[lamford]

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What would you bid now? And answers please from novices and strong players as I am doing a short talk in a few days on Fourth Suit Forcing.

[P_Marlowe]

2S

This showes the hand, 3 card support for responders suit, 543? shape, 15-17 HCP.

[bluenikki]

lamford, on 2026-November-07, 05:31, said:

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What would you bid now? And answers please from novices and strong players as I am doing a short talk in a few days on Fourth Suit Forcing.

Once a suit has been raised, the convention "Fourth Suit Forcing" does not apply.

[DavidKok]

P_Marlowe, on 2026-November-07, 06:25, said:

2S

This showes the hand, 3 card support for responders suit, 543? shape, 15-17 HCP.

I agree and want to add that this works because I would raise 1♦-1♠; 2♠ with that same pattern and 11-14 hcp. As mentioned in the other thread, this is unrelated to 4SF but very related to partnership agreements about showing 3-card support for reponder's major.

[P_Marlowe]

bluenikki, on 2026-November-07, 06:36, said:

Once a suit has been raised, the convention "Fourth Suit Forcing" does not apply.

...

I would argue that this is a matter of which school you belong to, for me 3C would be FSF.
Lamford is living in Acol country, ..., I went also to school based in this country.
If you dont like to call 3C as FSF, call it marktime bid, random noise bid (I think Al Roth
used this term).

[mikeh]

I’ve always assumed and played that 4th suit, as an artificial force, is a bid made by responder, never opener.

1D 1H 1S 1N 2C. May be ‘4th suit ‘ but it’s the antithesis of an artificial forcing bid. It’s a natural bid desperate for a fit.

On the hand, I upvoted P_Marlowe, and think 2S is clear for the reasons given by him and David