3. General Introduction Obviously, the opener’s rebid will depend on the responder’s bid If partner has limited his/her points, your job is easy Determine if game is makeable Decide whether to pass, raise (to invite) or bid game You have a lot more to think about if partner is not limited e.g. 1C-1H
4. Evaluating Opener’s Hand Generally, when rebidding opener’s hand, we classify the hand into 3 categories Minimum – 15- points and below Strong – 15+ to 18- points Game forcing (GF) – 18+ to 21 points This is because partner shows 6+ points with any response Note: 15- points means a lousy 15 point hand while 15+ points means a good 15 point hand This recognizes the disparity in quality of hands with the same number of points. E.g. a hand with a void can play better in suit games than a balanced one and one should judge his/her hand based on the predicted eventual contract
5. Priority 1 – Support Partner’s Major Recall that most bidding systems advocate finding NT or major games Thus, your first priority is to support partner’s major If you have 4-card support for partner’s major response, raise Single raise with minimum, double raise with strong hand, game bid with GF hand
6. Priority 2 – Rebid own Suit You can rebid your own suit if you have 6+ cards in it You are allowed to re-rebid the suit one more time for each extra card (on top of the 6 promised) you have in the suit Minimum rebid with minimum, jump rebid with strong hand, game rebid with GF hand
7. Priority 3 – Bid a New Major To show a minimum or strong hand, you bid the new suit at the lowest level You can only bid a new suit that is higher ranking than your opening suit at the 2 level if you have a strong or GF hand and a longer first suit than the second. This is called a reverse bid E.g. 1C – 1S – 2H shows 5+C, 4H, strong/GF hand If you have a GF hand, jump and bid a new suit. This is called an opener jump shift and is game forcing E.g. 1C – 1D – 2H. You could’ve bid 1H but jumped to 2H instead
8. Priority 4 – Bid NT Recall that a 1NT opener is 15-17 points while a 2NT opener is 20-21 points. This begs the question, “How do you show a balanced hand with 18-19 points?” When rebidding NT, you are showing the point range below that i.e. Rebid 1NT shows 12-14 points and a balanced hand Rebid 2NT shows 18-19 points and a balanced hand If partner’s new suit was at the 2 level, shift the bids up by 1 level E.g. 1H – 2C – 2NT shows 12-14 not 18-19
9. Priority 5 – Bid a New Minor or Raise Partner’s Minor Use the same principles as in Priority 3 for bidding a new suit and the same principles as in Priority 1 for raising partner’s minor One exception – with a GF hand and support for partner’s minor, bid 3NT instead of raising to minor game As explained before, 3NT generally makes more easily than a minor game, which usually requires 29+ points
