Handling the Big Hands by Jon Gustafson

What defines a Strong 2 Club Opening bid?¹

In Goren's Bridge Complete (© 1963)  we learned that a strong two was defined by the following formula. Of course all 2-level suit bids were used as strong twos.

1. AKQJxxx Axx Ax x

2 Spade. Nine certain winners, you are within a trick of game, and it is worth 21 points (18 HCP plus 1 for the doubleton and 2 for the singleton). An odd king or queen might produce your tenth trick.

2. AKJ AKJxx A KQ10x

2 Hearts. It would be really unlucky to not make 10 tricks with this hand. A total of 27 points, 25 in high cards and 2 in distribution.

3. AKxx AKxx x AKxx

1 Club. This is no where near an opening demand bid. 23 points but the longest suit is only 4 cards long. There are too many losing tricks. If partner can't respond to 1 it is unlikely that a game will be missed.

Hy Lavinthal (a contemporary of Culbertson) devised the following rules for opening a strong demand bid:

• More honor tricks (HT) than possible losers (LTC of F.Dudley Courtenay)
  
• Rule of 24 -- add to the high-card count two points for every card over four in any suit and subtract a point for any king or queen not in sequence with a next-ranking honor

Today, the standards for opening a strong two have not changed significantly. Generally any hand with 22-23 or more points is a candidate to be opened a strong two clubs. And here's the big change: all strong game going hands are opened two clubs since 2 diamonds through 2 spades are used for weak twos or other conventions such as Flannery. This puts much more strain on the responses and rebids but frees up the other two-level opening bids for other more frequently occurring uses.

When NOT to open Two Clubs

• Two suiters -- After opening two clubs and hearing responder's artificial reply before you begin describing your distributional pattern can lead to some awkward problems. Holding five or more cards in two very good suits, you will often have the trick taking potential to open two clubs but may hold as little as 18 HCP. You are usually better placed to open one of a suit for two reasons. (1) You begin showing your distribution immediately and are much more likely to be able to bid accurately and select the best final contract. (2) Your paucity of high cards and your unbalanced distribution also suggests that the opponents hands may also be strong and unbalanced. You will be much more poorly placed to compete if the opponents preempt over your artificial two club opening, than if you open your longest suit at the one-level. Plus, the opponents and partner are likely to hold some high cards of their own which means that you are unlikely to be passed out in a one-level contract.
  
• Big minor suited hands -- Opening two clubs with a long strong club or diamond suit may make it very difficult to judge the best contract. After a rebid of 3 or 3 there may not be enough room to confidently explore a 3NT contract, for example. Opening one of a suit often solves both of these problems.
  

The Balanced Hands

Assume that partner's response to 2 is either negative or is "waiting."

1NT	15-17 HCP
open minor, rebid 2NT	18-19 HCP
2NT	20-21 HCP
open 2, rebid 2NT	22-23 HCP
open 2, rebid 3NT	24-28 HCP
open 2, rebid 4NT	29-30 HCP

How do you respond to a 2 Club Opening bid?²

A number of approaches have been developed for responding to the strong, forcing artificial 2 bid:

• Point count step responses (Oswald Jacoby).

2	0-3 HCP
2	4-6 HCP
2	7-9 HCP
3	10-12 HCP
3	13-15 HCP

• Control showing step responses (ace=two controls, king=one control).

Traditional Responses (from big club systems) 2   0-1 controls 2   2 controls 2   an ace and a king (3 controls) 2NT   3 kings (3 controls) 3   4 controls higher steps   5+ controls

Variation (Edgar Kaplan) 2   0-1 controls, less than 6 HCP 2   0-1 controls, at least 6 HCP 2   an ace or 2 kings (2 controls) 2NT   3 kings (3 controls) 3   1 ace and 1 king (3 controls) higher steps   4+ controls

• Negative/positive responses.

• Goren/Culbertson 2NT negative.

• 2 negative or waiting, followed by a next step second negative with structured suit positive responses (Five Card Majors Western Style).
  

2	waiting or negative
2 or 2	2 of the top 3 honors fifth (optionally AJTxxx or KJTxxx) or better
2NT (rare)	11+ HCP, tenaces in all suits
3 or 3	AJTxxx or KJTxxx or better
2 - 2; 2M - 3 or next step if past 3	second negative, less than the agreed minimum strength for a positive (e.g. no A, no K, no 2 Q's)

• 2 double negative, 2 positive and waiting with structured suit positive responses (most widely played today).
  

2	positive (an A, a K, or 2 Q's); forcing to game
2	negative (no A, no K, no 2Q's)
2	2 of the top 3 honors fifth
2NT	2 of the top 3 honors fifth in hearts
3 or 3	AJTxxx or KJTxxx or better

• Multi-range negative/positive responses with highly structured suit positives (Richard Pavlicek).
  

2	0-4 HCP but not an A (negative), or an A+K or 8+ (slam positive)
2	an A or 5-7 or bad 8 (game positive)
2	any five card suit with 2 of the top 3 honors
2NT	any five card suit with the AKQ
3 of suit	six card suit with 2 of the top 3 honors
3NT	any six card suit with the AKQ
4 of suit	seven card suit with 2 of the top 3 honors
4NT	any seven card suit with the AKQ

The rest of the auction

• How forcing is a 2 opening bid?

• Setting the trump suit -- finding the right cards.

After opener's jump rebid (2-2; 3-?), a new suit by responder shows an ace and bids 3NT holding a side suit king. Opener bids the next step to let responder show the location of the king.

• Balanced and semi-balanced hands, five card majors and Puppet Stayman.
• After a positive response rebid 2NT with all 22+ HCP balanced hands so that Stayman and transfers still apply.
• Only rebid 3NT with 24-28 HCP after a negative response. But 4 is still Stayman, transfers are still on at the 4-level, and 5 is super-Gerber.
  
• With a balanced or semi-balanced hand, holding a five-card major, rebid 2 or 3 notrump.
• Use Puppet Stayman to find opener's 5-card major. This should be played after 2NT openers and all 2-2x; 2NT auctions.
  

2NT	3 = Puppet Stayman asking for a 4- or 5-card major; it promises only a 3-card major.
3	at least one four card major
	3M shows 4+cards in the OTHER major
	4 shows 4-4 in BOTH majors
3	a five card heart suit
3	a five card spade suit
3NT	no 4- or 5-card major

•   Fast arrival auctions -- minimum and maximum bad hands.
  

2 - 2; 2 - ?	3 is encouraging showing 3 card support and good prospects of an outside trick or ruffing value.
	4 is discouraging probably only 2 card spade support and very little prospect of a trick outside.

The example hands and discussion for each of the above sections was extracted from the following articles. See the originals for a more thorough discussion.