Two Hearts Negative

A change made by an increasing number of experienced and intermediate players are their responses to a strong two-club bid. They are employing the following structure:

2C - 2D shows an ace, a king or 2 queens.

2C - 2H is expressly negative. I have a bad hand!

Other responses: 2S, 3C, 3D are all positive (7+HCP), five-card major or six-card minor, and two of the top three honors (AK, AQ, KQ). If any of these is missing, bid 2D as generally game forcing and introduce your suit later if you wish. If you have a positive response in hearts, use 2NT to show this hand. If opener has three or more hearts, our 2NT acts like a transfer to play the suit from the strong side of the table. That's all there is to it!

Knowing partner has enough to guarantee a game (or not) at the first response puts the partnership on firmer footing than using 2D as generally waiting. USING POINT-COUNT STEPS IS NOT RECOMMENDED.

B.Seagram & M.Smith in 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know say that you should have limited values of 13 to 15 points, including distribution.

P.Thurston in 25 Steps to Learning 2/1 says you should have at least 12 HCP.

Seagram & Smith argue that the splinter should be limited because it takes up so much bidding space and suggest that stronger hands should be shown via the Jacoby 2NT bid. Thurston’s position is that both “Splinter” and Jacoby 2NT bids should be unlimited with the “2NT” bid reserved for “flat”, non-distributional hands. Pick your poison!

Your singleton should not be an ace and probably not a king.

Opener can show either no slam interest by bidding game, or investigate slam by bidding something else when he holds extra values with no wasted values in the splinter suit. With sufficient values, Responder can investigate slam over Opener’s signoff.

Note that the Opener can also make a splinter bid. E.g., 1D – P – 1S – P; 4C(!) In addition to having a singleton or void in clubs and 4+ spades, Opener’s “game going” values should be at least 18 points since Responder might have only 6 points.