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

Continuing with the auction. You opened the nice hand I gave you (to the left) with two clubs and heard a two diamond bid from partner.

2C 2H

2D ?

How does partner tell you that he has a genuinely bad hand? What do 2S, 2NT, 3C, 3D, 3H, and 4H show?

In the structure I recommend, partner shows you a worthless hand by bidding three clubs. Partner can have as many as four points, but they will be terrible ones. The other bids are natural and show some values.

What should these hands bid after your two heart rebid? How will they continue? In a couple of these cases, the answer may surprise you.

Hand 1
K 9 8 6 2
3 2
Q 7 3
10 6 4

Hand 2
10 8 5 4 3
6 4 3 2
Q 8
9 2

Hand 3
Q 8 3 2
10 3
Q 7 4
K 6 4 3

Hand 4
K Q 6
6 3
Q 8 5 3
K 6 5 3

Hand 5
A Q 8 6
10 9 4
4 3
10 7 6 3

Hand 6
A 10 5 4 2
10 5 4 3
Q 2
K 3

Hand 7
Q 9 5
4 3
10 6 5 4 2
9 5 3

Hand 8
Q 8 6
8
Q 10 8 7 5
K 6 4 3

Hand 9
Q 8 6
8
Q 10 7 6
K 10 7 6 4

Hand 10
Q J 3
J 6 3
Q 5 4
J 10 6 5

Hand 11
K 9 8 5
10 6 5 2
Q 5 4 3
2

Hand 12
10 6 5
5 4 3 2
7 6 4
J 7 3

Remember, the bidding on all of these hands starts out the same:

2C 2H

2D ?