CAB:   The Control Asking Bid

Both Precision players and other Forcing Club system players use a Control Asking Bid.  In terms of controls, an ace is equal to two controls and a king is one.  This bid is one of three asking bids that we use.
  • TAB - The Trump Asking Bid
  • CAB - The Control Asking Bid
  • SAB - The Support Asking Bid
These three bids only occur after an opening bid of 1 followed by a positive response.  These bids are not used if responder shows 0-7 points by bidding 1

Below is a description of CAB... If responder shows 8+ points and a 5+card suit in response to our strong club, then a rebid of 1NT over partner major suit response is a Control Asking Bid.  If responder has a positive response with a minor, and bids it at the 2-level, then the Control Asking Bid is 2NT.

    Step 1      0 or 1 control
    Step 2      2 controls
    Step 3      3 controls
    Step 4      4 controls
    Step 5      etc
Here's an example hand with the auction:
  South      West      North      East   
1     P      1     P     
1NT      P      2     P     

Opener's rebid of 1NT asks, "How many controls do you have, partner?"

The 2 response is the third step, indicating three controls - either an ace and a king, or three kings.  Often the partner who asked can figure out which holding it is.  For example, if the opener is holding two kings, then responder cannot have three kings.


NOTE:   There are only 12 controls total in the deck.