[1eyedjack]

A (relative) beginner recently asked me for guidance on the requirements for a weak take-out to 3-minor opposite partner's 1NT opener. I found it a bit like the Elephant Test. I know one when I see one, but defining it seemed non-trivial.

A weak take-out to 2-Major is a bit easier, I think. Hands containing a 5 card major that want to pass out 1NT are (I think, at least) rarer than hands containing a 6 card minor. If a beginner religiously pulled 1N with a 5 card major and insufficient values for game interest (bar superaccept) then he won't be going far wrong.

To take out to 3-minor, again you are looking at no game interest, and now a 6 card minor (contrasted with a 5 card major in the analogy). But is that sufficient? I know that I would leave it in 1N a lot more frequently than (say) pulling to 2M.

For a belt-and-braces approach you should perhaps take into account the type of scoring, vulnerability, position of dealer, strength of opener, response structure and opponents' defensive methods. But having regard to the target audience I was looking for a simpler algorithm.

The strength of opener and response structure will be a given, for any given recipient of this advice. Some early players may be playing 4-suit transfers, which makes it a bit easier, as with a good suit you may have some game interest (especially opposite a strong NT) provided that partner can run the suit, which he can indicate without committing to game. However most players in this population will I expect be playing the SAYC structure or similar, where responder unilaterally commits either to 1NT or 3-minor.

I have some views on this which I have not included in this post because I wanted to throw it open to the floor and see if others have some fairly concise and simple guidelines that they would recommend.

[awm]

I think it's almost always right to take out to the minor with six.

If the minor suit can be established, then you will usually make three notrump. If not, then you're probably going to be better off in 3m where you can score a lot of tricks from the long suit which is producing next to nothing in notrump.

The only case that really seems an exception is when you have enough points to really invite game (like 8-9) but your six-card minor is quite lousy. In this case "inviting in the minor" will get the wrong evaluation from partner, since you really just want partner to go with a max. So it might make sense to show a balanced invite, even though you'd still prefer to play 3m if partner's declining.