Responding - Bid your Four Card Major before NT

Let's take a look at a hand that came up the other day. Here it is:
♠KJ83
♥K8
♦QJ95
♣KJ6

Your Partner opens the bidding 1♥. What is your bid?

Think about it.

Most disciplined players came up with the best bid of 1♠. That gives Partner an easy rebid. They will bid 4♠. Now it is your turn to bid. What will you respond to 4♠?

If you stop to think about the auction, you will not Pass. You have shown 6 HCP. Partner has just bid a game thinking you have 6 HCP. This means that Partner has about 20 points. Sure they get to count Dummy points, but it still adds up to 20 points. You've got 14 points. That's enough for a slam. Your bid should now be 6♠.

Here are the two hands:
Dummy:
♠AQT2
♥AQT72
♦9
♣AQ5

Declarer:
♠KJ83
♥K8
♦QJ95
♣KJ6

You can see that while Partner only has 18 HCP, they do have a singleton which is perfect for your hand. It was easy to take 12 tricks.

What was the problem?

The problem occurred on the first response. Some players with this hand:
♠KJ83
♥K8
♦QJ95
♣KJ6

Responded 3NT rather than 1♠.

Now let's take a look at what Opener has to think about.

Opener has this hand:
♠AQT2
♥AQT72
♦9
♣AQ5

and of course opens 1♥. No problem there.

But after Openers opening bid, imagine if Responder had bid 3NT? That shows a balanced hand with 13-15 HCP. It should DENY having ♥ support and ALSO DENY having another four card major. The four-four major suit fit is TOO important to bypass.

So now what does Opener do? The partnership might have enough for a small slam. But it might not. Plus Opener is worried about the ♦ suit. In fact, in 6NT the Opponents can take the first two ♦ tricks. Not a good slam. 6♠ is a good slam.

But Opener is not going to think the partnership has a ♠ fit once Responder bids any number of NT.