If your partner has a six- or seven-card suit in Bridge, you can expect to hear her bid that suit at least twice, maybe three times. When your partner rebids a suit, she has limited her hand, meaning that you’re the captain. If you have support for the suit, you have found a home, but how high should you bid? It depends on your partner’s strength added to your strength.
In these two sequences, you know that your partner has at least six hearts, possibly seven. In the first sequence, your partner makes a simple rebid at the two level, showing a minimum hand; in the second sequence, she jumps to the three level, showing an intermediate hand.
Your partner’s opening bid of 1♠ shows five or more spades with 12 or more HCP. You respond 1NT because you aren’t strong enough to bid at the two level and you don’t have three-card support for your partner’s suit.
Consider the following two bidding sequences:
| Opener (Your Partner) | Responder (You) |
| 1♥ | 1♠ |
| 2♥ (11 to 14 HCP) | ? |
| Opener (Your Partner) | Responder (You) |
| 1♥ | 1♠ |
| 3♥ (15 to 17 HCP) | ? |
Point-count ranges aren’t written in stone when it comes to long suits. Experienced players upgrade their hands when they hold a long, strong suit because such suits take many tricks in the play of the hand.
These cards illustrate your partner making a jump rebid.
When your partner makes a jump rebid in her long suit, assume she has at least 15 HCP.
Above, the bidding has gone as follows:
| Opener (Your Partner) | Responder (You) |
| 1♠ | 1NT |
| 3♠ | ? |
When your partner bids a suit and then jumps the bidding in that suit, assume she has at least six cards in the suit, an intermediate-strength hand (15 to 17 HCP), and the capacity to take about eight tricks in her own hand. Because you have two taking tricks in your hand, go for it: Bid 4♠.
