Thursday, January 25, 2007 1:12 PM

Strong 2D Revisited

PITBULLS:

IMPS players hate missing games & slams. Accordingly we stretch to open 2NT on 5-4-3-1 hands with a stiff honour or a 4-4-4-1 with a stiff honour , 5-4-2-2 or 6-3-2-2 hands. From experience we have learned that getting in the first shot by announcing your HCP’s immediately simplifies game & slam bidding. Opening 2NT with these hands as a down side as every matchpoint player knows . You have bypassed the best partial and 2NT is an awful place to play a hand. The correct contract should be a partial at the one or two level and you are in no man’s land at the 3 level or 2NT level. 2NT pre-empts the opponents out of the auction so you just go down 2 or 3 vulnerable.

A partial fix ( pun intended) is to lower the range for your strong 2♦ opener to include the 2NT range. This allows you to identify the 5 or 6 card diamond suit immediately and allows you to get to some nice slams or alternative games. Another nice side effect , is that the bid allows you to bail out to a nice diamond partial via the 3♣ relay bid. Partner opens 2NT with ♠AQJ ♥Jx ♦KQ10xx ♣AKx and partner holds ♠xx ♥xx ♦Jxxx ♣xxxxx . You pass and go for –200 vul. Note the difference with a 2♦ opener with this hand. Partner bids 2♥ and you bid 2NT . You now bid 3♣ as a relay to 3♦ and all pass. +110 rather than -200 is a lot of IMPS.

You open 2NT with that hand and partner has ♠xxx ♥Ax ♦Axx ♣Qxxxx and probably just bids 3NT . After a 2♦ opener partner bids 2♥ and after the 2NT again bids the 3♣ relay. However , this time over the relay, responder bids 3♥ as a slam try in diamonds. This results in +1370 and natural bidding strikes again. Win , win with a natural bid and a natural system.