ennaji

Nice thinking, gnasher. How about: 2♥-3♣ (inv, 4+ spades) 3♦: 3 spades, 4+ diamonds, minimum (NF) 3♥: 3 spades, 4+ clubs, minimum (NF) 3♠: 3 spades, 4+ diamonds, maximum 3NT: 3 spades, 4+ clubs, maximum 4♣ and higher: 4 spades This would give the opportunity to play in 3 diamonds or 3 hearts when there is no spade fit. It also tells something about the shape, which may be interesting if responder is interested in playing a 4-3 fit (which often is the case after 3♣). However, the solution may be too difficult for a problem that is not very frequent.

I think the goal you are aiming for with this agreement is too small. With a good invitational hand I rather prefer to (slightly) overbid with 2NT and struck gold if partner shows an interesting distribution. Sometimes you can end up in a nice five in a minor or even slam like in my example on the previous page.

Thanks for bringing the theory abroad! A good idea to use 3♦ for invitational with hearts only. In fact it is not a big difference from what I already play, since opener is allowed to bid 4♠ over 2♥-3♠ with a decent hand with four spades. For other readers, the schedule I published in the article was: 2♥-3♦ (invitational for 4M) 3♥: minimum for hearts (if partner bids 3 spades, you can still raise) 3♠: maximum for hearts, minimum for spades (I would not use this often as a spade contract may be wrongsided and you may give information about your shape) 3NT: maximum (if partner has a general slam try and were just looking for (super)min/max he can bid 4 clubs for hearts and 4 diamonds for spades). Frankly, I haven't seen the bidding 2♥-3♠ as barrage so far, so I think it is OK to remove the 3♠ response after 3♦. That would mean that we will bid 3♠ with an (light) invitational hand. I still think it's good to bid 3♦ with a strong invitational hand. You can show the spades after 3♥ MIN with 3♠ and bid 4♠ after 3NT MAX (or 4♥ MAX if you prefer to play it that way) and it doesn't give up anything. Oh, and another advantage of the K2 compared to 2♦/2♥ as majors: the bidding is more likely to end after 2♥. My favorite bidding sequence of the convention is 2♥-3♥, which is putting a lot of pressure on the opponents. What should double mean? Take out with spades? Take out but having spades is not necessary? Just points? I don't know the solution and I'm glad not to face that problem. Yet...

Hello all, My name is Joris van Lankveld and I came up with the convention ''K2'' about a year ago. Last month I wrote an article about the K2 in the Dutch bridge magazine IMP' and since then it is getting more popular in my country. It's not always a good strategy to open ''Muiderberg'' with weak hearts. After Muiderberg 2♥ responder will pass with 4-2-(43) and sometimes even with 4-1-5-3. It's a disadvantage that you have to play on 3-level and that you don't know the minor of the opener. That's why one of the conditions of Muiderberg users is that the main suit should be of good quality, especially when vulnerable. Another reason for having a good suit is that it decreases the chance of getting penalized. Would you open 2♥ with: x J9xxx Axxx Qxx when red versus green or all vulnerable? I think it's too risky, even when you don't get doubled you can go minus 200 or 300 if there is no heart fit. If you would swap the black suits, you can open K2 without taking that risk. Eight cards are known for responder and he knows when to run to 2♠. If you take into consideration that you can open more hands without a sound suit quality, the frequency of the K2 is even higher than Han and Mickey already showed. There are more advantages that haven't been : - when responder has weak holdings in the minors like KQxx, Qxxx, xxx, xx he knows the opponents have a running minor and they can make 3m/3NT/4m, which gives some certainty that jumping to 4♥ is justified. After a weak two or Muiderberg you often don't know how much defense your side has. - in comparison with 2♥ (or 2♦) as both majors, responder is well placed to estimate the playing strength of our side. The amount of hearts is a sure thing, the unbalanced pattern is known and one of the side suits (3 or 4) is also known. Compared to both majors with 5-4 or 4-5 when one can only support with a four card fit, you can put more pressure on the opponents. I have heard solutions like playing 2♥ as 5+♥ and 4+♠, but that would harshly decrease the frequency of the opening (if it doesn't already give too much information to the opponents). -in game forcing situations it's a great advantage that you can tell the exact shape of the hand in one bid without a difficult relay structure. The only exception is 2♥-2NT-3♣, but that allows you to bid 4 spades without giving more information to the opponents. Usually you are just interested whether opener has three or four spades. -it's hard to show hands with 5 hearts and 4 spades in the bidding if you start with pass. A funny hand occurred in the Dutch Open Pairs, when I didn't play with my regular partner: Jxx Q98xx - KTxxx KQT A QJT AJxxxx North was dealer and we were green versus red. We played weak twos in all suits and I was forced to pass as North. The opponents overcalled in spades and for the majority of the field it was too hard to end up in 5 clubs. After the K2 in North responder has a very unlucky hand, because you know game is not likely to be good if partner has shortness in clubs. Anyway, ''bridge is like chocolate. You never know what you are gonna get'', so you respond 2NT. 2♥ - 2NT 3♠ - 4♣ 4♦ - 4NT 5♣ - 6♣ 3S: 3-5-0-5 4C: sets clubs as trump suit 4D: cue bid 4NT: RKC 5C: 1-4 6C: too bad! (no seven today) Some disadvantages are: -there is no solution for invitational hands without fit. Although that's the problem with any kind of 2-opening (what would you with 16-18 with 4144 after a weak two in hearts?], it may lead to missing an easy game. Sometimes you are lucky when an opponents decides to bid in fourth position after your pass... -in the Dutch national pairs It's not clear how to advance after the game forcing relay, because it depends on how hard you want to have the agreements. In my example it would be better to play 4 clubs as slam try in hearts and 4 diamonds as slam try in clubs, but if you are not used to game forcing relays then I would strongly advice to keep things as simple as possible. Whoever is going to play the K2, don't hesitate to share your experience. It's a new convention and I am curious to know how good it really is. At the moment I have played the K2 for a year and so far the results are very positive. Berend and I have played the K2 with success in several international tournaments, like the World Junior Championship in China. If you start playing it, please name it 'K2' on your convention card so everyone will name it the same way. I'm thinking of writing an article of the K2 in the Bridge World.