How Well do You and Your Partner Understand Each Other? Bidding when You Open Two Clubs
By Mike Lawrence

You are the dealer and you give yourself this pleasant hand. Since your strong opening bid is two clubs, you start with that. Do you have agreements on what partner's various bids mean? For instance, what would partner show if he bid 2D or 2H or 2NT? What does he have if he bids 3C or 3D?

West 2C

East 2D

You bid two clubs and East responds two diamonds. In your methods, which of these hands qualify for a two diamond bid? And, if any of these hands do not bid two diamonds, what DO they bid?

HAND 1
K 9 5 4
6 2
Q 7 3
K J 7 4

HAND 2
J 8 5 4 3 2
6
8 4 3
10 5 3

HAND 3
A K J
9 6 3
Q 3 2
J 6 3 2

HAND 4
K Q 10 8 4
8 5 3
6 5 2
K 2

There are many ways to respond to a two club bid. You can show your points by bidding in steps.

You can show controls artificially.

You can play that 2D shows six or more points and 2H shows a true bust.

Or, you can play that 2D says only that you do not have a descriptive bid to make. You may have some points, but no way to show them now. On hands where you have a bust, you will show that fact on the second round.

This last method is by far the easiest to play and since it has a lot of merit, I will use it as the guideline for the four hands shown above.

HAND 1
K 9 5 4
6 2
Q 7 3
K J 7 4

Bid two diamonds. You do not have a suit to show. The only bid you have to show points is two notrump. In this regard, I recommend you NEVER bid two notrump in response to an opening two club bid. It takes away bidding room, plus it can make the wrong hand declarer. Respond two diamonds and leave opener room to show his hand.

HAND 2
J 8 5 4 3 2
6
8 4 3
10 5 3

Bid two diamonds. Your spades are not biddable and your hand is too weak. Maybe you can show the spades later.

HAND 3
A K J
9 6 3
Q 3 2
J 6 3 2

Even with this fine a hand, start with two diamonds. I offer the strong suggestion that you do not bid two notrump to show points. Bidding two notrump takes up important bidding room. You will do better by bidding two diamonds, which lets opener start to show his hand, and then you can make a forward-going bid on the next round.

Truly, I hate bidding two notrump and I hate hearing partner bid it. You can find players who do bid two notrump and who claim that it solves some of their problems, but it has yet to solve any for me. Usually, it just gets in the way of our bidding.

HAND 4
K Q 10 8 4
8 5 3
6 5 2
K 2

Finally, a hand that should not bid two diamonds. Bid two spades. This bid promises a biddable suit and usually six points or more. The only question is, how good a suit do you promise? Some play that any two of the top three honors in a five card suit is OK. I think that might be restrictive. KJxxx or even QJxxx makes sense. K10xxx and A10xxx need to be discussed.