Drury in action

[kenberg]

Drury is played in different ways.
Bridge World Standard, for responses after a third or fourth hand opening bid of 1 or 1 , says

Passed-Hand Situations: These methods apply to responding to a major-suit opening by a passed hand:
(a) one notrump is semiforcing (6-12 points);
(b) two clubs is a strong raise (a hand too strong for a single raise, but unsuited to a higher bid);
(c) three clubs is natural, similar to two diamonds but with long clubs;
(d) a jump-shift other than three clubs is a strong raise with length in the suit bid;
(e) a double jump-shift is a splinter raise.

So 2 is Drury, 2 is not Drury.

We also have to decide when Drury is on. Say we open 1 in third position and fourth hand enters the auction. My own preference is that if 2 is available as a bid then 2 is Drury. I am not sure what BWS says about that.


Anyway, here is a hand:


  Q5
  KJT73
  K96
  A84

Matchpoints, nobody vul, three passes to you, you open 1 .

Opponents stay out of the auction


Pass     1
2      2
2      2NT
3

What now? The 2 shows a full opener, or, as I like to think of it, a hand where it seems at least possible that we should be in 4 .
I was playing with robots so they told me that 2 showed at least three spades headed by the Q or better.
I intended my 2NT as passable, I think that is reasonable, but the bots claim it is forcing to 3 .
And the bots tell me 3 shows at least 3 diamonds headed by at least the Q.

Ok, maybe the bots and I were not on exactly the same page. The way I see it, the bot could have bid 3 , so bidding 3 should be a hand with a little more than a minimum 2 call.

So should I bid 3 or 4 ?

Part of my reason for posting is so others can comment on whether they think 3 should be more encouraging than 3 .

Well, I bid 4 . I made 4 . But it required a bit of luck.

  A864
  854
  AQT7
  97


  Q5
  KJT73
  K96
  A84

So: Did we overbid? And if so, who?

It seems useful to have some hands where it is maybe not certain whether or not we belong in game and discuss what to make out of the Drury bid and the follow-up.

 

[wackojack]

In these very close situations it is not obvious that either of you have overbid. 

If I were forced to apportion blame for being in too optimistic a contract then it would be the robot.  I think that the shape and strength make it suitable for a 1 response.  Then it would go:  1 -1 ; 1NT - 3 -?

The subltle difference is that the bot has allowed you to show a balanced hand at the 1 level.  Still pass or bid 4 is in the balance. 

Dosen't the bot play 2 way Drury where 2 is 3 card support and 2 is 4 card support.  Which I think is an advance on simple Drury.

[kenberg]

Neither the robots nor BWS play 2 as four card Drury. I think Mike Lawrence, on his conventions disk, also does not play 2 as Drury. And there is also the question of on or off if the opponents enter over the 1 call.

That's part of why I thought this post could be useful. The conversation "Play Drury?",   "Ok", is not sufficient.

I gave the hand to the Robots:

Pass     1
2      2
2      3
3      3
Pass

They also only made 3.

I think the following is the argument for just using 2 as Drury. If partner rebids his major, showing a light opening, we pass whether we have three or four trump cards. If partner bids 2 over 2 , we can bid 3 of the major with invit values and four trump. So then pass - 1 - 2 shows diamonds. We are willing to give up the natural meaning of Pass - 1 - 2 because Drury is very useful. But while perhaps using Pass - 1 - 2 as four card Drury has benefits, the improvement in Drury might not be enough to warrant giving up a natural 2 .

At any rate, it's important to get it settled which is being played. I think ML has his own set of clever ideas but I can't recall them exactly because I have never used them with anyone.