Don't let those Weak-2s snow you!
Board 19 Dealer S EW Vul from Wednesday 15/11/2017
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Q42
Q54
JT2
8765What can we learn from this particular deal? Seemingly, quite a lot so let me start with South.
Despite having a four card spade suit to go with the six card diamond suit, most experienced players would open the South hand a weak 2D. That should not stop EW from reaching 4H. It may have stopped some EW pairs in the session in question because out of eleven pairs, seven played in 2H by East! Now, I don't know whether that was after a 2D opening by South or a 1NT opening by West, so let's take a look at either possibilty.
If South PASSES as first to bid, then West, if playing Acol, must open 1NT. East then has more than enough for game, and must bid accordingly. A jump to 3H tells partner that there is enough for game, and to bid 4H with at least three card support, or 3NT with only two hearts. Yet, I suspect that a number of Easts simply bid 2H, thinking this was a forward going move which it definitely is not opposite a 1NT opening. Basic bidding after partner opens 1NT should not be difficult. If EW play transfers, which our Wednesday players at the Hutt club do not, that is another matter, and for the benefit of those who do, I will cover that in a later article.
Let us now return to a weak 2D opening by South. I believe a number of Souths did open 2D and EW failed to get to 4H after that, for one very simple reason: when, after two passes, East bid 2H, West did not bother to go any further, understanding the 2H bid by East to be a mere 'overcall'. That is another misapprehension that people have. After a pre-empt by an opponent, to come into the auction you should have more than a mere overcall, since with a weak overcall there is absolutely no point in competing. East does not have to be as strong as East is in this case, but should have at least close to an opening bid to bother competing. West, therefore, should not pass but raise to at least 3H. There should be no excuse for missing game just because an opponent opens a weak two, but that does happen and seemingly justifies the use of weak twos. So, there would appear to be two reasons why so many Easts played in 2H, neither of them valid and both inexcusable if you have a basic understanding of bidding.
