Constructive Bidding
Robert Todd
(585) Modified 2-Way Reverse Drury

The concept of having a conventional bid like Drury available to show a limit raise in support of partner’s Major suit when we are a passed hand is a regular part of most partnerships’ passed hand bidding structure.  Given that making a 2/1 bid into a minor suit is not that attractive (or even possible!) by a passed hand, it makes sense to allocate both 2♣ and 2♦ as artificial raises of Opener’s third seat (or fourth seat) Major suit opening bid.  Many partnerships that play Drury play 2-Way Drury, using one bid to show a 3-card limit raise and the other a 4-card limit raise.  But a more sophisticated structure can allow us to describe even more hand types in the same bidding space.

(585) Modified 2-Way Reverse Drury
Constructive Bidding
Robert Todd
(584) Exclusion Keycard

When we are interested in slam in a suit contract but have a void in one of the side suits, it adds some complexity to our slam bidding.  We may be able to make a slam missing two Aces (or a grand slam missing an Ace), if partner does not have the Ace opposite our void.  When exploring slam, we want to know if partner has that Ace or has the “good Aces”, the ones opposite our losers.  One way that we find out about the location of partner’s Aces is by using control showing bids. This is especially effective if we use them to show first round control (if we play that our control showing bids could be 1st or 2nd round, then we know less about which Aces partner hold).  There is a gadget that we can use in some auctions that allows us to try to solve this problem.  This convention, called Exclusion Keycard, asks partner for their number of Keycards (or Aces if we play Blackwood), excluding one particular Ace – the place where we are void. This Exclusion allows us to find out if partner has enough of the “right Aces” for us to make slam. 

(584) Exclusion Keycard
Constructive Bidding
Robert Todd
(583) Problems with Kickback Keycard

Kickback is a convention that can make slam bidding easier, in that it gives us more space to ask partner for the Queen of trump, but it can also cause problems for us in the bidding.  Any time we make a game contract (like 4♥ or 4♠) a conventional bid, there is danger that we have an expensive mixup with partner.  Here we look at some classic danger auctions that may come up if we choose to play Kickback and then discuss some of the common partnership agreements or philosophies for how to handle these dangerous auctions.

(583) Problems with Kickback Keycard
Constructive Bidding
Robert Todd
(578) Preempt Keycard

When we preempts the bidding they cannot have 3 or 4 keycards. So it does not make sense to have a keycard system that shows these. Here we look at an improvement in steps and in how we ask.

(578) Preempt Keycard
Constructive Bidding
Robert Todd
(577) Jump Shift Structure

When Opener makes a jump shift into a new suit with their second bid, it is a strong bid that creates a game forcing auction. This is a good bid because it ensures we reach game, but it is a bad bid because it eats up a lot of bidding space without fully describing our distribution. This is a problem. One of the most difficult opening hands to describe to partner is the unbalanced single-suited (one 6+card suit) hand with 18-19 HCP.  This is one of the strongest hands that does not open the bidding 2♣.  With this hand we usually open our suit at the 1-level and after partner responds at the 1-level, we lie in a minor suit.  If our one suit is a Major, then we show our strength by making a jump shift into 3♣, even when we have very few ♣ (as few as 2 cards.)  With this bid we create a game forcing auction (showing our values), but we distort our shape (partner expects that we have at least 4 cards in the ♣ suit). This can cause some confusion with partner if they have a large fit for our ♣ suit.  We would like to have a way to let partner know that this jump shift is done on a single-suited hand, not on a two-suited hand.  Let’s look at a system that helps us improve our jump shift methods.

(577) Jump Shift Structure

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