Ever wonder why stop signs have eight sides? Back around 1900, drivers didn't need licenses, there were no defined lanes and no signs. As traffic increased, so did mayhem.

Enter a clever man (whose name has been lost to history) in the Mississippi transportation department. "What if," he suggested, "the shape of the sign denoted the danger level of the road ahead? The more sides, the more danger."

Round signs, with unlimited sides, were highest level danger (railroad crossings). Then the next most dangerous, intersections which earned eight-sided stop signs. Moving down the danger ladder, triangles for yield. And finally, rectangles for information like No Parking and street names. This made so much sense we still follow it.

And today, we're going to work on bids that show levels of caution.

Today we are going to work on identifying bids that LIMIT a hand to within 3-ish points. Also remember that once you've limited your hand, you should be VERY cautious about bidding again. Pard is in charge of initiating any more action and will have you walking on your own if you try to grab the captaincy.

Essentially there are three and a half kinds of limit bids. First, any rebid of an old suit by either partner limits the hand. Second, any bid of No-trump by anyone at any time in the auction is limiting. Third, pre-empts limit hands to usually 5-9 HCP. Finally, an initial pass is generally a limiting bid.

By the way, you won't have any hands to look at today. You'll be interpreting the bidding instead.

Ready to travel with us?