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A much better partnership agreement regarding responding to a strong 2C opening is one recommended by Mike Lawrence and now being used by many players. It avoids the vague 2D "waiting" first response, and is very simple to remember and use:
• 2D shows 4 or more HCP. If direct seat interferes, X or XX shows 4 or more HCP.
• 2H shows 3 or less HCP. If direct seat interferes, Pass shows 3 or less HCP.
Opener now knows immediately whether or not there is game/slam or just a partscore. If responder bids 2H and opener has hearts, they can pass and often get a good board playing at the 2-level where those playing 2D=Waiting, where it showed weakness, ended up at the 3-level going down one.
If opener bids, it is forcing to 2NT or 3 of opener's suit.
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Response to Opening Strong 2C Suggested Improvement
#2
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Posted 2020-March-07, 15:40
carmelbobc, on 2020-March-07, 14:44, said:
A much better partnership agreement regarding responding to a strong 2C opening is one recommended by Mike Lawrence and now being used by many players. It avoids the vague 2D "waiting" first response, and is very simple to remember and use:
• 2D shows 4 or more HCP. If direct seat interferes, X or XX shows 4 or more HCP.
• 2H shows 3 or less HCP. If direct seat interferes, Pass shows 3 or less HCP.
Opener now knows immediately whether or not there is game/slam or just a partscore. If responder bids 2H and opener has hearts, they can pass and often get a good board playing at the 2-level where those playing 2D=Waiting, where it showed weakness, ended up at the 3-level going down one.
If opener bids, it is forcing to 2NT or 3 of opener's suit.
• 2D shows 4 or more HCP. If direct seat interferes, X or XX shows 4 or more HCP.
• 2H shows 3 or less HCP. If direct seat interferes, Pass shows 3 or less HCP.
Opener now knows immediately whether or not there is game/slam or just a partscore. If responder bids 2H and opener has hearts, they can pass and often get a good board playing at the 2-level where those playing 2D=Waiting, where it showed weakness, ended up at the 3-level going down one.
If opener bids, it is forcing to 2NT or 3 of opener's suit.
The use of 2♥ as 'red flag' been around some time but has remained controversial. It has the obvious disadvantages of preempting opener with strong hearts and interfering with Kokish transfer. I don't remember ever opening 2♣-2♦-2♥ and making only 8 tricks.
#3
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Posted 2020-March-07, 19:35
Claiming 2H = double negative as "much better" is controversial. There are a lot of good players who think it's pretty bad, actually. It preempts the auction to show mostly non-useful information. It interferes with Kokish relay (now 25+ has to jump to 3nt). Personally I much prefer a system where 2H actually shows *positive* hand without a suit to show, putting one in the slam inv zone (but not necessarily slam force), as suggested by Marshall Miles.
Some issues:- playing 2c-2h as NF passable is not really playable. What if responder is busted, but has like 3-4 hearts and a stiff? Opener with hearts almost certainly wants to be in game opposite that.
You can only get away with 2c-2H passable if it denies a useful hand for hearts, as with Chris Ryall's "paradox" responses, where 2h denies an at all useful hand for hearts (and 2s denies anything useful for spades, but does have something for hearts)
- Now when 2H is double neg and forcing, it actually interferes with stopping in 3H without some extra artificiality (such as opener rebidding clubs when holding hearts). That's because 2c-2h-3h should also be forcing, because opener might be two-suited, and maybe there's game in the second suit. When cheaper minor is 2nd neg you can always stop in 3M if opener bids and rebids their major after the 2nd neg showing 9 tricks only.
If you are going down one in 3M with any appreciable frequency, in my mind you should raise your standards of opening 2c and be opening 1M more.
Some issues:- playing 2c-2h as NF passable is not really playable. What if responder is busted, but has like 3-4 hearts and a stiff? Opener with hearts almost certainly wants to be in game opposite that.
You can only get away with 2c-2H passable if it denies a useful hand for hearts, as with Chris Ryall's "paradox" responses, where 2h denies an at all useful hand for hearts (and 2s denies anything useful for spades, but does have something for hearts)
- Now when 2H is double neg and forcing, it actually interferes with stopping in 3H without some extra artificiality (such as opener rebidding clubs when holding hearts). That's because 2c-2h-3h should also be forcing, because opener might be two-suited, and maybe there's game in the second suit. When cheaper minor is 2nd neg you can always stop in 3M if opener bids and rebids their major after the 2nd neg showing 9 tricks only.
If you are going down one in 3M with any appreciable frequency, in my mind you should raise your standards of opening 2c and be opening 1M more.
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