Strong / weak 2 opening bids

[el mister]

Hi, I'm a novice player new to the forums. I have a million questions about Bridge, but will restrict myself to two at the minute:

 

Can anyone give me some simple direction in making a strong 2 opening? I'm learning the acol system with weak 2 openings. From playing a bit on BBO, it seems that its also important to open hands at the two level that are strong - to let partner know that you have points and are particularly strong in a suit. How do you accommodate both weak and strong 2s in your bidding?

 

Jacoby transfers seem to be a good convention to learn as a beginner. Seems like a fairly straightforward arrangement, but playing online, they seem to cause a lot of problems - I see comments like No transfers! , or THAT WAS A JACOBY TRANSFER P!!! etc cropping up frequently. Maybe this is just amongst beginners, but where does the misinterpretation arise - what should I watch out for when playing them? Should I be looking to play them as a novice?

 

Cheers for any advice. :blink:

[jtfanclub]

Jacoby transfers seem to be a good convention to learn as a beginner. Seems like a fairly straightforward arrangement, but playing online, they seem to cause a lot of problems - I see comments like No transfers! , or THAT WAS A JACOBY TRANSFER P!!! etc cropping up frequently. Maybe this is just amongst beginners, but where does the misinterpretation arise - what should I watch out for when playing them? Should I be looking to play them as a novice?

I think so. They aren't very difficult- in some ways, playing without them can be more difficult to bid certain hands.

 

However, in my profile, I have:

 

Partner's Card

Systems ON when we overcall 1NT

Systems OFF when they X or bid over our 1NT.

 

My point is not that it's what you should play, but that knowing when Jacoby Transfers are on in competition is probably the thing that gets screwed up the most by pick-up partnerships. Any agreement is fine...so long as you have one.

[ralph23]

>>>Hi, I'm a novice player new to the forums. I have a million questions about Bridge...

 

That's OK, so do the rest of us.

 

>>>Can anyone give me some simple direction in making a strong 2 opening?

 

Don't do it. Just learn weak 2's and the strong, artificial 2♣ opening as its counterpart.

 

Play 2♦ opening as weak; there are 42 different schools of thought on what a 2♦ opening means and you will see them all on BBO. Don't try to learn them. Just play weak 2's in all suits, except ♣, for now.

 

>>I'm learning the acol system with weak 2 openings. From playing a bit on BBO, it seems that its also important to open hands at the two level that are strong - to let partner know that you have points and are particularly strong in a suit. How do you accommodate both weak and strong 2s in your bidding?

 

The short and simple answer for the novice player is, you can't. You must choose to either play (1) weak 2's in♦♥♠ (with the flip-side 2♣ strong and artificial opening), or (2) strong and natural 2 openings.

 

Which one is better? Well, it depends on what you are going to be dealt! If you are a great one for luck and always get great big hands with strong suits, then by all means play strong 2's!! That system is better when you get these kind of hands (usually).

 

But, if you're like most of us, you will get the weak 2 hand dealt to you a LOT more frequently. And I mean, a WHOLE lot.

 

So, play weak 2's. As Damon Runyan said, the race is not always to the swiftest, but that's the way to bet.

 

You will need a couple of articial conventions to accompany weak 2's and the companion strong 2♣, but go slow and don't get too fancy for a year anyhow.

 

>>Jacoby transfers seem to be a good convention to learn as a beginner. Seems like a fairly straightforward arrangement, but playing online, they seem to cause a lot of problems - I see comments like No transfers! , or THAT WAS A JACOBY TRANSFER P!!! etc cropping up frequently. Maybe this is just amongst beginners, but where does the misinterpretation arise - what should I watch out for when playing them? Should I be looking to play them as a novice?

 

Yes, you should. However, imho, you should also learn "standard" (if that's the word) bridge. In other words, how do you play if you are not using JT's? I think this is a useful learning experience. (I.e. as an experiment, try to figure out what you surrender when you play JT's. Then weigh the cost of that against the benefit of playing them. Hell, you can do the same experiment with Stayman! Everyone plays it, but you do give up SOMETHING!. It's just that the cost is very low compared to the benefit.)

 

I put "standard" in quotes because I think most of us in this forum would consider JT's to be "standard" indeed, and would consider people who don't play them to be a little ... er ... let's say, behind the times.

 

The misinterpretation comes from the fact that X plays a convention and Y doesn't, and they haven't come to an express agreement on whether or not the convention is being played by the partnership. This happens all the time, even at very high levels of play, because conventions can get soooo complicated.

Edited August 10, 2007 by ralph23

[el mister]

Many thanks for the replies - sounds like good advice. I'm already seeing that a weak takeout over 1nt opening - which i've been taught in beginner's bridge class, doesn't seem to fit in with playing JTs.

[ralph23]

Many thanks for the replies - sounds like good advice. I'm already seeing that a weak takeout over 1nt opening - which i've been taught in beginner's bridge class, doesn't seem to fit in with playing JTs.

Right, I think I understand :) .

 

If you play Stayman, you can no longer stop in 2♣. You give that up to play Stayman.

 

If you play JT, you can no longer stop in 2♦. You give that up to play JTs.

 

You can stop in 2♥/♠ by transferring opener and dropping him.

 

Playing JTs, 2♠ is not needed as a natural bid, so you may want to play that as a transfer to 3♣, and then you can either drop opener there, or correct it to 3♦. These are rare responses. It's often better to just let opener try to make 1nt.

 

There are 371 ways to play a 2♠ response to the one NT opening, but that's an easy one and a common one.