Lesson 7 -- Weak Two Bids and Responses

A Weak Two Bid is a bid of 2D, 2H or 2S that shows 6-10 HCP and exactly 6 cards in the bid suit. Not 5 or 7, but exactly 6. The bid is said to be pre-emptive. That is, it should pre-empt most of the bidding space away from the opponents. However, the bid is also meant to show your partner that you have some points and a good suit.

To that end, your weak two bids should be disciplined. You only make them with 6-10 HCP and a six card suit. But beyond that, your suit should be fairly good: At least two of the top three honors (A,K,Q) and three of the top five (A,K,Q,J,T). In addition, you shouldn't have a four card major or a good 3 card major.

What if I have a 6 card suit with 11-12 HCP?

Pass, probably, unless your points are very bad. You are just between a one and a two bid. Rather than compromise your opening bid, just wait and overcall with your suit.

Responding to a weak two bid

If you don't have at least 2 card support, you should pass unless you have 16+ HCP. The general system of responding is called RONF -- Raise (is the) Only Non-Forcing (Bid). If you bid any new suit, you are showing 5+ cards and asking responder to raise with 3 card support.

If you bid 2NT You are asking the opener to show a feature (an outside stopper, either an Ace or a guarded King). Usually, you'll need this to know if you can bid 3NT. If opener doesn't have a stopper, he rebids his suit.

If you have a fit, then you can bid 2NT to look for key cards for a game if you have an invitational hand (16-18 HCP, counting distribution). If you have enough points to bid game (19+) then you can just bid 4 of the suit.

If, however, you have few points but quite a few trump support, then you should raise the bid. The more trumps, the higher you should raise it. This depends on your vulnerability, but the guidelines are something like:

Since we play RONF a corrolary is that Any raise by responder is a signoff bid, and opener should not bid again. The reason for this is that the opening bid is limited. Responder may have a real raise, may by trying to confuse the opponents, or whatever. Opener has described his hand, if responder doesn't ask, he stays quiet.

Wait, I noticed something...

If my partner opens 2 of a major, and I bid four of a major, I might be pre-empting, with very few points and a long suit, or I might have a stack of points (possibly 20 or more). How does partner tell what I have?

A: He doesn't. He passes either way. A nice side benefit is that the opponent's might not be sure if you are stealing the hand from them or if the hand really does belong to you. And when opponents make mistakes at the 4 level or higher, you tend to get a lot of points.

SUMMARY

2D, 2H, or 2S shows 6-10 HCP with a 6 card suit, no 4 card hidden major, and good suit quality.

Final Notes

I have taught disciplined weak twos. They are far from the only way to play weak twos. Weak twos on 5 card suits (or even four card suits) are not unheard of in tournament play, and the point range is somewhat variable.

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