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Opening Weak Twos
Nowadays, the most common range for opening a Weak Two is probably 5-10. More than that and the hand passes the Rule of Twenty, less than that would make the range too wide for a reasonably accurate follow-up. Here are some examples from recent Wednesday Games, and we couldn't help but notice that they are all cases where we would open a Weak Two, notwithstanding some defect or other. No doubt we should redress this later with some examples where we actually wouldn't open with a Weak Two.
6th April, 2011 None Vul
Would you open a Weak Two with that West hand, notwithstanding the 5-card suit? We think that the bid has much to recommend it: - E-W are non-vulnerable (smaller down-side) - The preempt is in Spades (more of a nuisance to N-S than preempting in Hearts or Diamonds) - West has a good suit (lead-directional value) - West has a singleton Heart (the opponents are likely to belong in that suit, so why not make their life more difficult?) - Good offense, not much defense (those are the preempts that work best!).
How many more reasons (some would call them excuses) do we need to open 2♠?
6th July, 2011 E-W Vul
What is your upper HCP limit for a Weak Two? If you at least partially subscribe to the Rule of 20 then using an upper limit of 11 is inconsistent because you cannot construct a hand which has 11 HCP and a 6-card suit, and which does not also pass the Rule of 20. So, let’s say that the upper end of the range is 10, in which case does East open his 10-count with a Weak 2♥? No, surely this hand is also too good. That 6-4 hand also passes the Rule of 20, added to which it has great fillers in the two long suits, so it’s definitely a 1♥ opening bid!
1st July, 2009 N-S Vul
After the 2♦ opening, what are your methods? Many play a new suit (such as a 2♠ bid here) as forcing, but an increasingly popular method nowadays is for a new suit (at the two-level) to be “constructive”. Opener is allowed to pass with a rotten hand, and may go back to 3♦ with shortness in Partner’s suit. Otherwise, she’ll bid again, and with a decent hand and 3-card support she’ll have no qualms about jumping to game. Using this approach, we don’t think that South’s hand is quite good enough for a forcing 3♠, we’d settle for the constructive 2♠.
1st April, 2009 Both Vul
Our own preference for the Weak Two HCP range is 5-10. Including 11 in the range is something of a contradiction if you also find the Rule of Twenty to be a useful guide in determining whether or not a hand is worth opening. That’s because it’s mathematically impossible to hold a 6-card suit and 11 HCP and not pass the Rule of Twenty.
So, here South has a hand with a 6-card suit and 11 HCP. Does that make it too good for a 2♦ opening bid? Actually, we don’t think so! Let’s be more than point-counters here! That singleton ♣Q is not pulling full weight, and neither (to a lesser extent) is that stranded ♠Q. This hand is all about Diamonds, and has poor defense, so we’d open a 5-10 Weak Two, even though we have 11 HCP.
23rd August, 2006 Board 1 None Vul
Would you open that East hand with a Weak 2♦? It does have the defect of the 4-card major but nowadays that seems to be less of an objection that it used to be. Anyway, it’s not a particularly strong 4-card major, and the Diamond suit has good fillers, so, for us at least, it’s a 2♦ bid. Yes, even though we are in second seat, the least desirable position for preempting.
14th June, 2006 Board 1 None Vul
How about 2♥ here? Not everybody would condone such a Weak Two, no doubt complaining about the topless suit, and the 4-card major on the side … valid points both, but non-vulnerable there’s a lot to be said for getting in there. On the plus side, the hand is offensively oriented, there are some trump fillers, and we love that 6-4 shape. We know that we would be unable to resist, but it's primarily a matter of style.
7th March, 2007 Board 20 Both Vul
A Weak Two with a 7-card suit will not be to everybody’s taste, but that would be our choice here. The key ingredients for this bid, at least for us, are as follows: - We have a crummy suit - We are vulnerable In other words, we want to get into the auction, and our 7th Diamond makes up for the lack of high cards in our suit. This is not necessarily a majority view, if you would prefer to Pass or bid a kamikaze 3♦, then that’s fine too.
8th August, 2007 Board 2 N-S Vul
Anyone for a Weak Two with a 5-card suit? We are not big fans of this practice as a general rule, but here the conditions certainly look right, with that chunky suit and the favorable vulnerability. Anyway, let’s suppose that East manages to resist that particular temptation, and that the auction proceeds along these lines: East South West North Pass 2♠ Dbl Pass ??
Some players use Lebensohl in this situation, allowing them to bid Diamonds in two ways: - East can bid 3♦ directly, showing less than invitational values - Or, East can bid 2NT, artificial, a relay to 3♣, after which 3♦ is weak, showing less than invitational values. - With a hand that is better than invitational, East must bid the game of his choice, or if he is not sure where he is headed he can always sue-bid their suit.
So, playing Lebensohl, what should East do? Does he bid 3♦ directly, or does he bid 3♦ via the 2NT relay? A close choice, how much easier if East had opened 2♦ originally!
26th July, 2006 Board 12 N-S Vul
Who could resist making a White versus Red Weak Two on this hand? Not us, at this vulnerability our tendency is to overlook such details as suit quality, and jump right in. There is a down-side to preempting with crummy suits, of course, it may talk Partner into a disastrous opening lead when LHO ends up as Declarer. Those partnerships who set suit quality standards for their Weak Twos (such as 2 of the top 3, or 3 of the top 5), don’t suffer from this problem … then again, they get to harass the opponents less frequently. It’s a trade-off, a matter of partnership style, and our own style is to get in there often when the conditions are right.
4th October, 2006 Board 19 E-W Vul
We very rarely try Weak Twos with a 5-card suit, but here the conditions seem perfect … a shapely hand, good Spade fillers, and, above all, we are in 3rd seat at favorable vulnerability. This one is impossible to resist! Just for the record, the preempt works just fine, it will likely bounce the opponents into a hopeless 3NT.
6th December, 2006 Board 15 N-S Vul
We’re not a big fan of Weak Twos on a 5-card suit, but this one looks like a good candidate … a good suit, some shape, and we are White versus Red. Yes, it’s hard to resist!
13th December, 2006 Board 20 Both Vul
Some players would blench at the mere thought of opening 2♥ with this hand, and we must say that it does have a rather high Blenching Quotient: - We are vulnerable, always a good reason for extra caution - We have a rotten suit - We have precious few HCP’s - We have a void (it’s a small minus, but another potential surprise for our Partner as he attempts to take charge of the remainder of the auction)
If your style is to pass this hand we wouldn’t argue, if fact you will probably be in the majority. Perhaps we should not admit to this so freely in public, but we confess that we would bid 2♥ here, because for us it contains the two main ingredients of a preempt: - Good offense (we’d say that the Diamond holding, the void, and the 6-4 shape are all plusses in this regard) - Poor defense … in fact, it’s virtually non-existent.
1st August, 2007 Board 5 N-S Vul
You may have noticed that The Wednesday Game frequently offers up hands where the question being asked is “Should we preempt with this hand?” There’s are good reasons for this, namely that this decision is a recurring theme in real life, and that effective (but sane) preempting is a big matchpoint winner.
Is this a 2♠ bid? We really don’t think so: - We are Red vs White - Our suit is quite horrible - Our hand is quite minimum This one is a Pass. Bidding 2♠ suffers the well-deserved fate of -1100 on the actual hand.
5th September, 2007 Board 16
West East ♠ KJT875 ♠ 42 ♥ 3 ♥ QJ98654 ♦ J65 ♦ A7 ♣ T75 ♣ 94
West North East South ?? Pass ??
You are Red versus White. Would you preempt with either of these hands? At any other vulnerability we most certainly would, but unfavorable vulnerability is a huge red flag when it comes to preempting. So we would pass the West hand, and perhaps be tempted to bid just 2♥ with the East hand. As it happens, on the actual hand, even though East has an extra trump, good fillers, and an outside Ace for his 2♥ preempt, he is likely headed for a bad board, going -500 against the opponents potential 460 or 490.
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