Playing Bridge: Rebidding After Your Partner Repeats Her Suit

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.

Consider the following two bidding sequences:

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.

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:

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.

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♠.