When your partner has opened a major suit and you don’t have a fit (three or more cards in their major) you can’t necessarily show your own suit straight away, even if it’s a very long suit.

This is because we play a two-over-one system, meaning that we can only respond in a new suit at the two level with a game forcing hand (13+ hcp). Because of the suit rankings, you can still bid 1S when partner has opened 1H but bidding a minor suit, or bidding hearts when partner has opened 1S, would mean you had to go to the two level, so you need 13+ points to do that.

So when partner opens 1H and you have 4+ spades you can just bid 1S  regardless of strength.  Partner won’t know straight away whether you just have enough to respond or whether you have a stronger hand but you will be able to make that clear with your next bid. Without 4+ spades you just have to bid 1NT or pass, but you should try not to pass partner’s opening bid unless you are extremely weak (<4 hcp).

When partner opens 1S there is no suit you can show at the 1 level, so without fit in spades you will usually respond 1NT with weak or invitational hands, again, unless you are extremely weak.

When you do have a game forcing hand you can show your own suit whatever it is.  You can still bid 1S if that’s your suit and partner has opened 1H or you can show a five card heart or diamond suit at the two level. Sometimes you just have a balanced, game forcing hand with no fit and no suit of your own and in these cases you can always bid 2C. Just like when we open 1C, we don’t promise a real suit with this bid.  Of course you might actually have long clubs, so the 2C response can be either clubs or balanced.

One really important thing to remember is that when responding with suit bids you don’t jump unnecessarily to show a good hand. You always bid your suit at the lowest level you can as responder so if partner opens 1H and you have say 20 hcp and eight spades or even more, you would still respond 1S. This is a forcing bid and so you will get to show your strength on your next bid.

Watch the video, then when you have watched both that video and the one about responding to major suit openings with fit, try the quiz to see how much you can remember.