Dear Mr. Wolff,

Re responding to 2 clubs.

I bid 5 card majors aggressively rather than wait for the rebid. I guarantee enough points for game or more. I also do not believe in specific honor holdings, Opener has over half the high cards in the deck. The purpose of bidding is communicating, With 2 club openers as opposed to 2NT openers it is not as vital for a up to declarer.

A 2NT response shows game going values and at least 4-4 in the minors.

Your thought are appreciated even if you think I should change my methods.

Hi Bill,

Your subject of responses to a usual game forcing opening bid of 2 clubs would take a much longer time than either of us have, so let us just discuss the basic caveats.

When partner opens 2 clubs he will almost always have only 2 types of hands:

1. A strong hand of at least 22 HCPs but balanced and fit for either NT or a major suit fit.

2. A forcing to game hand blessed with either 1 or 2 suits, and if 2 both being strong enough.

Because of the above, the responder should only bid his own suit while holding a good enough suit to fit a reasonable catch in your soon-to-be dummy such as a minimum Axx, KQx or at least KJx. Remember that over a waiting bid of 2 diamonds (which most every expert partnership plays who don’t respond controls immediately) the big hand will respond in NT enabling Stayman, Transfers and Minor Suit conventions to come into play.

It also then enables the strong 2 bidder to bid his suit or suits at a lower level with the idea of first picking strain (which suit) and then exchanging information on eventually what level, certainly including slams.

With that as a backdrop it is easy to then understand that if a responder does not bid 2 diamonds, but rather a suit himself it must be at least 5 and a good enough suit to probably, after finding some kind of fit in it, not have a loser within.

From there we could go into many different ways to continue but that is where it will take much time to get our methods straight enough to reach the right contract at least 90% of the time, because, if not, we will never achieve anywhere near the success we both must want to demand.

Mr. Wolff,
Seems to me (average intermediate Club player) that waiting makes a lot of sense (responder can make the constructive suit bid when he has it, or wait for Opener’s further description of his hand. Whereas “immediate controls” seems to cut responder off from describing his hand, and seems to further imply that Opener will be wearing the Captain’s hat.
No doubt top experts have intricate agreements. But could you comment on the general pros and cons of “waiting” versus “immediate showing of controls” for ordinary mortals?
Thanks

Hi OM (ordinary mortal),

While control showing responses require planning within the partnership, when, and if, the strong hand either has an independent suit of his own (AKQJxx) or something similarly solid or a two suiter, then controls will probably work best since all the opening bidder now needs to do is either name his suit, or if a 2 suiter find which of the two suits partner fits best and head for the heavens.

However when the big hand is balanced then the waiting response of 2 diamonds will usually be better since the strain may take longer to identify and thus more room is needed.

I’ve played it both ways (Aces Club) where 1 club is forcing and partner immediately names controls and of course, mostly now play it standard with ordinary responses (noted above).

As to which is best, it probably depends on the personalities of the partnership and, of course, the particular cards which Dame Fortune deals.

So…Dame Fortune Rules.
Presumably she’ll hand out 2C openers that are more likely to be balanced than highly-unbalanced, and combined resources that are less likely to belong in slam than just in the “right” game.
So…guess I’ll stick with “waiting’…but dress it up with a name, “WOWOM” (Weak Or Waiting for Ordinary Mortals) or perhaps even “upside-down WOMOM”.
This post is an example what can happen when the football game is a yawner.

Hi Clarksburg,

Because of the 2 weeks waiting period, January 5th could be one of two, but I will choose this one to further expound.

The waiting 2 diamond response is the more popular choice among up and coming players, simply because it is more widely accepted and thus easier to switch partnerships for those who are not committed to only one.

Also the control showing responses usually begins a captaincy to the recipient of that information and thus it is sometimes difficult for the original responder to have the room to mention a very good suit of his, although there could well be jump bids in response which supersede the control ask, Next, whenever artificial bids are used (although with waiting 2 diamond bids they are also involved) it gives an opponent the advantage of suggesting the right lead whenever Dame Fortune deals his partner the opening lead.

Having discussed the above perhaps the conclusion should be that “waiting” is less confusing more prevalent and wider understood, but perhaps controls is the slightly better way to move quicker up the ladder with fast arriving laydown contracts based on the specific high card structure of the original responder.

I hope I have satisfied your curiosity without boring you, although I have not said very much, especially critical things to remember.