[DrMunk]

Cthulhu D, on 2012-March-19, 18:25, said:

I've seen a few people around here playing 1M - 2C as GF clubs or 3 card limit raise in all seats.

It's a classic for a billion options all being called 'drury' so it needs pretty extensive discussion.

Do you have a link to this?

[steve2005]

Some people prefer to get by with Bergen and use natural 2/1 by P/H. The players around here (not bbo) are very opinionated about it.

[mgoetze]

DrMunk, on 2015-February-14, 16:27, said:

Do you have a link to this?

Funny that you found this thread but not one of the many threads with a description of this method. Anyway I wrote one for you:

http://www.bridgebas...response-to-1m/

[Trinidad]

steve2005, on 2015-February-14, 19:15, said:

Some people prefer to get by with Bergen and use natural 2/1 by P/H. The players around here (not bbo) are very opinionated about it.

I like to play both: Bergen for the 4 card raise to the 3 level, Drury for the 3 card raise to the 2 level.

But the reason why I play Drury is not to figure out whether partner has a true opening or a joke. (We open fairly aggressively in first and second, so there is not much of a need to joke in third or fourth.) The reason is to take the 3 card limit raise (and the weak 3 card raise) out of the 1NT response, making it truely non forcing.

A forcing 1NT response by an unpassed hand is typically one of the following:

• A standard 6-9 HCP hand without a bid at the one level
  
• A 10-12 balanced hand
  
• A 10-12 hand with a suit ranking lower than opener's
  
• A 10-12 hand with more suits ranking lower than opener's
  
• An invitational 3 card raise
  
• A weak 3 card raise

When the hand is passed, the 12 HCP hands and many of the 11 HCP hands are out. The same is true for many of the one suited hands (number 3), since they would be preemptive openings. This leaves:

• A flat 6-10/11 HCP hand without a bid at the one level
  
• An invitational 3 card raise
  
• A weak 3 card raise

If you opened on a balanced 12-13 point hand, you want to pass opposite 1), but 2) and 3) force you to bid. If you take 2) and 3) out of the 1NT response, by playing Drury, you can pass 1NT with your balanced hands. This, in turn, means that the 2m rebids by opener (1M-1NT; 2m) actually mean something again.

Rik