What to Respond?

Here is your hand:

♠KQ54
♥A4
♦T872
♣AQ4

Partner opens the bidding with 1♥. Your RHO (Right Hand Opponent) bid 1♠. What is your call?

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How about 3NT?

You don't want to tell Partner you have four ♠. You don't have a fit. Even if you have a fit there is a REALLY bad break in the trump suit! Your RHO has FIVE of them!

But you do have stoppers for NT and a balanced hand. So now it is all about point count.

1NT would show 6 to a bad 10 HCP.

2NT would show about 11 or 12 HCP.

3NT shows about 13 to 15 HCP. Which is what you have. You need to force Partner to game with your opening hand!

What to Rebid?

Here is your hand:

♠72
♥JT
♦AK953
♣AQ62

You are Dealer and decide to open the bidding 1♦. The Opponents "Pass" during the auction. Your Partner responds 1♥. What is your call?

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2♣

This should show a four card ♣ suit but ALSO a five card ♦ suit.

If you just rebid your ♦ suit Partner will think you have six of them. (You should because you are not rebidding NT so you have an unbalanced hand. Unbalanced hands either contain a six card suit or a five card suit and a four card suit. But you cannot have another four card suit because with four ♥ you would support Partner's ♥, with four ♠ you would rebid 1♠ and with four ♣ you would rebid 2♣.)

In any case, it is nice for Partner to get to choose between two suits rather than just being told to play in one suit only. Choices are nice.

What to Open?

Here is your hand:

♠AJT86543
♥9
♦J
♣K87

RHO (Right Hand Opponent) opens the bidding with a "Pass". What is your call?

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4♠

This should show an eight card ♠ suit with less than an opening hand.