[maris oren]

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north opens with 1♠

easts bid -Michaels cue bid or 2♥

Is there a minimum/ maximum no of points for Michaels cue bid?

[DavidKok]

This is a matter of partnership agreement. I have in the past played it in the following (mutually exclusive) ways:

• Promising at least 6 points (favourable vulnerability), 9 (neutral vulnerability) or 11 (unfavourable vulnerability) with no upper limit.
  
• At non-vulnerable, promising either 5-12 or 18+, and bidding the suits separately with intermediate hands. Vulnerable, always 16+.
  
• Promising around 9-15 regardless of vulnerability, and making a different bid (usually double) with stronger hands.

I think a lot of people play some form of 'Michaels Cuebid' without discussing the strength and the follow-ups from partner. You can make a strong case for any of the point ranges that I give above (and I'm sure there are other point ranges that are also great). Just make sure you and your partner agree on the meaning of the bid.

[pilowsky]

There is no point minimum for a Michaels cue bid unless you get a bad score. In which case, there is definitely a minimum. The formula is HCP - final score = > 0 is good. Otherwise, your partner made a mistake or you played badly depending on who got to the Forum first.
At least, that's what Mr Google says. Equally important is the question of the apostrophe. Since the convention belongs to Michael Michaels is it Michael's cue bid or Michaels cue bid? Depends how well you know him I suppose.


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Michaels Cue Bid Bridge Convention - Bidding and Responses
www.bridgebum.com › michaels_cuebid

Michaels is a cue-bid that promises a two-suited hand, with at least five cards in each suit. The convention is named for Mike Michaels of Florida.
People also ask
How many points do you need for Michaels Cue Bid?Michaels Cue Bid. Michaels is a cue-bid that promises a two-suited hand, with at least five cards in each suit. There is no point minimum for making a Michaels overcall, although obvious factors like vulnerability should be considered.

Michaels Cue Bid Bridge Convention - Bidding and Responses
www.bridgebum.com › michaels_cuebid Search for: How many points do you need for Michaels Cue Bid?

[sfi]

DavidKok, on 2020-June-09, 02:41, said:

This is a matter of partnership agreement. I have in the past played it in the following (mutually exclusive) ways:

• Promising at least 6 points (favourable vulnerability), 9 (neutral vulnerability) or 11 (unfavourable vulnerability) with no upper limit.
  
• At non-vulnerable, promising either 5-12 or 18+, and bidding the suits separately with intermediate hands. Vulnerable, always 16+.
  
• Promising around 9-15 regardless of vulnerability, and making a different bid (usually double) with stronger hands.

I think a lot of people play some form of 'Michaels Cuebid' without discussing the strength and the follow-ups from partner. You can make a strong case for any of the point ranges that I give above (and I'm sure there are other point ranges that are also great). Just make sure you and your partner agree on the meaning of the bid.

The current "expert standard" is basically the first one, where you show the shape and don't worry about sorting out the strength early. I'm not saying it's best, just that's it's flavour of the month at the moment. The second one is the normal alternative - I generally describe it as "either weak or 'double and bid' strength, but not in between". Since it's forcing, you can easily include very good hands in the cue bid. I'm not sure I see merit in the third one, but I may be missing something.

But yes, partnership agreement is key.

[DavidKok]

sfi, on 2020-June-09, 04:19, said:

The current "expert standard" is basically the first one, where you show the shape and don't worry about sorting out the strength early. I'm not saying it's best, just that's it's flavour of the month at the moment. The second one is the normal alternative - I generally describe it as "either weak or 'double and bid' strength, but not in between". Since it's forcing, you can easily include very good hands in the cue bid. I'm not sure I see merit in the third one, but I may be missing something.

But yes, partnership agreement is key.

The first one is also the way I play it at the moment (although I should perhaps also add that we always show 2 known suits with the cue bid, in this auction ♥+♣, reasoning that if they have the black suits and we have the red suits we can bid ♦ over their ♣ but not the other way around). The important difference between the first option and the others is that it requires more speculative constructive answers by partner.

The merit of the last option is that you will rarely go for a big number, while still limiting the strength of your hand in a single bid. Plus in theory you reserve the most room for the strongest hands, although in practice the opponents are likely to jump and you have to play catch up with 16+ hands. It is also easy to remember, and covers the point range you are most likely to pick up at the table. That being said, it is my least favourite of the agreements listed.

[Tramticket]

sfi, on 2020-June-09, 04:19, said:

The current "expert standard" is basically the first one,

I agree. And for an expert pair playing against other experts there is little merit in using Michaels without some constructive values. When you use Michaels with a weak hand just because you are 5-5 you will find that your expert opponents are able to extract a penalty if appropriate or (more often) brush aside your interference and bid to the optimum contract with a large road-map of how to play the contract based on the information that you have revealed.

Meanwhile, at the local club, players use Michaels on tram-tickets because their opponents misjudge whether to defend and fail to use the information in the play. Weak Michaels bids can be very effective at club level. But if you are going to use Michaels as a disruptive tool on weak hands, the split range version has merit - since it will be difficult for partner to judge when the possible range becomes too great.

[pescetom]

maris oren, on 2020-June-09, 01:42, said:

easts bid -Michaels cue bid or 2♥

I would seriously consider double too.

pilowsky, on 2020-June-09, 03:42, said:

Equally important is the question of the apostrophe. Since the convention belongs to Michael Michaels is it Michael's cue bid or Michaels cue bid? Depends how well you know him I suppose.

I would have written Michaels' cue bid if I didn't know him well

Tramticket, on 2020-June-09, 09:44, said:

I agree. And for an expert pair playing against other experts there is little merit in using Michaels without some constructive values. When you use Michaels with a weak hand just because you are 5-5 you will find that your expert opponents are able to extract a penalty if appropriate or (more often) brush aside your interference and bid to the optimum contract with a large road-map of how to play the contract based on the information that you have revealed.

The key point here is not penalty but the road map - that is a downside even when you have a rockbuster hand, when weak it can be suicide.

[blackshoe]

Conventions are often named with the last name of the inventor. So it would be a Michaels Cue Bid. People seem to stick apostrophes where they don't belong rather often, but I don't think that's correct usage. And if the Cue Bid belongs to Michael, doesn't that mean that Ed can't use it?

[johnu]

blackshoe, on 2020-June-10, 09:18, said:

Conventions are often named with the last name of the inventor. So it would be a Michaels Cue Bid. People seem to stick apostrophes where they don't belong rather often, but I don't think that's correct usage. And if the Cue Bid belongs to Michael, doesn't that mean that Ed can't use it?

I play Eds Cue Bid and have never gotten a bad result.

[AL78]

Tramticket, on 2020-June-09, 09:44, said:

I agree. And for an expert pair playing against other experts there is little merit in using Michaels without some constructive values. When you use Michaels with a weak hand just because you are 5-5 you will find that your expert opponents are able to extract a penalty if appropriate or (more often) brush aside your interference and bid to the optimum contract with a large road-map of how to play the contract based on the information that you have revealed.

Meanwhile, at the local club, players use Michaels on tram-tickets because their opponents misjudge whether to defend and fail to use the information in the play. Weak Michaels bids can be very effective at club level. But if you are going to use Michaels as a disruptive tool on weak hands, the split range version has merit - since it will be difficult for partner to judge when the possible range becomes too great.

The idea of bidding two suiters on weak hands is partner can hopefully ram the bidding high with a good fit, which will sometimes make it difficult for the opponents to judge whether to double or bid on.

I've normally played Michaels as split strength, either weak, or strong. The advantage of this is that the bid is either constructive or destructive, doing it on intermediate hands as well it makes it harder to judge what to do if partner can have the full range of hand strength and you are often nearly at the three level, there is not enough room for the Michaels bidder to narrow their strength down. One of my current partners wants to play it as any strength, so I do with her. It matters little in reality because it comes up very infrequently.