3-Card Raise of Responder's Major

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One of the goals of all bidding systems is to locate 8-card major suit fits. If you open a minor, your partner’s 1♥ or 1♠ response shows a 4-card or longer suit.

If you have 4+ card support for responder’s major, you will show your support and your strength. See our Opener’s Rebid article at LoebBridge.com.  Openers with extra vales shouldn’t raise responder’s major immediately with 3-card support. Rebid naturally to describe your shape & strength. Show a delayed raise if given the opportunity.

A minimum opener with 3-card support for responder’s major typically has a choice between rebidding 1♠ (if they have 4 spades), 1NT, 2 of their minor, or raising responder’s major with 3-card support. Reasons to raise with 3-card support include:

• Sometimes a 4-3 fit provides extra tricks
• Sometimes a 4-3 fit offers the only making game
• Raising with 3-card support makes balancing more dangerous for the opponents
• Rebidding 1NT with a small doubleton often wrong sides a NT contract

The following discusses a minimum opener’s choices with 3-card support for responder’s major.

1. Choosing between a 1NT rebid or a 3-card raise:
   if opener has a hand like ♠92 ♥A43 ♦AJ643 ♣A52, rebidding 1NT would likely wrong-side a notrump contract. Opener doesn’t have have spade stopper and doesn’t have a positional club stopper. You are guaranteeing stoppers when the opponents are silent and you rebid 1NT. If you change opener’s hand to ♠942 ♥A3 ♦AJ643 ♣A52, a 1NT rebid would be the best description of opener’s hand. Holding ♠92 ♥A43 ♦AJ643 ♣A52, opener’s ♠92 doubleton makes a 3-card raise attractive. With a side-suit doubleton headed by the 9 or lower or a singleton, tend to prefer the 3-card raise to a 1NT rebid.
2. Choosing between rebidding your minor or a 3-card raise:
   When you rebid 2-of-your-minor, you are advertisiing a 12-14 point hand with a 6-card minor. Responder is likely to raise aggressively if they have honor-doubleton (or longer) support because of the potential of establishing winners in your minor. If your minor suit is weak, tend to prefer a 3-card raise for opener’s major (e.g. ♠92 ♥A43 ♦AJ7643 ♣A2). If your minor suit is strong, prefer emphasizing your long, strong minor (e.g. ♠92 ♥Q43 ♦AQJ763 ♣A2).
3. Choosing between rebidding 1♠ or a 3-card heart raise:
   A 3-card raise to 2♥ with a hand like ♠A942 ♥A73 ♦AJ643 ♣2 risks missing a 4-4 spade fit when responder is 4-4 in the majors. The more frequent issue is how to proceed when responder doesn’t have 4 spades and rebids 1NT. If opener has a good hand with 4 spades, 3 hearts, and shortness in the other minor (like the hand above), opener can comfortably rebid 1♣ and then show 3-card heart support over responder’s potential 1NT rebid.
   
   If opener has a minimum had with 4-3-4-2 distribution, opener should choose between a 1NT rebid or a 3-card raise to 2♥. With a small doubleton in the other minor (e.g. ♠A942 ♥A73 ♦AJ43 ♣72), prefer the 3-card raise to 2♥. Don’t advertise a stronger, more shapely hand by rebidding spades and then bidding 2♥.

The 3-card raise of responder’s major only applies to minimum opening hands which have awkward rebids. Don’t raise to 2 of responder’s major with extra values. Don’t make a jump raise of responder’s major with 3-card support. Make a bid which describes your shape and your strength.

Continuations after opener’s raise to 2 of responder’s major:

When you frequently raise responder’s major with 3-card support, responder needs tools to assess the right strain and level. If responder has a 5+ card major, responder can invite game, jump to game, or look for a slam depending on their strength.

A responder with a 4-card major with an invitational or better hand will want to assess whether they have an 8-card major suit fit. If not, responder may wish to consider other strains. We advise using an easy natural approach after the auction begins:

1. Bidding a new suit is natural and forcing to game. With four-card support, responder rebids three of the major (or jumps in a singleton suit). With three-card support and shortness (or a weak doubleton) in the new suit, partner bids 3NT (i.e. other suits are covered). With some other hand including only three-card support, partner makes the most natural call possible (often a raise of the new suit or a rebid of the original suit).
2. A 2NT bid by responder is non-forcing and shows an invitational hand with only four cards in the major. With a minimum and three-card support, opener passes. With a maximum and three-card support, opener makes some natural call (either rebid his original suit or bid a third suit where he has length). With four-card support, opener bids 3M/4M as appropriate.
3. 3 of opener’s minor is natural and game forcing.
4. 3 of responder’s major is non-forcing and shows an invitational hand with five or more cards in the major.
5. 3NT Promises stoppers in all unbid suits (else would bid three of the stopped unbid) and four trumps; normally opener passes with 3 cards in the major and bids 4M with 4, although 4333 hands are occasionally an exception.

This approach is natural, easy to remember, and effective. It has advantages over the artificial "Quantity and Quality” asking bid (aka “Spiral Raise”) because it communicates the reason opener raised on three card support. This positions responder to make an intelligent decision between 3NT and 4-of-the-major in a 4-3 fit. It also starts the exploration for alternative strains cheaply.

The asking bid method is good for hands where you know you are playing in the major (i.e. responder has 5+ cards) and you just want to determine how good a fit you have in order to evaluate game or slam prospects, but it's not so good for exploring alternate strains (over 1m-1♠-2♠ you can't even play in 2NT).

If you and your partner insist on playing an asking bid gadget on this auction, consider playing “Dutch Spiral.” 

See Steve Weinstein's "1m - 1M Now What" article for more on this topic, including the rebids Steve Weinstein and Bobby Levin play.