[Rickysa]

Partner opens 1 minor....I'm holding a 5 card major and points to respond...so I bid the suit...partner doesn't support. My notes say to only rebid 6-card suits, but couldn't we miss a 5/3 fit?

Rick

[P_Marlowe]

It can happen.

#1 In case you are weal, your first priority is to give
preference to openers suit, he showed 9 cards,
if you rebid your 5 card suit you risk playing a 5-0
or a 5-1 fit.
If opener is stronger, he should correct your preference
back to your mayor in case he holds 3 card support.

#2 In case you are stronger, say inv.+, there
are conventions out there, e.g. NMF, which allow
to check for 3 card support

#3 There are players out there, who raise responders
mayor with 3 card support, typically the opener
would be a min opener, say 10-15, with 5-4-3-1 shape,
I am not recommenting this style, if you are a beginner
you may be frightend not knowing about the 8 card fit,
, ... I dont play it myself, but the style has something going
for it.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Rickysa]

Thank you Marlowe,

It was primarily with inv/gf points that I was questioning....I wasn't aware of conventions to check for 3 card support. Something else to add to the "need to learn" list.

Rick

[jtfanclub]

Rickysa, on Jun 11 2007, 08:59 AM, said:

Partner opens 1 minor....I'm holding a 5 card major and points to respond...so I bid the suit...partner doesn't support. My notes say to only rebid 6-card suits, but couldn't we miss a 5/3 fit?

Rick

Take the auction: 1♣ 1♠ 1NT...

Two ways to play:

1. A raise to 2♠ by opener requires 4. Then 1NT requires 2. So you can rebid with a 5 card suit, and if you end up in a 5-2 fit, well, sorry.

2. A raise to 2♠ requires only 3, although not all hands with 3 will raise (such as 4-3-3-3 distribution). Now 1NT requires only a singleton, though most people will avoid that whenever possible. But even so, now you should only rebid your suit if you have 6.

So if you use option 1, sometimes you'll end up in a 5-2 fit. If you use option 2, sometimes you'll end up in a 4-3 fit, but only when the 3 card hand has some shape.

If you don't use either option, you'll miss 5-3 fits. There are worse things, however. Often 5-3 fits play better in No-trump anyways.

Matthew

[P_Marlowe]

Rickysa, on Jun 11 2007, 09:26 AM, said:

Thank you Marlowe,

It was primarily with inv/gf points that I was questioning....I wasn't aware of conventions to check for 3 card support. Something else to add to the "need to learn" list.

Rick

Hi Rick,

just search the group / forum or the net
for NMF short for "New Minor Forcing",
also similar to Checkback Stayman.
You will discover that there are more advanced
methods out there, but NMF will do the job 90%
of the time, and if you have started only shortly,
than i would not start bothering with 2-way
checkback (...), or XYZ or whatever.

I am still playing it, and there are other holes
I have to fill before I even would think about
improving this part of the system I play.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[skjaeran]

I frequently raise after 1m-1M with 3, always with an ubalanced minimum. Thus rebidding a 5-bagger is almost never a good idea. There's several methods to check partner's handtype and trump lenght if you're strong enough to invite or force to game.

[Fluffy]

Rickysa, on Jun 11 2007, 01:59 PM, said:

but couldn't we miss a 5/3 fit?

Rick

you could miss a 5-1 fit just as well, wich is very nice.

Rebid your 5 card suit only when partner has to have at least 2 (when he rebids 1NT).

[mike777]

Rickysa, on Jun 11 2007, 08:59 AM, said:

Partner opens 1 minor....I'm holding a 5 card major and points to respond...so I bid the suit...partner doesn't support. My notes say to only rebid 6-card suits, but couldn't we miss a 5/3 fit?

Rick

This is a great great question. This is a very complicated question with many many issues involved. First off give yourself a couple of years to really get a feel for this question and the issues involved. Second reading and trying to answer the problems in this forum can be a huge help. Welcome and Good Luck!

[cherdano]

If partner rebids 1NT, then you can rebid your suit with 5 if your hand looks like a suit contract, and with inv or better values you should use NMF.
If your partner rebids in a suit, then you can bid 4th suit GF with GF values, and partner's first obligation will be to show 3-card support so you never miss the 5/3 fit. If you have invitational values, it is more tricky (assuming you play 4th suit as GF), you just have to bid 2N or 3 of one of opener's suit. He may still show 3-card support if he accepts the invite and is a thoughtful partner. In this situation you should never rebid your suit without a 6th card (opener is very unlikely to have 3-card support).

[Quantumcat]

Don't know if someone's already said this (haven't read the whole post), but, my teacher told me to always support with minimum values with three cards if it's possible responder could have a 5 card suit - if it ends there, there's nothing wrong with 7 card fits in a partscore, and if you are going further, responder knows what's what right away and fits are never missed, esp. if there gets to be competition. As long as pards knows you might only have 3 cards and not throw a tanty if you are in 6♠ on 4-3 fit (as happened to me once ).