| Weak two suited openings |
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A lot of tournament players have included weak two suited opening bids into their system. Such hands come up far more often than single suited weak hands, and as we know weak openings can sometimes create havoc for our opponents.
A common system is to play a multi 2D opening which includes the single suited weak two in a major opening, leaving 2H and 2S as weak openings showing 5 cards in the major and an unspecified minor.You can now get the best of both worlds, in being able to pre-empt in a major in both a weak single suited and two suited hand. Occasionally weak two suited opening bids have the added bonus of helping a partnership to get to a difficult slam, as is the case with this week's hand (board 18) taken from the CIN simultaneous pairs event.
East opened a weak two suited hand promising 5 cards in hearts precisely and 4 or more cards in a minor. 2NT asked for opener to describe his hand, and 3S showed a maximum weak two with 4 or 5 diamonds. West can now see a double fit and probably 29/30 high card points in the combined hands. With excellent controls in his own hand, trying for a slam is a good proposition. The 4D bid must be forcing and seeking a slam, as it would be illogical to go via 2NT just to play in a high level part score in diamonds. 4H is a cue bid showing 1st or 2nd round control. West knows it is the KH and 4NT is Roman Key Card Blackwood. The response of 5C shows one key card, which will be either the Ace of clubs or Ace of diamonds.
The only issue left for West is to protect his hand from an opening lead that comes through his King of clubs should his partner hold the Ace of diamonds. Accordingly he bids 6D, and the diamond slam is the best odds slam even in pairs, as only a few pairs are likely to be bidding a slam anyway. It has the advantage of
(i) as already indicated, stopping an opening club lead coming through the King of clubs; and
(ii) having one or two discards available from the heart suit, which may be important; and
(iii) providing the possibility of dealing with a 4/1 break in the heart suit.
When the hearts and diamonds break 3/2 there is nothing in the play and 12 tricks are quickly wrapped up.
Without the weak two opening bid showing the two suits, very few pairs will reach a slam after a 2NT opening bid by West. Indeed, only a small number of pairs in the whole competition managed to get to a slam, and the greedy handful who got to 6NT and then prayed for the 3/2 heart break, got a national top.
Michael Whittaker
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