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:
- a simple change of suit is no longer a forcing bid and
- 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.
Read more about this topic: Drury Convention
Famous quotes containing the words origins and, origins and/or purpose:
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“The purpose of getting power is to be able to give it away.”
—Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960)