Rebid by the opener

[rg14]

Say I bid 1 of a minor, holding a strong hand of 18 or 19 points

After after 2 passes , fourth seats bids 1 of a suit. Now what

Should I bid with this strong hand ?

[helene_t]

In principle you double with a balanced hand with a doubleton in their suit, and bid 1NT if you have 3+ cards in their suit with a stopper. But you can decided to pass with some 18 counts if you judge it will work better.

 

With unbalanced hands you double if you can support both unbid suits. Otherwise you normally bid your second suit, or rebid you own suit with 6+ cards. If your second suit is opp's suit you may pass or bid 1NT.

 

You rarely need to jump to show strength. Partner has denied interest in game so announcing your strength will often help opps more than partner.

[dokoko]

Note that partner is too weak to respond. That means that game is probably out of the picture.

 

In this situation any rebid is strength showing as with just a normal opener you would just pass. Your reason not to pass is that you think you aren't outgunned and hope partner can cooperate in competing for the partscore.

 

So with a (strong) balanced hand you should choose between 1NT and dbl (depending on length in opp's suit) while with an unbalanced hand you may double or bid naturally. Jumping in your opened suit would be a preemptive action (you may cuebid if super-strong with a long minor), while jumping in a new suit would show a strong two-suiter interested in game if partner's meager values are in the right places. None of these bids is forcing, however.