Glenfield Technical Library
Lucas Twos
Last Updated on 4th December 2007
Introduction
These opening bids of two hearts and two spades promise at least five cards in the suit, a second suit of at least 5 cards (or 4 if you want to be really aggressive) and a defined point range of 5 points (usually one of 5-9 or 6-10).
Responding to a Lucas Two
With
a fit for partner and a reasonable hand you can continue the auction with the
Blue Club Responses whereby a bid of two no trumps asks about the openers point
count and trump quality. Opener rebids
as follows:
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Response |
Meaning |
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Three Clubs |
Lower
point range and poor trumps |
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Three Diamonds |
Lower
point range and good trumps |
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Three Hearts |
Upper
point range and poor trumps |
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Three Spades |
Upper
point range and good trumps |
A
change of suit implies no fit but tolerance for the other three suits.
Competing against a Lucas Two
The
method is the same as competing against a weak
two.
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Bid |
Meaning |
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Double |
Much
the same as a take out double of one of a suit. The Lebensohl
convention facilitates continuation. |
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Two No Trumps |
15-17
points. Balanced. Peter Neville and Tim Glover continue as
they would over a two no
trump opening bid; three clubs is Baron;
three diamonds and three hearts are red suit transfers
and three spades is a slam try with both majors. |
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New Suit |
12-15
points. 5 card suit. |
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Three No Trumps |
18-19
points. Balanced or long minor. |
Advantages of a Lucas Two
The advantages are:
1.
They
are claimed to occur much more frequently than a strong two bid.
2.
They
disrupt opponent’s bidding forcing them to guess.
Disadvantages of a Lucas Two
The
only disadvantage is that Acol loses its strong two bids. The consequence of this is that more strong
hands are opened at the one level and, when one of the remaining strong two’s
is used, a round of bidding is lost finding which suit is held. In practical terms the big loss is the loss
of two diamonds to show a strong hand with eight playing tricks with a good
diamond suit. You can mitigate, to some
extent, the loss of the strong two bids by playing the multi. This also allows you to use two hearts and
two spades as weak
twos.
I
am in a minority and consider the disadvantages of Lucas outweighs its
merit. I am not sure the frequency
argument is sound given that a weak two cannot occur in fourth position and is
fairly unlikely in third position.
Also, in practice the Acol two bid can range from about 16 high card
points up to about 22 which is actually a wider range.
A weak
two in second position is as likely to preempt partner as opponents.
Over
many hands I believe our greater accuracy with diamond slams has brought in
more match points than we have lost by not playing them.
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A variation of the Lucas
Two is an opening bid of two diamonds to show a weak hand with both majors. |
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North ª 873 © AQJ3 ¨ 53 § J742 |
Board 26 Dealer E Game All |
Bharat and I encountered this method in the Markham trophy county match between Leicestershire and Oxfordshire. We lost plenty of imps. East opened two diamonds, showing 4-9 points and both major suits. West bid three no trumps. I found the disastrous lead of the queen of hearts. Declarer won the king and played the king of spades, followed by the jack of spades. Bharat had to duck both these tricks to prevent declarer crossing to dummy’s queen of diamonds and enjoying five diamonds, four hearts and a heart. Declarer now played a heart; I won the jack and switched to a club to Bharat’s ace, presenting declarer with an overtrick by way of two spades, five diamonds, two clubs and a heart. A more passive defence would have succeeded; however, if East/West were not playing these methods West would have opened two no trumps and East would have undoubtedly transferred to spades and re-bid four hearts, inviting partner to choose the major. Even I couldn’t fail to defeat either of these contracts. |
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West ª KJ © K6 ¨ AKJ42 § KQ85 |
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East ª Q9654 © T8754 ¨ Q8 § 3 |
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South ª AT2 © 92 ¨ T976 § AT95 |
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The previous example
showed us mis-defending after a Lucas two diamond opening bid. |
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North ª AQJ © J8 ¨ J83 § AQJ95 |
Board 30 Dealer E Love All |
A few hands later, a similar opening bid caused us to misjudge the bidding. After two passes, West bid two diamonds. I bid three clubs and played there, making nine tricks for 110, with three no trumps likely to succeed. |
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West ª KT874 © A765 ¨ 42 § T2 |
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East ª 96 © Q42 ¨ A65 § K8743 |
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South ª 532 © KT93 ¨ KQT97 § 6 |
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Tim’s Statistics against
Lucas Twos at Imps |
Partner |
Hands |
IMPs |
Imps/Bd |
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Bharat |
2 |
-15 |
-7.5 |
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Peter Neville |
1 |
-1 |
-1 |
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Total for 2006 |
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3 |
-16 |
-5.33 |
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Peter Neville |
1 (2) |
13 (12) |
13 (6) |
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Peter Neville |
1 (3) |
-6 (6) |
-6 (2) |
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Total for 2007 |
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2 |
7 |
3.50 |
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Total |
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5 |
-9 |
-1.8 |
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Site Map Last Updated 3rd December 2007 |
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2. Newsletters, Photos and Correspondence |
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3. Competitions |
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5. Statistics |
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6.1 Bidding |
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6.1.1 Hand Evaluation |
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6.1.2 Opening Bids |
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6.1.3 Responding to an Opening Bid |
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6.1.3.1 Responding to 1NT |
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6.1.3.2 Responding to 2NT |
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6.1.4 Conventions |
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6.1.4.1 Conventional Opening Bids |
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6.1.4.2 Competitive Conventions |
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6.1.4.3 Slam Conventions |
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6.1.5 Doubles |
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6.1.6 The Protective Position |
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6.2 Declarer Play |
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6.2.1 General Technique |
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6.2.2 Trump Management |
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6.3 Defence |
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6.3.1 Defensive Tactics |
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6.3.2 Opening
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6.3.3 Plays in Third Hand |
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6.3.4 Entry Management |
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6.4 Probability |
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Site Map Last Updated 12th February
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1. Home Page |
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2. Newsletters, Photos and Correspondence |
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3. Competitions |
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5. Statistics |
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6.1 Bidding |
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6.1.1 Hand Evaluation |
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6.1.2 Opening Bids |
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6.1.3 Responding to an Opening Bid |
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6.1.3.1 Responding to 1NT |
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6.1.3.2 Responding to 2NT |
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6.1.4 Conventions |
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6.1.4.3 Slam Conventions |
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6.1.5 Doubles |
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6.1.6 The Protective Position |
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6.2 Declarer Play |
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6.2.1 General Technique |
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6.2.2 Trump Management |
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6.3 Defence |
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6.3.2 Opening
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6.3.3 Plays in Third Hand |
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6.3.4 Entry Management |
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6.4 Probability |
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