Tuesday, May 29, 2007 12:45 AM

Strong 2 Suiters

PITBULLS:

The ugly practice of opening very strong two suiters at the one level stems from the 2♣ structures inadequacy to handle describing the two suiters well. If responder does not mess you up from describing your two suiter , the opponents will. Worse still the opponents like psyching against 2♣ so how do you sort things out ?

Playing a strong 2♦ helps with two suiters. Any time you have diamonds as the anchor suit or if equal length with diamonds , open 2♦ rather than 2♣. The advantage is obvious since you have one of the suits described immediately. BJ Trelford held ♠AK1098 ♥Ax ♦AKQ10x ♣x so opening this 2♦ gets their side off to the best start possible. Partner held ♠xx ♥KJxxx ♦J ♣AQxxx so she bids 2♥ . Partner bids 3♠ to describe the two suiter so you land in 6NT with an overtrick.

In order to assist the 2♣ structure in handling two suiters , we use relays to put responder in a straight jacket until the 2♣ opener describes her two suits. Both 2♥ & 2♠ forces responder to relay to the next suit (NT also ) . You now have your two suiter described by the 3 level. Not bad !! Relays help with the strong NT hands as relaying first and then bidding 2NT shows the 25-27 range hands.

How do you handle the two suiters if the opponents are in the auction legitimately or psyching ? Again a relay to the rescue , but a different type of relay. If the 2♣ opener doubles their bidding it is never penalty nor T/O . The double shows the NT range of hands period. What if the 2♣ bidder had a penalty double of their suit ? This is where the relay comes in. A pass is always a relay to a double by responder. Responder may “break this relay” only if she would have pulled a penalty double ( 6-6 distribution) or slam interest vulnerable. This way is the only way to expose psyches bid or raised in the sandwich position.

If a suit bid by LHO is directly bid by the 2♣ opener it is exposing a psyche & a natural bid. A 2♣ opener should never Q bid as an initial action. 2♣-2♥-2♠-P 3♥ (natural ) . The 2♣ opener does not have to Q bid to force to game as we are already forced to game. You can always Q bid later so there is no hurry to Q bid.

OK what if the opponents are bidding legitimately ? 2♣-2♥-P-3♥ P-P-X-P ? If the 2♣ opener had a NT hand she would have doubled . If she had a one suiter , she would have bid it by now. The “pass & pull” always shows a two suiter. You show your two suiter DONT style. What does that mean ? When you now bid a suit it shows that suit and another higher ranking.

2♣-2♦-P-3♦

P-P-X-P

3♥ This is a 2 suiter with hearts as the anchor suit. The 2^nd suit will get clarified later in the auction. If partner bid 3♠ instead , this specifically shows a two suiter in spades and clubs as she bypassed hearts ( lower ranking ) . Diamonds are not entirely taken out of the equation as the 2♣ bidder could be 6-5 with diamonds as a secondary suit.