[Hanoi5]

After:
1♥ 2♣
3♣

And in general, responder (or opener) bid the suits they have or have stoppers in, right? Is there a way to ask for stoppers other than than bidding the 4th suit?

[rogerclee]

If you bid a new suit you are indicating strength in that suit, so obviously partner won't bid 3N with weakness in the other suit. Obviously with a minimum and strength in both other suits you can bid 3N.

These bids are not necessarily about "stoppers" as you may be looking for slam also, but could definitely just be about making sure you have stoppers.

[whereagles]

Hanoi5, on Nov 20 2008, 06:03 PM, said:

After:
1♥ 2♣
3♣

And in general, responder (or opener) bid the suits they have or have stoppers in, right? Is there a way to ask for stoppers other than than bidding the 4th suit?

Not sure if this is an answer, but I use to play

- Bidding 3NT shows stoppers in both unbid suits
- Bidding a suit shows a stopper in that suit, thus denying a full stop in the other suit

then pard bids

- 3NT with the 4th suit stopped
- the 4th suit with 1/2 a stop, asking pard to bid 3NT with the other half
- 4C with no stop in the 4th suit and no tolerance for hearts
- 4H with no stop and tolerance for hearts, say, Hx

[peachy]

All natural bidding. No asking except via the 4th suit and even that is oftentimes natural in a 2/1 auction. After the third suit bid, partner is often "answering" - sort of - by bidding 3NT if he has the 4th suit stopped, but the third suit bid wasn't asking, it was showing.