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1. • CommentAuthorJam
   • CommentTimeMay 27th 2010

    
   What should be the approrpiate response to 1H opening, playing 4-card major and 12-14 NT?
   
   5 3
   J 5 3
   8 5
   A Q 10 8 5 3
2. • CommentAuthorFrances
   • CommentTimeMay 28th 2010

    
   With only 7 high card points, you aren't strong enough to respond 2C, which needs about 9+ points - usually, partner with a 15+ balanced hand will look for game after your 2/1 response, so you need a bit more strength than you have here.
   
   The 'normal' bid, when you have enough to respond, you don't have four spades and you don't have four card heart support, would be 1NT which is sort of an all-purpose bid, just saying "I have 6+ points partner but nothing suitable to bid".
   
   However, even though you play 4-card majors, I would recommend raising 1H to 2H on this hand when you have a shortage (two shortages in fact) and 3-card support. So no-one would crime 1NT, but I think 2H is better.
3. • CommentAuthorTerrence
   • CommentTimeJun 11th 2010

    
   Let me expand a little on what Frances said. I too would bid 2H, and for much the same reasons as Frances, but I would like to offer up one more fact of which, it seems, very few players are aware.
   
   First, two short questions:
   1) What percent of hands you are dealt have a suit of length 5 or more?
   2) What percent have a suit of length 6 or more?
   
   Here is the surprising answer to the second question: more than 30%. And, the answer to the first question is 65%, a number that shocked one of my partners, an expert who has won a national championship here in the United States (I live in New York). Therefore, more than 65% of the time that partner opens 1H, partner will have opened a suit of length 5 or longer. What do I say "more than 65%"? Well, there are many hands with a 4-card heart suit that are not opened 1H, but there are some, but very few, hands with a 5-card heart suit that are not opened 1H. I guess that about 75% of hands opened 1H contain a heart suit of length 5 or more. Given that information, it seems clear that the winning bid is 2H. Remember, although 2H can be a very wrong bid, in some circumstances, bridge is a game of probability -- and in most circumstances, the winning bid, the right bid, is 2H.