October 2009 - 30

Ideas and innovations
from ACBL members

The best of both worlds - part 2
Let's explore the pros and cons of the special 2/1 method described in part 1.
By Dan Romm

Disadvantages
1. With a game-forcing hand, you
must postpone mentioning your
suit for a round (but this is offset
by the fact that opener usually has
an extra level to further describe
his hand).
2. A limit raise may have only three
trumps (but this is commonplace
nowadays anyway) because you
can no longer start with a forcing
1NT. But you can bid 2NT instead
if you have three low trumps, no
doubleton and 10-11 HCP.
3. With a weak hand and a six-card
club suit, you must bid 1NT and
risk being passed, whereas in
ordinary 2/1 you can always sign
off in 3. But partner may bid
over 1NT, in which case you can
still sign off. If partner doesn't
bid, 1NT may be a better spot
(especially at matchpoints).
4. Without Flannery, hands with five
hearts and four spades present
a problem (there is no perfect
system!), as they also do in 2/1. I
don't necessarily advocate Flannery, so what should opener do
over 2NT in the new method with
more than a minimum? If he bids
only 3, he may be passed, and
if he bids 4, his partner has to
30

bid 4NT with 2-2 in the majors
whereas the field can stop in 3NT.
I advocate opening 1NT with
4=5=2=2 distribution and more
than a minimum, which resolves
this problem (as well as others)
for those hands. Otherwise, when
you have a hand with a singleton,
partner bids 2NT and is 2-2 in the
majors, and you can make only
nine tricks in 3NT with more than
a minimum opposite 10-11 HCP,
then chalk up a zero because of a
system fix.
Advantages
1. You can describe weak one-suited
hands (other than clubs) at the two
level without first going through
1NT, which will usually force you
to the three level.
2. You can play 1 or 1NT.
3. Opener's bids over 2 are always
real suits (not necessarily true
after a 1NT response in ordinary
2/1).
4. Responder can set up a game-forcing auction at the cheapest level
apart from 1NT, leaving maximum
room for exploration. After a 2
response, proper control-showing
or cuebidding techniques (once

the trump suit is set) will further
clarify just how big responder's
and opener's hands are without
using Jacoby 2NT (which bypasses a level of bidding), especially if
you use cuebids showing first- or
second-round control, in which
case any singleton by opener can
still be shown.
5. The direct 2NT response (showing 10-11 HCP, semi-balanced
hands with at most a doubleton
in opener's major) is superior
to the treatment in 2/1 in which
responder first bids 1NT and then
follows with 2NT.
6. You can more easily reach a superior 4-3 spade fit when the field is
playing in notrump.
7. After a 2 response, opener's
RHO can't make a takeout double
with a two-suited hand because
responder's real suit is unknown.
(I recommend that a double shows
clubs.)
This system is merely a framework
and leaves lots of room for further
tweaking. It can also narrow the gap
between 2/1 and strong club systems
when it comes to slam bidding. In
this method, rather than 1 showing
a strong opener, 2 shows a strong
response. If you like, you can try
using the same methods over 2 in
this system that you used over 1
when playing a strong club system.
The only difference is that, rather
than using 1 to show a strong
opening, you now use 2 to show
a strong response, so responder, not
opener, becomes the captain (after a
2 response, 2 by opener would
be artificial, showing a minimum
opening hand, etc.).
r
The author is a Silver Life Master.
He lives in Seattle WA.
Bridge Bulletin
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2009
