ACBL36 – Drury Conventions Ward Trumbull
Aug 8, 2009
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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
Page 2 of 3
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
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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