dec2.indd

English 55 Brian Zietman D uring the League games I picked up one of my usual hands: Dealer East, Vul All West ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 53 84 T965432 96 Not many points, but what a beautiful shape! Anyway, My partner opened 2 ♦ (multi). What does this mean? We play that it shows either a weak-two in one of the majors with 6-10 HCP or a normal 2NT opening (balanced 20-22 HCP). What advantages does this system have?  It frees up the opening bids of 2 ♥ , 2 ♠ and 2NT, enabling us to describe many two- suited hands (more of that later).  It avoids the frequent sequence of 2 ♦ (strong)-2 ♥ (relay) followed by 3 or 4 hearts by the opener, who ends up being dummy with his strong heart hand, while his partner becomes declarer with a heart void.   It confuses the opponents. Unfortunately, it sometimes confuses us as well.  So what was my call with the above hand? Pass!! In case partner had a weak two in a major, I wasn't worried about a 2 ♦ contract because our opponents would have been headed to a game or slam, while in the more likely case that partner had a balanced 20-22 HCP hand, 2 ♦ would have been an excellent contract! At our table the opponents bid 3 ♠ , going down two, while at the other table East used a regular 2NT opening, and our teammates defeated this contract by four tricks. All in all our team picked up 12 IMPs. Then the following hand came along: Dealer West, Vul E/W ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ A KJT943 9853 Q5 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ KQJT83 2 A42 K84 I held 10 HCP and opened 2 ♦ multi with West's hand. North overcalled 2 ♥ (presuming that I had a weak-two in spades!), and this was Passed out. Oops… down three.  At the other table, our opponents defeated four spades doubled by one trick for another pickup of 8 IMPs. Can anybody tell me how could we get to 2 ♥ doubled after North's intervention?  Finally, let me explain how our system works. Our 2 ♦ opening shows either 6-10 HCP with six cards in an unspeci fi ed major or 20-22 HCP, balanced. When he doesn’t have game aspirations, Multi Two Diamonds