History of the Michaels Cuebid

Before Mike Michaels, the direct cuebid was one of bridge’s most underutilized bids. After the opponents opened 1♥, bidding 2♥ showed a powerhouse hand—something like 20+ HCP with a void in hearts and support for all other suits. Nice when it came up, but how often did that happen? Maybe once every hundred deals?

Mike Michaels looked at this wasted bid and saw opportunity. What if, instead of showing a rare monster, the cuebid showed a common hand type that had no good natural bid: two-suited hands with 5-5 distribution? His answer became one of the most popular conventions in competitive bridge.

The Two-Suited Problem

In the 1950s and early 1960s, if you picked up a hand with 5-5 in spades and clubs after an opponent opened 1♥, you had no good bid:

Overcall 1♠: Shows spades but completely conceals clubs. If partner has club support and no spades, you’ll miss your best fit.

Overcall 2♣: Shows clubs but completely conceals spades. Same problem in reverse.

Overcall 1♠ then bid clubs later: Shows five spades and four clubs, not 5-5. And it takes two rounds of bidding, giving opponents time to preempt.

Pass and hope: Sometimes the best option, which tells you how inadequate the alternatives were.

This wasn’t a rare problem. About 3% of all hands are 5-5 or more extreme distribution. In competitive auctions, being able to show both suits is crucial—you might have a 10-card fit in either suit, and you need to find it quickly.

Expert players had been struggling with this for decades. Some used takeout doubles to show two-suited hands, but that created ambiguity—was double a normal takeout double or a two-suiter? Others just lived with the problem, making their best guess and hoping partner could read the situation.

Mike Michaels: The Miami Beach Innovator

Mike Michaels was a successful player from the Miami Beach bridge scene in the 1950s and 1960s. He wasn’t one of the famous national champions whose names dominated the bridge magazines, but he was a skilled player who competed regularly in regional tournaments and was known for creative bidding ideas.

Michaels was part of a Florida bridge community that included several innovative players. The warm climate made Florida a bridge hotspot, especially in winter when northern players came south. This created a mixing of ideas—players from different regions sharing methods and experimenting with new approaches.

In the early 1960s, Michaels was working on better methods for two-suited hands. He’d seen the Unusual Notrump convention (using 2NT to show the two lower unbid suits) gain popularity. That solved part of the problem, but what about hands with both majors? Or a major and a minor?

The solution came from recognizing that the direct cuebid was essentially useless. When RHO opened 1♥ and you held a hand strong enough for an immediate 2♥ cuebid (20+ HCP with heart shortness), you could always double first and then cuebid. The immediate cuebid could be repurposed.

The Michaels Cuebid Structure

Michaels’s innovation was elegantly simple:

After a minor suit opening:

2♣ over 1♣ = both majors (at least 5-5)
2♦ over 1♦ = both majors (at least 5-5)

After a major suit opening:

2♥ over 1♥ = spades + an unspecified minor (at least 5-5)
2♠ over 1♠ = hearts + an unspecified minor (at least 5-5)

The structure was logical. After a minor suit opening, showing both majors was most useful—those were the suits you most wanted to find. After a major opening, showing the other major plus a minor covered the two-suited hands that had no good natural bid.

Strength requirements were flexible. You could use Michaels with a weak preemptive hand (7-11 HCP) to disrupt opponents, or with a strong hand (17+ HCP) planning to bid again. The middle range (12-16 HCP) was more controversial—some players avoided it to prevent ambiguity.

Early Adoption and Resistance

When Michaels introduced his convention in the early 1960s, reaction was mixed:

Supporters loved having a tool for two-suited hands. They found that showing both suits immediately improved competitive bidding dramatically. Partner could choose the better fit, compete to the right level, and make more accurate decisions about whether to bid or defend.

Skeptics worried about several issues:

“You’re giving up the strong cuebid!” - But those hands were so rare that repurposing the bid made sense.

“What if partner has to choose between your suits at a high level?” - That’s why judgment about strength mattered. With a weak hand, you expected partner to pass most of the time.

“The strength range is too wide.” - This was legitimate. Early Michaels didn’t distinguish between weak and strong hands well. Responder had to guess whether advancer had 8 HCP or 18 HCP.

“It only works against minor openings.” - Actually, it worked against majors too, just showing the other major and a minor.

Despite concerns, players who tried Michaels found it worked. The ability to show two-suited hands immediately was worth more than the occasional ambiguity about strength.

The Unusual Notrump Partnership

Around the same time Michaels was developing his cuebid, players were popularizing the Unusual Notrump convention (often credited to Alvin Roth, though the origins are murky). A 2NT overcall showed 5-5 in the two lower unbid suits—usually the minors.

Michaels and Unusual Notrump became natural partners:

Unusual 2NT: Shows the two lower unbid suits (usually both minors)
Michaels: Shows both majors (over minors) or the other major + a minor (over majors)

Together, they covered all the common two-suited patterns. This combination became known as “Unusual vs. Unusual” or simply “two-suited overcalls,” and it spread rapidly through the bridge world in the 1960s.

The conventions complemented each other so well that many players assumed they were designed together. They weren’t—different people developed them independently—but they fit together perfectly.

As Michaels became popular, players developed refinements:

Strength differentiation (1970s): Immediate Michaels showed weak or strong hands (7-11 or 17+ HCP). Intermediate hands (12-16) would overcall and then bid again.

Asking bids: After Michaels showing a major and minor, responder could bid 2NT to ask which minor, allowing better decision-making.

Mini-Maxi: Some pairs used mini-Michaels (weak only) or maxi-Michaels (strong only), narrowing the range.

Top-and-bottom cuebid: A variation showing the highest and lowest unbid suits, different from Michaels’s structure.

Three-level Michaels: After a weak-two opening, some pairs used three-level cuebids as Michaels (3♥ over 2♠ showing a minor two-suiter, for example).

These refinements made Michaels more precise, but the core concept remained Michaels’s original idea: use the otherwise-idle cuebid to show two-suited hands.

Strategic Impact

Michaels changed competitive bidding in several ways:

Preemption improved: With a weak 5-5 hand, you could immediately consume bidding space and make it hard for opponents to find their fit.

Fit-finding accelerated: Instead of guessing which suit to bid and hoping partner could support it, you could show both suits and let partner choose.

Sacrifice decisions improved: When you knew partner had 5-5 distribution, you could judge whether to sacrifice over opponents’ contract more accurately.

Defensive carding: When declarer knew you had 5-5 shape from the auction, you lost some deceptive possibilities, but the tradeoff was usually worth it.

The convention also influenced opponents’ tactics. Knowing that cuebids showed two-suiters, they could adjust their defensive strategy. If you bid Michaels and they doubled for penalty, they knew to lead your suits. But again, the benefits outweighed the costs.

Why Michaels Succeeded

Several factors made Michaels one of bridge’s most successful conventions:

Solved a real problem: Two-suited hands genuinely had no good bid. Michaels filled an obvious gap.

Easy to remember: The structure was simple and logical. Most players could learn it in five minutes.

High frequency: You got Michaels hands often enough that the convention proved its worth regularly.

Worked with existing methods: Michaels complemented Unusual 2NT and standard overcalls without creating conflicts.

Scalable complexity: Beginners could play simple Michaels, while experts could add refinements for their skill level.

This combination—solving a real problem with an easy-to-use method that worked frequently—is the recipe for successful conventions.

Mike Michaels’s Legacy

Unlike some bridge innovators who became famous authors or national champions, Mike Michaels remained a regional player. He didn’t write extensively about his convention or promote it aggressively. He simply developed it, used it successfully, and let others spread it.

This makes the convention’s success even more remarkable. Michaels became standard not because its inventor was famous or because it was heavily marketed, but because it worked. Players who encountered it recognized its utility and adopted it. Bridge teachers included it in their lessons. System books listed it as a standard option.

By the 1980s, Michaels was taught to intermediate players as essential competitive bidding. By the 1990s, even many casual players knew about it. Today, it’s part of Standard American Yellow Card (SAYC) and appears in virtually every bidding system.

Mike Michaels created something that outlived and outreached him—a convention so useful that it spread organically through the bridge world based purely on merit.

Modern Variations: Ghestem, Leaping Michaels, and More

The success of Michaels inspired numerous variations:

Ghestem (French): Uses cuebids and 2NT to show specific two-suited combinations with different strength ranges.

Leaping Michaels: A jump cuebid (like 3♥ over 1♠) after partner overcalls, showing a fit for partner and the other major.

Extended Michaels: Using three-level cuebids after preempts to show two-suiters.

Colorful cuebids: Different meanings for cuebids in the opponent’s suit depending on vulnerability or position.

These variations show that Michaels’s core insight—the cuebid should show two-suiters—has been applied in countless contexts. The specific structure varies, but the principle remains.

The Convention’s Current Status

Michaels Cuebid is now one of the most popular conventions worldwide:

Standard in ACBL: Listed in SAYC and allowed at all levels
Universal in expert play: Virtually every tournament player uses some form of Michaels
Taught to beginners: Appears in introductory and intermediate bridge courses
International: Used in all major bridge-playing countries with local variations

Walk into any duplicate game, and the convention cards will list “Michaels” in the cuebid section. It’s become so standard that many partnerships don’t even discuss it—they assume Michaels unless specified otherwise.

The Philosophy: Don’t Waste Bids

What Michaels really taught the bridge world was that rare hand types don’t deserve common bids. The strong cuebid hand occurred so infrequently that dedicating an entire bid to it was wasteful. Better to use that bid for a hand type you see multiple times per session.

This philosophy influenced countless subsequent conventions:

Drury: Using 2♣ response to passed hand major openings (idle bid becomes useful)
Jordan 2NT: After partner’s major opening is doubled (rarely-used 2NT becomes support-showing)
Splinter bids: Jump shifts that rarely occurred naturally become conventional short-suit game tries

The pattern repeats: identify an idle or inefficient bid, repurpose it for a common situation. Michaels was an early and influential example of this principle.

The Lasting Impact

The next time you cuebid the opponent’s suit to show a two-suiter, remember Mike Michaels. You’re using a convention that transformed competitive bidding, giving players a tool for a problem that had frustrated bridge players for decades.

You’re also participating in a broader evolution of the game. Michaels exemplifies how bridge becomes more sophisticated—not by adding complexity for its own sake, but by recognizing inefficiencies and fixing them. The direct cuebid was wasted on rare hands. Michaels made it useful for common hands.

That’s the mark of a great bridge innovation: it makes the game more logical, more efficient, and more fun. Mike Michaels gave us that, and his name is now inseparably linked to one of competitive bidding’s most essential tools.

Not bad for a Miami Beach player who just wanted a better way to bid 5-5 hands.