Inviting To Game
Honours working together can make a break a hand. When we're thinking of bidding game, points alone don't always give us the information we need. Which points partner has can be be more useful to know than how many.
Partner raises to 2 Of Our Major
We open 1♥ an partner raises to 2♥ Have we got enough to go to game? It depends a little bit on North's holding in the other suits.
Which Honours Would Be Useful In Partner's Hand?
Imagine North has got the ♣Q, that card would be useless to us.
Fitting Cards
Imagine North's got the ♦Q, or even the ♦A. Those cards would be really good because they would help us establish the diamond suit.
Trial Bids In Action
So what I can do here is use a bidding convention called a trial bid. North and South both know that hearts will be the trump suit. 3♦ says tell me if you've got anything useful in diamonds.
Source Of Tricks
North knows the ♦Q will be useful and bids 4♥. With nothing in diamonds North would stop in 3♥.
An easy one to play, we can just draw trumps and knock out the ♦A. The diamond suit gives us three tricks and we make 4♥.
Long Suit vs Short Suit Game Tries
You can also play short suit game tries. Here's a quick breakdown of both methods.
Long Suit Game Tries (Help Suit Game Tries)
In a Long Suit Game Try (often called a Help Suit Game Try), your new suit bid shows length - usually a suit of 3 or more cards with some losers (like A-K-x-x or K-J-x-x). You are explicitly telling partner, "I have high-card losers here. Do you have features to help cover them?"
When partner evaluates their hand, they are looking for "good" values in your trial suit. An Ace, a King, or a Queen-doubleton are perfect because they directly stop your losers. Conversely, secondary values in your other side suits are downgraded because they won't help fix your problem area. If partner has help, they bid game; if they have wasted values elsewhere and small cards in your help suit, they sign off at the 3-level.
Short Suit Game Tries (Splinters/Help in Reverse)
A Short Suit Game Try turns this logic entirely upside down. Your new suit bid announces a singleton or a void. Instead of asking for help in that suit, you are warning partner, "I am short here. Do not count any secondary high cards you hold in this suit, because I can just ruff my losers."
For partner, hand evaluation becomes a matter of assessing duplication of value. If partner holds the King and Queen of your short suit, those points are completely wasted, and they will decline the invitation to game. However, if partner holds absolute trash in your short suit (like three small cards) and has their high-card points in the other side suits, your hands fit perfectly. You can ruff their losers, and their high cards will win tricks elsewhere.
Which one should you play?
Many experts have strong opinions about it all but if you and your partner pick one method and stick to it you'll be 99% of the way there.