For a suit bid twice, six cards are nice

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If you bid and repeat a suit, you should strive to have six+ cards. Avoid repeating a five-card suit wherever possible.

Let’s take the auction 1 ♠ - 2 ♣ - 2 ♠. Can you find an opening hand with just five spades that would bid this way – how about these?

With none of the above should you repeat spades over partner’s 2 ♣ response. With (i) you would introduce the second suit, rebidding 2 ♦. (ii) and (iii) are balanced (no void, no singleton, not more than one doubleton) and should bid notrumps; with (ii) you would open 1 NT (12-14), with (iii) you would open 1 ♠ and rebid 2 NT over 2 ♣ (15-19).

Note that if you hold (i) above and your partner responds 2 ♥ to your 1 ♠, you might prefer to rebid 2 ♠ than 3 ♦. [Hence why my ditty reads “six cards are nice” not “six cards are absolutely guaranteed”].

A response to 1 ♠ of 2 ♣ (and similarly 1 ♥ - 1 ♠) allows opener to introduce any second suit cheaply. Provided you are prepared to open 1 NT with a five-card major, the auctions 1 ♠ - 2 ♣ - 2 ♠ and 1 ♥ - 1 ♠ - 2 ♥ guarantee six+ cards. Indeed this is perhaps the strongest reason for opening 1 NT with the five-card major.

Here are three more hands after 1 ♠ - 2 ♣:

You’d rebid 2 ♠ with (iv) and (v). Because you should jump a level when repeating your suit holding 16+ points, you’d bid 3 ♠ with (vi).

On our deal West led ♥ K, then ♥ 5 to ♥ A and declarer trumped the third heart with ♠ 2. Needing to pick up trumps for one loser, he sought to promote ♠ J, leading ♠ 3 towards ♠ J* (key play).

Whether West rose with ♠ Q or not (he chose not), he could only score one trick. ♠ 3, ♠ 7, ♠ J, ♠ 9 was followed by ♠ 5 to ♠ AK. Declarer played his minor-suit winners, leaving West to score ♠ Q when he chose. 10 tricks made.
*Note that actually leading ♠ J cannot gain, a common mistake.