DRURY CONVENTION
Mr. Douglas Drury devised the Drury convention. Mr. Drury was tired of sitting in the Fourth Seat, and after two passes, having his right hand opponent open a weak hand, while sitting with a moderate to excellent opening in a Major suit. Therefore, in order to protect himself from landing in an unsuccessful contract, he devised the conventional Forcing 2 Clubs Response for his partner, who has already passed.
Note: Some sponsoring organizations allow the Drury conventional method and all variations to be permitted at their sponsored events in all positions or in all seats. For example the ACBL allows this conventional method to be employed at NABC+ events and is on the Mid-Chart. Source: BB7.
The convention devised by Mr. Douglas Drury also gives his partner a way of describing his hand, even though there has been no intervening bid. It must be noted that the Forcing 2 Clubs Response bid by the responder is completely artificial and says nothing about the Club holding. The Drury Convention may only be applied when the responder has a suitable fit, distribution, and sufficient values with the Major suit bid by the opener. This should become clear in the following examples. If this is not the case with the holding of the responder, then the responder must seek another bid.
The problem, however, with Third and/or Fourth Seat openings after two, respectively three passes, is the question, whether the opener is holding a 1. sub-minimal, 2. minimal, or 3. a much stronger holding. The intention of the Forcing 2 Club Response is to answer just this question.
North
East South
West
Pass
Pass 1
Pass
2
West
North East
South
Pass
Pass Pass
1
Pass
2
The distribution of North could be similar to the following hands:
Q85 1075 AK93 Q62
J106 A754 AJ93 86
Analysis of both hands: North holds the 10-12 required points for supporting his partner in the bid Major suit of the examples of the bidding sequences above. The question is whether South, in both bidding sequences has a sub-minimal, minimal, or stronger holding. Using the Drury convention, North now becomes obligated to further describe his holding.
If the opener has a sub-minimal holding, then the bidding sequence continues as follows:
North
East South
West
Pass
Pass 1
Pass
2
Pass 2
If the opener has the appropriate values for a standard opening, then the bidding sequence continues as follows:
North
East South
West
Pass
Pass 1
Pass
2
Pass 2
or any other appropriate, descriptive bid.
If the opener has a stronger holding and the intended rebid by the opener would have been 2 Diamonds, then the opener can jump to 3 Diamonds, especially if the holding is particularly distributional. Otherwise, it is suggested that the opener temporize with a 2 Diamond denial rebid and rebid Diamonds naturally, later in the auction. A third option is to rebid 2 No Trump.
North
East South
West
Pass
Pass 1
Pass
2
Pass 3
With this distribution and amount of values, Mr. Douglas Drury devised the Forcing 2 Club Response bid to show exactly this distribution of 3-card support and amount of values ranging from 10-12 points. This bid by the responder is forcing and must be alerted.
The opener looks at his holding once again, and if the opener decides that game is not possible, the auction can stop on the two level. If the opener has extra values, then opener will try for, or simply bid game.
The Drury convention also applies even if there has been an opening by the opponents, as in the following bidding sequence:
North
East
South
West
Pass
1
1
Pass
2
Even though East has opened, and South has overcalled, the already passed North hand will bid a Forcing 2 Clubs with the required support and amount of values indicated in the two examples above. The opener will then be able to make the decision whether to try for game or leave the auction end on the Two Level.
The Drury convention also works with the Heart Major suit, although the passed partner has the opportunity to bid 1 Spade. Therefore, the frequency of the Drury convention has been lessened considerably. If the responder subsequently bids 2 Clubs during the auction, this bid does not activate the Drury convention. Also, if the opponents intervene immediately with an overcall of 2 Clubs, then the Drury convention also becomes inactive and can not be applied.
North
East
South
West
Pass
pass
1
2
Drury
becomes
inactive
In the convention devised by Mr. Douglas Drury, a rebid of 2 Diamonds by the opener in this bidding sequence strongly suggested a sub-minimum opening, and the responder would simply end the auction on the two level, barring any continued interference. This treatment did not have that much appeal for the bridge players using Drury, so many bridge partnerships and bridge experts came together and modified the convention, which ended up being called Reverse Drury or a variation thereof.
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