[P_Marlowe]

#Hand 1

3C - I have fit, I show the fit.

It is even fairly cheap to do so, so what should I bid else?

#Hand 2

3NT showes a stopper.
3S showes a 5 carder.
3D is art. in Europe, natural in North America, should
imply a 5 card spade suit
3H showes at least Hx, ..., but if you play 3D as natural,
3H may be based on xx only.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[quiddity]

Hand #2:

3♦ is an artificial catch-all. "Please describe further". Frequently the jump-shifter has a three-bid sequence to describe his hand. Maybe he will rebid hearts to show a strong heart hand, maybe spades to show a strong 3514, maybe NT to show a strong 2524, maybe a club rebid to show a distributional 2-suiter. Point is, 3♦ allows him room to finish that description. This should be a very common rebid.

3♥ is a preference but it should show something better than xx (you can bid 3♦ with that). Hx for example. Let partner know when you have something useful in his suit.

3♠ shows 5+ cards but I think it should show a strongly spade-oriented hand. Again, you can bid 3♦ if you have no clear direction. It's dangerous to make this bid when 3NT is in the picture (ie with good diamonds) because opener might be endplayed and unable to bid 3NT himself.

3NT shows a strong feeling that 3NT is the right place to play. This should be based on more than just a stopper in the fourth suit, since 3NT will frequently end the auction even when partner has a distributional hand. Multiple stoppers, slow honors (kings, queens, jacks - not aces - in suits where opener is short), etc.

[JLOGIC]

Hand 2: With Ax of hearts, I would always bid 3H. I realize this might endplay partner some of the time with no stopper in diamonds, but Ax is too strong to not show imo. Our hand is also very strong, worst comes to worst we play 4H instead of a superior 3N and that should be ok.

[Zelandakh]

masse24, on 2012-July-29, 11:07, said:

So...what is:
1.) 3♦
2.) 3♥
3.) 3♠
4.) 3NT

European style:
1. 3♦ is a grope, often looking for 3NT but basically just denying the ability to do something else.
2. 3♥ shows 2+ hearts but not 3 hearts and crap.
3. 3♠ shows extra spade length. Most play it as 5+ spades but it may be better to play it as 6+. Possibly better yet would be 5+ spades with a diamond stop; then 3♦ followed by spades denies a diamond stop.
4. 3NT is natural.