Strong 2 Club Opening -- a sample hand

 

Today we’ll look at the strong 2 club opening bid. As you should already know the 2 club opening bid is a strong, artificial bid showing a hand that is 22+ points or one trick short of game with no help from partner other than a trump fit. We’ll use an example hand to explore the bidding and go through a plan for the play of the hand.

This hand came up in an online game that I was playing, it is a difficult hand, but instructive.

North

South

 

West was dealer and everyone passed to South. South has 23 high card points plus 2 distribution points for the six-card spade suit and one more distribution point for the second 4-card suit. That’s 26 points. If we count playing tricks we might expect 2 losers in spades and half a loser in diamonds. This hand clearly qualifies for a 2 club opener.

North counts 5 points in high cards and can count 2 points in distribution, one for the fifth heart and one for a second suit. That comes up just shy of the 8 points needed for a positive response. North bids 2 diamonds to deny 8 points.

Now, south bids her spade suit. There is no reason to show any extra strength. She just shows her 5-card suit by bidding 2 spades.

North is forced to keep the bidding open until one trick short of game. He is not too happy to hear that his partner’s best suit is spades. He shows his longest suit by bidding 3 hearts.

It is unfortunate that the suits that each player has gets the bidding elevated so quickly. South has a tough choice at this point. She could bid her club suit, asking partner to show a preference, but partner only needs 2 cards in spades to make an 8-card trump suit. South doesn’t want to stop short of game since her hand looks like it can take 10 ½ tricks all on its own. The half trick comes from the AQ of diamonds. Half the time East will hold the King and the finesse will win, assuming that there is some transportation to the board.

Bidding 3 no trump is possible. Partner’s hearts might not be that useful, though. It might be difficult to get to the board to cash them if they set up.

South decided to just take a leap of faith that partner would have a spade or two and bid 4 spades.

Now, North is in a tight spot. Anything he bids is going to be at the 5 level, and maybe still won’t result in a trump fit. He passes. Passing as soon as possible when a misfit is suspected is usually a good choice.

The opening lead is the 5 of hearts. Now, South plans the play of the hand. He has no losers in the off suits. Trumps are the only issue. The opponents hold 7 trumps between them. If the trumps break 4-3, declarer can lose 3 trump tricks and make the contract. Pulling trump is the first order of business. Even though the opponents hold most of the big trump cards, we want them playing two of their trump cards on as many tricks as possible.

Declarer takes the A of hearts and leads the A of spades. Both opponents follow suit. Next, she leads the 9 of spades. East goes up with the J and West follows suit. So far, so good.

East returns the Q of hearts. Ordinarily declarer would like to avoid ruffing with the long hand (the hand that holds the most trump), but there is no loser to discard from the hand. Declarer has no choice but to win the trick with a small trump.

Declarer continues by leading a small trump. East shows out (darn it!) and West wins with the 10.

Now, declarer knows that East holds 2 more trumps that will win tricks. There is no point in pulling those trumps. East can take them whenever he wants. Declarer will save her small trumps to maintain control of the heart suit. East could pull declarer’s trumps if he wants, but declarer will still have one left to regain the lead if hearts are led.

The rest of the hand is straight forward. Declarer takes tricks in the side suits and lets East trump in whenever he chooses. Unfortunately, the opponents end up with 4 trump tricks and the contract is set.