HAB:   The Honors Asking Bid

We have a bid which asks how many of the top three honors partner has in a bid suit.  This is a useful tool in a a couple of different auctions.  Below is an example where the partnership has descovered a 4-4 heart fit after a Precison 1 opening bid.
      South      West      North      East   
    1     P      1NT      P     
    2     P      2     P     
    2     P      Step     

      Step 1     Zero honors
      Step 2     One Honor
      Step 3     Two Honors
      Step 4     Three Honors

      Suppose North has this hand:

      South's opening bid is Extended Precision, showing 17+ points, and North's response shows at least 8 points but no 5-card major.  The 2 rebid is Stayman, and responder's 2 rebid is Transfer Stayman, showing a 4-card heart suit and denying a 4-card spades suit.  South has several optional calls at this point in the auction, and chooses to bid 2's, the Honor Asking Bid.  With two of the top three honors, North uses a step bid - 3's - that's step 3.

    Weak Two Bid Auction
    Another possible auction where this can be used is this one:
    Suppose your partner has opened a weak-two bid in hearts.  We use a response of 2NT to ask for a feature, but we also use a HAB 3's to ask how many of the top three honors partner has in the trump suit.
      Step 1     One Honor
      Step 2     Two Honors
      Step 3     Three Honors
    Some partnerships will open a weak-two bid with no honors, but our style is to always have at least one.  We use these steps, but you might change the first step to show either zero or one honor.




-->