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Even when it’s right, it’s wrong!

When we start playing, we learn that a 2-level opening suit bid, other than 2, shows a 6-card suit and 6-10 high card points. Ideally, if it is a major suit, you should not have 4 or more cards in the other major and some but not all play that it shows a decent suit, say 2 of the top 3 or 4 honours.

What is less clear is how we should bid as the partner of the player who opens the Weak 2. Maybe a raise of the suit to the 3-level is invitational. What though when you do not have many, maybe not any cards in your partner’s suit? Take the following:

 

 

South seemed stuck and decided that 2NT might be a good choice. Well, in one sense it was since everyone passed that bid and after West led a small club and the defence took 5 club tricks, South took the remaining 8 and recorded +120. A good score? No. Let’s take a look:

 

 

As an aside, note that with no entry outside clubs, West should lead a low club not A. Here, that ensured the defence took 5 club tricks. At a few tables, after A lead and presumably then K, West was unable to make their 5^th club trick and 3NT made. Against a no-trump contract, where the player on lead has no outside entry, they should lead low from such a holding and if South held say Qxx, the idea is that East might regain the lead to continue clubs.

Back though to the bidding. Even when 2NT made or even 3NT made, they were the wrong contracts because North could make more tricks, indeed 12 tricks, with hearts as trumps.

Almost always when your partner opens a Weak 2, you do not want to play in 2NT. If the partner is strong, then the contract should be 3NT or 4 of the Weak 2 suit if it is a major.

In a sense, the less hearts South has, the more they should be thinking of playing the board in 4. Indeed, it is better to play a 2NT as 100% forcing and the raise of the Weak 2 as pre-emptive, making it harder for one’s opponents to find their right contract.

 If 2NT is forcing, how should North respond? There are 2 main ways.  One is a convention called Ogust where the 5 3-level bids enable opener to say whether they have a good (8-10 hcp) or bad (6-8 hcp) hand and a good or bad suit. The other method asks opener to rebid their suit at the 3 level if minimum and to bid any ace, king or queen outside trumps if they are maximum. One never plays 2NT. The partner should have at least 14 hcp to bid 2NT. 

(if South was not sure of what to bid, 3 might be a good alternative as long as it was forcing for one round.)

With the above South hand, 4 should appeal much more than 3NT, not just because they have a weak club suit but also because they only have 1 heart. It would be better for South to bid 4rather than attempt 3NT. If they bid 2NT and North showed a good heart suit, they should certainly play 4.

Looking at the play in 4, East leads a top of sequence Q and when that wins trick 1, continues the suit. North ruffs and because their own hearts are so good, should lay down A and not play a heart to Q. It takes 4 rounds of trumps to draw all West’s trumps (with a spade and 2 diamonds being discarded from the South hand)  and this is followed by a diamond to the jack.

If North is brave enough, they can ruff dummy’s last club and repeat the diamond finesse and the South hand will take the remaining tricks (AK and AQ6) making 12 tricks, +680, a much better score than +120 or even +600 for any lucky pair who made 3NT. Even if North played A on the second round of the suit, they will still score 11 tricks or +650.

So, the moral is that mostly if the partner of a Weak 2 opener is strong but does not have much or indeed any cards in their partner’s Weak 2 opening, they should make their partner’s suit trumps. The same applies after a 3-level major suit pre-empt.

2NT   

Playing in 2NT is usually losing play even when this contract makes.

Richard Solomon

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