Balanced Hand Rebids -- Hands with Four Hearts

Check out this post first:
How to Show Balanced Hands

Rebidding 1NT or 2NT does not always deny having a four card major. In the previous post it did. In the previous post you opened 1♦ and Partner responded 1♥. Now when you rebid 1NT you deny having support for Partner's ♥ and you also deny having four ♠ simply because if you do have four ♠ you can tell Partner this at the SAME LEVEL. You can now bid 1♠.

This changes when you open 1♦ and Partner responds 1♠.

Now if you were to show a four card ♥ suit you would have to bid 2♥. This changes the level you are bidding at and therefore you MUST have a better hand for this. This bid is called a REVERSE and shows a big, distributional hand. We are not going to talk about reverses right now. However keep in mind that if you have a BALANCED hand with four ♥ and opened the bidding 1 of a minor, if Partner responds 1♠ you are NOT going to tell Partner about any four card ♥ suit you might have.

Why?

Well for one thing Partner could have said 1♥. Partner didn't. Partner went by the ♥ suit in order to bid 1♠. Partner probably doesn't have four ♥.

Does Partner deny having four ♥ when they bid 1♠?

No. Partner easily could have four or even five (or six!) ♥. But what do we know if Partner does? We know that Partner's ♠ are as LONG or LONGER than their ♥ suit.

Think about if. If Partner had this hand:

♠QJ98
♥AQ52
♦J9
♣KT4

They will respond 1♥ to your opening bid of 1♦. Remember you bid four card suits UP THE LINE. That means you bid the one that comes next in the auction. So after an opening bid of 1♦, the next possible suit to bid is ♥.

Once they respond 1♠, IF they have four ♥ in their hand they have LONGER ♠ -- something more like this:

♠QJ982
♥AQ52
♦KJ9
♣4

or this:

♠QJ982
♥AQT52
♦K9
♣4

This hand does not have longer ♠ BUT it is only FOUR card suits you bid up the line. With two FIVE cards suits you bid the HIGHEST RANKING one first. In this case ♠.

So if you respond 1NT do you think Partner wants to let you play in NT? No. They are unbalanced. They are going to rebid their other suit. In this case the ♥ suit. So over your 1NT bid they will rebid 3♥. This does several things:

It put's a game force on the auction. They jumped in a new suit to let you know they have values.

It let's you know they are distributional. If they were balanced they'd be happy playing in NT. They are unbalanced. They have at least one five (or more) card suit and at least one four (or more) card suit. They will bid their longest suit first. So in this case they have five ♠ and four ♥

Let's look at an example. You hold:

♠T2
♥AQT6
♦KJ93
♣KJ4

You open the bidding 1♦ and Partner responds 1♠. What will you bid?

The correct bid here is 1NT. You'd like to mention that ♥ suit I know. But remember PARTNER could have said 1♥. They didn't. They either DON'T have four ♥ in which case you don't have a ♥ fit anyhow OR they have at least FIVE ♠ and FOUR ♥ in which case they will take you out of your NT bid and suggest ♥.

So you bid 1NT here.

Now Partner jumps to 3♥!

Perfect! You can now raise to 4♥. You didn't miss your ♥ fit at all!

You try. On each of these hands you will open 1♦ and Partner will respond 1♠. What will you bid?

Hand 1

♠98
♥AQ52
♦AT93
♣KT4



Hand 2

♠64
♥AKT8
♦K984
♣KJ5



Hand 3

♠Q3
♥AQ32
♦AT83
♣AQ8



Hand 4

♠AQ
♥T943
♦KQ85
♣AK4



Hand 5

♠Q3
♥AJ92
♦AQ73
♣J76



Hand 6

♠63
♥KQ92
♦AQT4
♣AKT



Hand 7

♠72
♥K943
♦AKT7
♣KT5



Hand 8

♠J6
♥AQ83
♦A984
♣K76



Hand 9

♠KJ
♥KJ92
♦AQ52
♣KJ3



Hand 10

♠T82
♥J762
♦AQJ5
♣AQ



Hand 11

♠Q8
♥KQ95
♦AK62
♣A93



Hand 12

♠QT
♥KT93
♦AT86
♣AKQ



Hand 13

♠Q6
♥T975
♦AKQ2
♣Q75



Hand 14

♠A4
♥AK75
♦QJ86
♣AJ7



Hand 15

♠T4
♥J743
♦AQJ2
♣AJ8



Hand 16

♠A4
♥KJ72
♦A743
♣Q96



Hand 17

♠A6
♥AK43
♦AJ87
♣KT8



Hand 18

♠K6
♥AK87
♦AT62
♣KJ2



Hand 19

♠AJ
♥AJ74
♦AK73
♣Q42



Hand 20

♠K4
♥K864
♦K764
♣AJ3