A two-diamond bid for excitement

Few pairs outside North America use a weak two-diamond opening. The so-called Multi enjoys widespread popularity. Then, two diamonds indicates a weak two-bid in either major. This makes life tougher for the opponents because initially they do not know the opener's suit, and it frees the two-of-a-major openings for alternative meanings.

Nowadays, though, quite a few pairs, especially Europeans, open two diamonds with a weak major two-suiter. So my wife and I decided to give it a whirl. We agreed that nonvulnerable 4-4 was okay, but vulnerable we had to be at least 5-4. Later, we learned that the 4-4 version is illegal in events overseen by the American Contract Bridge League; and that we would have to give our opponents a suggested defense. But we have been practicing only against the robots (computer opponents) at Bridge Base Online.

In this deal, 11 East-West pairs made three no-trump, and only two failed, the defenders taking three hearts and two clubs.