ACBL36 – Drury Conventions Ward Trumbull

Aug 8, 2009

Page 1 of 3

Who


If you don’t open light in third position, the Drury convention is not for

you. By light, I mean 10 HCP or less. By less, I mean when you have

9 HCP and 5/4 in the majors, 5/5 in the majors, etc.


When


When your partner opens in third position with a major, it might be

light (9/10 HCP) or strong 15+ HCP. If you have support for that major

and 10 or 11 HCP, you can query partner’s HCP strength using the

Drury convention.


Note: With 12+ HCP you would have opened the bidding, so your max

must be 11HCP.

How

A response of 2 clubs to the major opening asks whether or not your

partner opened light in third position.


2 diamonds by the opener says it was light; so you support only

at the 2 level of that major.


Any other rebid is positive, and you then support at the 3 level of

that major.


Example 1: (11 HCP) (10 HCP)

You LHO Partner RHO

S – K 8 7 S – Q J 6 4 2

H – 7 5 3 H – 9 8

D – A 10 8 4 D – K Q 7

C – A 5 2 C – Q 10 7


pass pass 1 spade pass

2 clubs pass 2 diamonds pass

2 spades pass pass pass

ACBL36 – Drury Conventions Aug 8, 2009

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Example 2: (11 HCP) (15 HCP)

You LHO Partner RHO

S – K 8 7 S – A Q J 6 4

H – 7 5 3 H – 9 8

D – A 10 8 4 D – K Q 2

C – A 5 2 C – K 9 8


pass pass 1 spade pass

2 clubs pass 2 notrump pass

3 spades pass 4 spades pass

pass pass


Is That All There Is?


Nope.


Reverse Drury (now considered standard)


Then the experts took over. They felt a rebid of 2 of the opening major

was a preferable bid to indicate the light opening hand. Again any

other rebid indicates a stronger hand. So with 10/11 HCP you would

pass partner’s 2 bid.


Reversed Drury means the weak rebid convention is 2 of the major

and not 2 diamonds.


Example 3: (11 HCP) (10 HCP)

You LHO Partner RHO

S – K 8 7 S – Q 10 6 4 2

H – 7 5 3 H – 9 8

D – A 10 8 4 D – K Q 2

C – A 5 2 C – K 9 8


pass pass 1 spade pass

2 clubs pass 2 spades pass

pass pass

ACBL36 – Drury Conventions Aug 8, 2009

Page 3 of 3


Alerting

Since the opener knows that partner’s 2 club bid is invoking the Drury

convention, the opener must alert by saying “Drury”.

Exception


The exception to Drury is when partner opens in third position with 1

heart and:


1. You have 10/11 HCP and heart support, but


2. You have 4 spades which should be bid (1 spade) instead of

invoking Drury (2 clubs)


Example 4: (11 HCP) (9 HCP)

You LHO Partner RHO

S – K 8 7 2 S – Q 10 6 4

H – 7 5 3 H – K Q 9 8 6

D – A 10 8 4 D – 7 6

C – A 5 C – Q 9


pass pass 1 heart pass

1 spade pass 2 spades pass

pass pass


Example 5: (11 HCP) (13 HCP)

You LHO Partner RHO

S – K 8 7 2 S – Q 10 6 4

H – 7 5 3 H – K Q 9 8 6

D – A 10 8 4 D – K 6

C – A 5 C – K 9


pass pass 1 heart pass

1 spade pass 3 spades pass

4 spades pass pass pass