BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

At love all, second in hand, what would you bid after RHO passes?

This is only one card different from yesterday’s hand, when you had a perfect pre-emptive bid of 3 ♥ . Now, i’ve transferred ♥ J to ♠ J, so you might

bid 2 ♥ for the same pre-emptive purpose — one trump less, so one level lower. An increasing number of social players are using two-bids in the majors as weak and pre-emptive in duplicate, so i will periodically refer to them in the future. This bidding convention has in fact been in vogue in tournament play for many years, but it is hopefully still taboo in reputable rubber bridge circles.

Note that, unlike three-level pre- empts, weak two-bids have an agreed points range (normally 5-9 or 6-10) and they may contain defensive tricks outside of the suit.