Bidding Over a Weak Two

Today, we’ll look at a hand where a weak two spade opening bid makes it difficult for the opposing side to find their best contract. Well, that’s part of the reason for bidding a weak two, isn’t it?

Edie picks up this nice hand. She has 16 HCP and 5-3-3-2 distribution. She intends to open 1NT, but Norm, sitting to Edie’s left, thwarts her plan by opening 2 spades.

Edie
♠ A2
♥ K42
♦ KJ3
♣ AJ962

Edie could bid 2NT over 2 spades, but she is worried about the weak spade holding, now. Still, with 16 points (17 with distribution) she would like to bid. She chooses to bid 3 clubs. Making an overcall at the 3 level requires a strong hand. She has that.

Sally is next and considers competing with 3 spades, but decides to pass, hoping that her partner’s opening bid will keep the opponents from finding their best contract.

Sally
♠ 864
♥ JT
♦ AQ952
♣ 843

Walt is delighted to hear about his partner’s strong hand and 5-card club suit. His void is more valuable with his extra length in his partner’s suit. He counts his points as 7 in high cards, 5 for the void with extra trump support and one for the doubleton. That’s 13 points, and he expects his partner to better than an opening hand to be able to make an overcall at the 3 level. He wants to be in game, for certain. He thinks that slam might be possible. After all, his partner might have 20 points. On the other hand, how does he find it? Blackwood is no use. If Edie responds with 5 diamonds, showing just one ace, they are committed to going to slam—off 3 aces.

Walt
♠ J3
♥ Q98763
♦ -
♣ KQT75

Walt just silently curses Norm’s weak 2 bid, and bids 5 clubs. Norm has said all he is allowed to say with his opening bid, so he passes. Edie decides that she has already shown the full strength of her hand with her 3-level overcall and passes, also. Sally passes.

Sally is on lead.

Sally
♠ 864
♥ JT
♦ AQ952
♣ 843

There is hardly anything to think about. She leads the 8 of spades as a “top of nothing” lead to her partner’s suit.

Edie makes a plan for the hand.

	Dummy ♠ J3 ♥ Q98763 ♦ - ♣ KQT75
	Edie ♠ A2 ♥ K42 ♦ KJ3 ♣ AJ962

She sees no losers in clubs even if they break 3-0. There is a loser in spades and at least one in hearts. From the point of view of her hand, she would like to ruff three diamonds in dummy. The AJ9 of clubs in her hand will be able to pull the trumps, so she can use the big trumps in dummy to do the ruffing before pulling trumps. She will need transportation to her hand. That shouldn’t be a problem. She can get there with the A of spades and two rounds of trump.

She still needs to hold heart losers to one. She can try a heart finesse through the opponent of her choice. If that fails, there is the possibility of a 2-2 heart break. If that also fails, there might be a chance for a second finesse toward the Q98 in hearts. We’ll see how that works out. Let’s play.

Edie plays small from dummy, Norm plays “third hand high” with the Q. Edie takes the A in her hand and immediately starts to ruff diamonds. She leads the 3. Sally plays small. Edie ruffs with the K. Norm follows with the 4.

Edie returns to her hand by leading the 5 of clubs to the A. Norm discards the 6 of diamonds. Sally follows with the 3. The 3-0 break is no problem.

Edie continues by ruffing a second diamond with the Q and returns a small club to the J. Edie still has a diamond to ruff and another trump to pull. Then, she needs to tackle the hearts.

	Dummy ♠ J ♥ Q98763 ♦ - ♣ T
	Edie ♠ 2 ♥ K42 ♦ K ♣ 962

Edie stops to worry a little. She still needs to ruff the diamond in dummy but won’t be able to immediately pull the last trump. Her plan is to lead a small heart toward the K, hoping that Norm jumps up with the A. That would solve her heart loser problem, but might Sally have started with a doubleton spade or singleton heart and be poised to ruff Norm’s return? Norm probably started with exactly 6 spades. That leaves 3 for Sally. They might have started 7-2, but probably not. How about a singleton heart? That’s a distinct possibility. If Sally started with a singleton heart, and Norm has the A, and Norm returns a heart after taking the A, Sally will win a trick with her last trump. Well, hardly any hand is sure thing. There isn’t any way to avoid this risk after the 3-0 trump break.

Edie continues with her plan. She plays the K of diamonds, Sally covers with the A, and dummy ruffs with the ten. Now, Edie leads a small heart toward the K. Norm jumps up with the A, cashes his K of spades, and returns a heart. Edie plays the K, and Sally follows suit. Thanks, Sally.

Now, Edie pulls the last trump with the 9, and leads the 4 of hearts to the Q. All the opposing hearts are gone, but Edie is left with nothing but trumps in her hand. She claims the rest.

Stayman Convention

The Stayman convention is used when the responder to a no trump opening bid would like to try to find a 4-4 major suit fit. He starts the convention by bidding 2 clubs over the 1 NT opener. We'll look at the opening no trump bidders responses before looking at the requirements for the Stayman bid.

No Trump Bidder's Answer

The opening no trump bidder's responses are straight forward. If she has a 4-card major, she bids it. If she has both of them she bids 2 hearts, giving her partner the chance to show spades if he has them, but not hearts. If she has neither major suit, she bids 2 diamonds. Easy-peasy. There is no chance that she will be 5-4 in the majors, because she would not open no trump with that holding.

Stayman Bidder's Rebid

Let's first consider what happens if the opening no trump bidder responds 2 diamonds. This bid is artificial. It doesn't promise anything in diamonds other than what an opening no trump bid would promise. The Stayman bidder can't leave his partner there. He has to bid on. He can bid 2 NT to invite game in no trump or 3 NT to put the team in game. There is also the chance that he is interested in slam, but we won't worry about that, today.

Similarly, if the Stayman bidder held just the 4-card heart suit, and his partner responded with 2 spades, he would need to either invite game with 2 NT or bid 3NT.

These sequences illustrates why the Stayman bidder must be at least strong enough to invite game in order to make the initial Stayman inquiry. If the opening NT bidder doesn't have the Stayman bidder's suit, he must at least invite game in NT.

There is an unusual exception. If the Stayman bidder has a 5-card diamond suit and BOTH 4-card majors, he can bid Stayman with 0 points. He can safely pass any response by the opener. 

Should the no trump bidder respond with 2 hearts and the Stayman bidder has spades, but not hearts, he should bid 2 spades over the heart response. The opener might have both and bid the cheaper one first.

Of course, there is the chance that the opener bids your suit. Great. Now what? You either invite game or bid it in the suit fit that you just found. DON'T PASS.

Opener's Rebid

If the Stayman bidder bid game either in NT or the 4-card suit that the opener showed with her Stayman response, she should simply pass. The Stayman bidder knows how strong the opener's hand is and has set the contract. No negotiation is required.

Similarly, if the Stayman bidder invited game, the opener should either bid game with a maximum no trump opener or pass with a minimum. Yeah, there is that middle-valued hand of 16 points. You need to make a judgement call.

What about a sequence like this?

Opener: 1NT

Responder: 2C (Stayman inquiry)

Opener: 2H

Responder: 2S

Here, the opener doesn't know if the Stayman bidder has enough to force game, or not. She does know that her partner has enough to invite, game though. Therefore, if she is on the top of her 1NT opener, she should bid game, either in spades if she has 4 of them or in no trump if she doesn't. If she is on the bottom of her opening bid, she should show that by making a minimum raise of 3S with 4 cards in spades or 2NT without the spade support.

Opening bids of 2NT and 3NT

The Stayman response works the same way opposite a 2NT or 3NT opener, it just happens at a higher level. The Stayman bidder needs enough strength to force game, since any bidding sequence that doesn't show an immediate fit will end at game level.

Opposite a 1NT overcall

A 1NT overcall shows the same sort of hand as an opening 1NT bid. A 2 club response is still the Stayman convention, and all sequences are the same as above.

Versus Interference

If the left-hand opponent of the opening no trump bidder throws in an overcall, the 2 C bid will not be available to the responder. There is a bid to handle that situation. It is known as "cue bid Stayman." If the responder is strong enough to force game, he can bid the same suit as the overcall at the 3 level. If the overcall was a minor suit, this bid can show either 4-card major. If the overcall was a major suit, it specifically shows the other major.

Bad Breaks

Today, we’ll look at a hand that has several chances to make. Declarer’s job is to figure out the plan with the highest chance of success.

Three players pass to Sally who holds  

Sally
♠ 7
♥ 76
♦ AK83
♣ AKQT32

She has 16 points in high cards and can count 2 distribution points for the 5^th and 6^th club plus one more for the second suit. That’s 19 points. She could open 1 club, but her hand will only have 4 losers with reasonable breaks in the minor suits. She decides to open with the artificial strong 2 club bid. If you would prefer to open 1 club with this hand, I wouldn’t criticize you. 

Remember that Sally’s opening 2C bid does not promise anything about clubs.

Walt, sitting to Sally’s left, passes. Sally’s partner holds

Norm
♠ KT52
♥ A32
♦ QJT4
♣ 86

That’s 10 points in high cards, and 1 distribution point for the second suit. Norm wants to make a positive response to the 2C opener. Any suit bid that he makes would imply a 5-card suit. He chooses to respond 2NT. The opponents pass at every opportunity from here on.

Norm’s positive response forces the team to game, and is a strong invitation to investigate slam. Sally isn’t crazy about NT, and she hasn’t said anything about her suits yet. Both players understand that they are going to game, and slam is a possibility. There is no reason to hurry the bidding. They should take their time to find a fit. Sally bids 3 clubs.

Norm doesn’t care for the clubs, even though Sally ought to have 5 of them for her bid. Having already denied a 5-card suit, Norm can show his 4-card suits, hoping to find a 4-4 fit. He should bid them up the line to keep the bidding low. He bids 3 diamonds.

Sally is happy with the 4-4 fit in diamonds. Sure, the 6-card club suit is pretty, but there is a guaranteed diamond fit. She decides that the team will be playing a diamond contract. Next, she needs to figure out whether the team should be in a slam or not. Even a grand slam is possible. Norm has not limited the upper end of his strength. Sally figures that if Norm has one ace, along with his other 4+ points, there should be a reasonable chance for a small slam. Sure, his ace might be the ace of spades and the rest of his points might be in spades and diamonds. That would be bad news. The opponents could take the AK of hearts off the top and set a small slam. It could happen, but that is too pessimistic. Sally bids 4NT, the Blackwood convention to find out how many aces Norm has.

Norm responds 5D showing one ace. Had Norm bid 5H, showing both of the missing aces, Sally might ask for kings to see if a grand slam were possible. But, he didn’t. Sally is satisfied with the 1 ace and bids 6 diamonds. Everyone passes.

 

Edie leads the ace of spades and Norm makes a plan for the hand

	Dummy ♠ 7 ♥ 76 ♦ AK83 ♣ AKQT32
	Norm ♠ KT52 ♥ A32 ♦ QJT4 ♣ 86

It looks pretty good, so far. There shouldn’t be any losers in diamonds unless they break 5-0. Edie’s lead just promoted the K of spades to a winner. Norm will still have 2 spade losers and 2 heart losers in his hand after losing the A of spades. He could try to ruff some spades and hearts in dummy, but that will require getting to his hand several times, and he’ll need to do all that ruffing before pulling trumps. He might be able to avoid ruffing anything if the clubs break 3-2. If that is the case, he can pull trumps, and then discard all of his losers on the clubs. But, what if they don’t break 3-2?

Let’s stop and take a look at the hand from dummy’s point of view. Dummy will lose a trick to the ace of spades and has one heart loser. Clubs might not have any losers. If that is the case, dummy can discard the losing heart on the king of spades, and everything is wonderful. If the clubs don’t break, Norm can ruff a club in his hand and the rest of the clubs will be good. That sounds like a pretty good plan. This idea of thinking of the dummy as the “long hand” and ruffing in declarer’s hand is known as a “dummy reversal.”

Dummy plans to pull trump, run clubs, and discard a heart on the king of spades. Norm is ready to play the small spade from dummy and a small one from his hand. Edie continues with the 4 of clubs, leading around to weakness. Sally plays the ace and Walt follows suit. Sally start her plan by drawing trump. She leads the A and K from dummy, and Walt discards a small spade on the second trump.

Sally can still pull all the trump, but it will take all her trumps to do it. That’s still not a problem if the clubs break 3-2. Unfortunately, by the time Sally finds out that they don’t, all her trumps will be gone. She can’t test them, first, by leading a second trump, because if they break 4-1 and the player with the singleton is the player with the remaining trumps, she will lose a trick to a ruff. Her only choice is to hope for the best in clubs.

She continues pulling trump and leads a second club. Edie uncooperatively discards a heart on the second club, and there is no way for dummy to avoid losing a club. What’s worse is that she won’t be able to take any more clubs even after knocking out the Jack. She doesn’t have any more entries to the board. The contract ends up down 3.

Still, for such a disastrous result to happen, the trumps needed to split 4-1 and the clubs needed to split 4-1. Probability favors getting a 3-2 break in at least one of those suits. It was a good plan. It just didn't work out.

Is 2 clubs too confusing?

 A bid of 2 clubs often has an artificial meaning. It's important to know when 2 clubs means that you have a club suit and when it means something completely different. If you mix these things up when either you or your partner bids 2 clubs, expect disaster.

Opening the bidding with 2 clubs

Let's start with the 2 club opening bid. Remember that when I say "opening bid" I mean no one has said anything other than pass before your bid. This opening 2 club bid means that you have a very strong hand, practically enough for game with no help from your partner. It says nothing about clubs.

You might also open 2 clubs if you have a no trump hand that is too strong to open 2 NT (20-21 HCP), but not strong enough to open 3NT (25-27 HCP). When you have a no trump hand with 22-24 HCP, you open 2 clubs intending to bid no trump at your next turn.

What if you have a hand that looks like a weak 2 opener with a long club suit? Well, you certainly can't open with a weak two clubs. You partner will expect that you have a strong hand. So, what do you do? If you can count enough distribution points to get to 13, you can open 1 club.  If your outside suits are particularly weak, you might open 3 clubs. Your partner will expect you to have a 7-card club suit. You almost do. Passing is often the best choice.

Responding to an opening bid with 2 clubs

If your partner opens the bidding with 1 in a suit, a 2 club response is natural. It shows a legitimate club suit. 

If your partner opened 1 NT, your 2 club response is the Stayman convention. You are asking your partner to bid a 4-card major if she has one. It says nothing about clubs. I was supposed to post a discussion about Stayman, wasn't I? It looks like I never got around to it. Watch for it next week.

What if you have a long club suit and your partner opened 1NT? Well, you certainly can't bid 2 clubs. That is the Stayman convention. Instead, you use Jacoby transfers and bid 2 spades. Your partner will automatically bid 3 clubs.

Overcalling with 2 clubs

An overcall of 2 clubs is natural, showing a strong 5-card suit. Remember the terminology. If your opponents opened the bidding and you decide to make the first bid for your side, this is not an opening bid. It is an overcall. For example, if your right-hand opponent (RHO) opens 1 heart and you say 2 clubs, that is not a 2 club opener. It is a 2 club overcall. You are showing a good club suit and probably close to opening strength.

What if you have a really strong hand that you would have opened 2 clubs with, but your RHO opened the bidding? First of all, don't hold your breath waiting for this to happen. Your RHO has 13 points, and there are only 40 high card points in the deck. It's hard for you to come up with the 23 points or so that would warrant a 2 club opener. It happens sometimes, though. Your best bet is to make a takeout double, even if you do not have support for any suit that your partner might bid. You will correct to your suit at your next turn, and partner will recognize that you must have had a hand that was too strong to make a simple overcall.

Summary

OK, there you have it. Two clubs often has a special meaning, so watch out for it.