Very weak 2s
Could you please advise about a very weak 2 opening+announcement.
One pair opened a Weak 2S with 6 spades to the 9 high. Admittedly with 6 other points scattered, which kept us out of 3NT as presumably other pairs didn’t open 2S !
Reading the Blue Book Strong bids are well defined. Including 16+ / 13 HCP in two suits containing 10+ cards etc.
BB4F1(d) the weak link takes us to “(2-level opening bid) up to 10 HCP”. This implies you could open with 0 points! Is this correct and allowed?
Is there a minimum weak Opening “Rule-of ??”. Or (requires X HCP in two suits containing Y+ cards.)
I’d appreciate if there is any advice you can suggest on enquiring the point range, without giving potential UI to partner. This is at Club Level and no System Card to look at.
One pair opened a Weak 2S with 6 spades to the 9 high. Admittedly with 6 other points scattered, which kept us out of 3NT as presumably other pairs didn’t open 2S !
Reading the Blue Book Strong bids are well defined. Including 16+ / 13 HCP in two suits containing 10+ cards etc.
BB4F1(d) the weak link takes us to “(2-level opening bid) up to 10 HCP”. This implies you could open with 0 points! Is this correct and allowed?
Is there a minimum weak Opening “Rule-of ??”. Or (requires X HCP in two suits containing Y+ cards.)
I’d appreciate if there is any advice you can suggest on enquiring the point range, without giving potential UI to partner. This is at Club Level and no System Card to look at.
Comments
The glossary defines weak as any meaning up to 10HCP for a weak two bid, it sounds as if the bid in question falls within the usual definition of 4-10, 6 card suit, if not the suit quality requirements for most players. There's no defined minimum, careful disclosure of agreements is always a possible consideration.
You can open at the two (and three) level on any strength - so your agreement could be 0-9 (announced as "weak") or even 0-20 (announced as "weak to strong (non) forcing"). Once your agreed point range reaches 10 then you have to include "intermediate" in the description. (not that I recommend the latter of course: what is permissable and what is sensible have wide areas that don't overlap.) So yes! you can open a weak two on no points - in fact the EBU Chairman has a note to that effect on his system card!
There is a strong correlation between the age of the bidder and the minimum strength of the bid.
Note that the laws state that the regulating authority (the club)
(ii) may prescribe a System Card, with or without supplementary sheets, for the prior listing of a partnership’s understandings, and regulate its use.
If there is no system card it would prove difficult for a pair to persuade the TD that there was a mistaken bid rather than a mistaken explanation.
It appears that wide-ranging weak-two bids are more effective than narrow-range ones (See "Good, Better, Best") you gain more by disrupting the opponents than you lose by missing your own contracts.
The danger about asking is if there is a range of hands that would bid over a certain strength of a weak two and not over others.
Regarding asking about the point range: I suppose the one method would be consistency. i.e. the player over the weak-two bid always asks the bidder's partner the range (whether or not they intend to bid). That way there would be no UI. The better alternative would be to have fixed agreements as to point range. e.g. a double is either 12-14 or 18+ whilst 2NT fills in the gap. Note that your hand does not become better simply because the opening bid may be weaker or stronger than usual. (If the opening bid could be very weak then the hand on your left is that much more likely to be stronger - meaning that finesses would fail).
Strong bids are well defined partially so that players are protected from strong-sounding bids that have relatively poor defensive strength and might be used to prevent competition. Obviously this does not apply with weak bids.