Michaels Cue-Bids

Bidding their suit cannot be natural, so it is put to better use.

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Two Meanings, Depending on What They Opened#

Nobody wants to play in the suit the opponents have just opened, so bidding it cannot sensibly be natural. Michaels takes that spare call and makes it describe a two-suited hand, at least 5-5, in a single bid:

The gain is precision in one call. A hand with five spades and five clubs that overcalls 1♠ has described the spades and buried the clubs, and if partner has two spades and four clubs the fit is lost for good. The cue names both at once and hands partner the choice.

The cost is that you no longer have a natural cue-bid available in that seat. That is a genuine loss and it is why the whole thing is a switch rather than a rule.

The Shape, and the Values That Scale#

Five-five is a floor, not a guideline. The convention hands partner an obligation to choose between your suits, and 5-4 hands break that promise in the worst way — partner picks the four-card suit and you are playing a seven-card fit at the two level.

The strength required is more interesting, because in Rase it moves with the vulnerability:

• Not vulnerable: about 7 points.
• Vulnerable: about 9.

The reason is the contract you are committing to, not the hand you hold. The cue forces partner to answer at the two level or higher, in a suit of partner's choosing rather than yours, so it is a two-level overcall in all but name — and a two-level overcall vulnerable is exactly where doubled penalties start to cost more than the part-score was worth. The robots apply the same extra requirement to both, for the same reason.

Shape does much of the work that points would otherwise do. Five-five is eleven cards in two suits and only two elsewhere; hands like that take tricks that a point-count does not predict, which is why 7 is enough when the penalty is capped.

It Only Means This in One Seat#

This is the trap, and it catches people who have learned the convention without learning its boundary. A cue-bid means Michaels only in the direct seat, immediately over their opening, when that opening is the only bid made so far.

Later in the auction, a cue of the opponents' suit is a general force — it says "I have values and no clear bid, tell me more" — and it always was. Rase's engine draws the line exactly there: it reads a cue as a two-suiter only while theirs is the single bid on the table, and as a force after that. Cue-bidding their suit on the third round expecting partner to hear 5-5 is how a robot ends up in a suit you do not hold.

Michaels also does not apply over a 1NT opening. There is no suit to cue. The tool for that seat is Landy, which shows both majors with 5-4 and is a separate switch.

Answering Partner’s Cue#

You are obliged to answer, and the first thing to understand is that the answer promises nothing. Partner has forced you to choose; choosing is not a show of values, and Rase's robots read it that way — only a jump above the cheapest available level says you actually hold something.

Over a minor opening, where both majors are known: bid your longer major at the cheapest level. With equal length, take the one you would rather declare.

Over a major opening, where one major and an unknown minor are shown: bid the known major with three or more and the auction is over. Without a fit for it, 3♣ asks which minor — partner passes holding clubs, or corrects to 3♦.

That 3♣ ask is worth remembering, because the alternative is guessing between two minors on a hand where partner has already told you they hold five of one of them. Tapping the cue-bid during a live auction in Rase shows you the same meaning, on the hand actually in front of you.

Why It Is Off in ACOL#

Michaels is on by default in 2/1 and off by default in ACOL, which surprises people who switch systems mid-session and find the robots taking their cue-bid at face value.

With the switch off, a cue of the opponents' suit reverts to a strong force — the traditional ACOL treatment, where 2♥ over their 1♥ shows a huge hand with no convenient bid rather than a two-suiter. Neither reading is wrong; they are different uses of the same scarce call, and the switch is which one your side is playing.

If you want it in ACOL you can turn it on from System & Conventions, and the robots will use and expect it on both sides of the table from that point. What you cannot do is have both meanings at once, which is the point of it being a setting rather than a judgement call.

Two-suiters and the Rubber#

Rubber bridge rewards this convention slightly more than duplicate does, for a reason that has nothing to do with the hand.

What you are usually competing for is a part-score, and a part-score in rubber bridge is not a small win — it carries, it counts towards the game, and it threatens to become 100 below the line on the next deal. Finding your 5-5 fit and buying the contract in it does more work here than the equivalent board does in a duplicate field.

The counterweight is vulnerability, which in rubber bridge you earned by winning a game — so the moment the cue becomes most expensive is also the moment you are furthest ahead and have least need of it. That is the whole argument for the higher requirement vulnerable, and it is worth applying more strictly than the engine does when the rubber is nearly won.