Drury convention
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- This article concerns Contract Bridge and uses terminology associated with the game. See Contract bridge glossary for an explanation of unfamiliar words or phrases.
The Drury convention in bridge is a convention devised by Douglas A Drury (a Canadian) of San Francisco. It is used to show a game-invitational major suit raise by a passed hand. In its simplest form, a response of 2C, by a passed hand, to a 1H or a 1S opening, is artificial and shows 3 card support for opener's suit plus 10 or more support points. Since responder has already passed, this hand is limited to less than 12 high card points.
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[edit] The value of the convention
The Drury convention is valuable because:
- Opening light (ie with marginally less than normal values) in the third seat is a valuable tactic, since the player in the fourth seat may well have the best hand at the table, and be ready to open the bidding given the opportunity. A third seat light opening, especially in a major suit, will act preemptively to make it harder for the last player to enter the bidding.
- The traditional method for showing good support for opener's suit is to jump to the 3-level (eg 1H - 3H). On those occasions when partner has opened light, this may result in an overly ambitious contract, despite the good support.
- It is common practice that when a player opens in third or fourth seat, their partner (having passed) has no forcing bid available. This convention gives a tight description of the passed hand in a single bid, making it possible to escape into 2 of the major if the opening was light or to advance towards game if it has better values.
[edit] Opener's rebid
In the original Drury convention, opener rebids 2D, to show a light opening. With Reverse Drury (more common today) a rebid of 2 of opener's original major suit shows a light opening (that is, no game interest) and responder is expected to pass. Any other rebid by opener confirms a full opening hand (or better) and shows game interest. With a good hand, say 15 or more points, opener may simply jump to game (4 of the major suit). Other bids tend to be natural and descriptive, in effect a game try. With an excellent hand, opener may be interested in a slam and will bid accordingly.
[edit] Two-way Drury
In this variant, the passed hand with 10+ points responds 2C to show exactly three-card support and 2D to show 4-card support or better. This may help opener evaluate the probability of a successful game contract.
[edit] Real club (or diamond) suit
If the passed hand has 10+ points and a real club suit (or a diamond suit, when playing two-way Drury), this cannot be shown naturally at the 2-level. One possibility is that a jump to 3C (or 3D) shows this hand. An alternative is to use the forcing notrump. A third possibility (and the one recommended when the convention was first introduced) is to bid 2C, then rebid three of the minor. If this last approach is used, opener must be careful about jumping in own suit without extra length.
[edit] Variation for 4-card major systems
The above examples are suitable for use with 5-card major systems such as Standard American. Variations are required for use with 4-card major systems such as Acol.
