Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Responses to 2♣ with a really bad hand

Here’s a controversial topic in the opening 2♣ saga– how does the responder to 2♣ show a dreadful hand? By definition, “dreadful” refers to a hand with 0-3 points, without any card higher than a queen.

Here are two popular methods to show these bad hands:


Cheaper Unbid Minor ‘Double Negative’:

First respond 2 and then bid your cheaper unbid minor:

South                 North  South
♠  9 7                 2♣             2
J 7 6 5            2             3♣ 
 J 9 6 5 4
♣ 4 2                 South’s 3♣ bid is a 'Double Negative' showing 0-3 points.

The 2 Double Negative:

Responder to 2♣ first bids 2. I know that sounds really weird, but this gets the story out immediately without first bidding 2. True, if hearts turn out to be the final trump suit, it’s not so great, but you gain a lot of timing with the bad hand revealing itself right away.

South                North        South
♠ 9 7                 2♣            2
 J 7 6 5  
 J 9 6 5 4
♣ 4 2               If South has 8+ points, and 5+ hearts, he must now bid 2 NT.

Some experts are using this initial response of 2 as the 'Double Negative'; a 2 response would therefore show 4 to 7 points. It’s your choice; all methods work - just agree with your partner.

My choice is for the “Cheaper Unbid Minor” method. 

© 2013 Roberta Salob