Drury Convention - Origins and Purpose

Origins and Purpose

The convention was originated by Canadian Douglas Drury (1914-1967) to manage his then playing partner Eric Murray's (b1928) propensity to open light in third seat. Opening light (i.e. with marginally less than normal values) in the third seat is a common and effective bidding tactic because the player in the fourth seat may well have the best hand at the table and be poised to open the bidding given the opportunity. A third seat light opening, especially in a major suit, will act preemptively to make it harder for that player to enter the bidding. However, this creates two problems:

1. a simple change of suit is no longer a forcing bid and
2. responding partner, already a passed hand, is unsure if his opening partner has a normal or light opening and any jump response could get the parthership too high.

The traditional method for showing good support for opener's suit is to jump to the 3-level (e.g., 1♥ - 3♥). On those occasions when partner has opened light, this may result in an overly ambitious contract, despite the good support. Drury allows responding partner to learn if his opening partner has opened with a normal opening hand or has a light opening hand. If it is a light hand, or even a minimal normal opening hand, the contract can be set at the 2-level, whereas non-Drury partnerships, with the same hands, would have to sign-off at greater risk at the 3-level. Owing to its role in the competitive bidding of part-score contracts, Drury is advantageous primarily in match point scoring events.