[Ant590]

Hey all,

Suppose you play that opening 2♠ in third seat shows any bad three-level preempt.

Can anyone think of any decent differentiation between 2NT and 3♣ after such a 3rd seat 2♠ opening? Level of support for clubs perhaps, but hands with club support should be making a 3♦ paradox raise perhaps?

Just playing the same as a response to 1st or 2nd seat is not an option because the 2♠ bid means something different there.

[hrothgar]

You could try something like

3♣ = pass or correct

2N = Transfer to your suit

[Gerben42]

I wouldn't play this convention in the first place, and it's really hard for responder to do ANYTHING after such a bid. 2NT sounds like a waste of space.

[dake50]

Switch the 2S to a GOOD 3-preempt (1-suiter mildly top bounded), now 2NT as an ask/relay makes some sense.

[wank]

methinks you're missing the point. it's 3rd in hand - responder isn't trying to bid game. he's just trying to avoid going for a chunky penalty.

i don't have any suggestions for 2nt/3c but i do suggest your main response is pass - this makes it much harder for opps to defend. obviously you're going to be clocking up a lot of undertricks so this is best used non vul.

beware though that your method is brown sticker and illegal in practically every event you'll play in. i presume you're english by your norwich badge so you might consider changing it to any of H/D/C which would make it legal in ebuland, but that makes it much less potent as they can bid in the expectation that 2sx isn't likely to be floated.

to get around this problem i play 2C = 0-5 with 4+ diamonds/hearts/spades which is ebulegal. because you're only showing 4+ cards outside, you often have a club sidesuit and play in 2cX which makes it difficult for the opps to double to show whatever balanced values they'd like to show.