIPLE 2: An opening bid or response of 2 of a suit always guarantees six or more cards and 3-16 HCP.
- So, for example, you cannot respond to 1NT with 2 of a suit, part from 2♣, unless you have six cards in that suit. And you cannot bid a natural overcall over 1NT with just five cards in the suit.
- PRINCIPLE 3: A 6+ card suit can also be opened at the one-level if it satisfies the criteria for such a bid.
- This overlap in the ranges for an opening bid helps to keep the bidding low while the partners search for a fit. In practice this means that a two-level opening bid will contain 3-8 HCP, because on any more, the hand would satisfy the criteria for a one-level opening. Two-level overcalls, on the other hand, occupy the full range 3-16 HCP, because opposition bidding will often force a two-level bid.
- PRINCIPLE 4: There is no difference in the requirements for opening bids and overcalls. They share the same point-count range and the same suit-length requirements.
- PRINCIPLE 5: 1NT, whether bid as an opening, overcall or response, does not claim a stopper in any suit bid by the opponents.
- PRINCIPLE 6: If Opener/Overcaller rebids his suit on the second round, this shows a suit longer than the five cards originally promised.
- A simple rebid — e.g. 1♥ then 2♥ — shows a 6-card suit.
- A jump rebid — e.g. 1♣ then 3♣ — shows a 7-card suit.
- PRINCIPLE 7: No extra values are needed to bid any 4-card suit at the two-level on the second round.
- There is no concept of a 'barrier' or a 'reverse'.
- PRINCIPLE 8: If you have 11-16 HCP and no suit longer than four cards, always open or overcall 1NT, even with a 4-4-4-1 shape.
- 1NT as a response promises the same distributional restrictions but 8-16 HCP.
- PRINCIPLE 9: Simplex is a fundamentally natural bidding system. The only gadgets used are 2♣ Stayman, 4NT Blackwood, and 2NT.
- PRINCIPLE 10: Hands with trump support but less than 10 HCP bid immediately to their total trump level.
- For example, after a 1♥ opening by partner, a hand containing 6 HCP and four cards in the heart suit would immediately raise to 3♥. (Partner is known to have at least five hearts. Add those five to the four that responder has makes nine. Take six from nine means a raise to the 3-level.)
- PRINCIPLE 11: If a bidder cannot make the first-round bid his hand merits (because the opposition have already taken the auction too high), the bidder simply doubles, with an implied message to partner: "RHO has just taken my opening bid away, and I believe it is safe for you to bid at this or one level higher."
- PRINCIPLE 12: After a suit-raise by partner — e.g. 1♦:2♦, 1♥:3♥, 1♠:4♠, 1♣:5♣ — do not bid on.
- That is, unless the opponents are trying to steal your contract and you have extra suit length beyond the five cards your initial bid promised.
- PRINCIPLE 13: Ignore first-round doubles by the opponents. Carry on and make the bid you would have made if the opponents had passed.
- PRINCIPLE 14: Simplex is designed so that the contract reached is, on most occasions, dealer-independent. That is, if all four players are Simplex bidders, the same contract should be reached, irrespective of who opened the bidding.
- There are no suit quality requirements for opening bids and overcalls.
- Except for strong (17+) hands, four-card suits are never explicitly bid in the first round.
- Always bid the cheaper of equal-length suits.
- Apart from the use of double (which shows that one's bid has been taken away), Simplex never keys its bids off the opponents' bidding. (There is, for example, no concept of a jump overcall relative to an opponent's bid.) Simplex says that each hand is worth a particular bid, or sequence of bids, and if one of those bids cannot be made because of opposition bidding, the appropriate bidding action is often "Double".
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