Strong Two Clubs - Advantages

Advantages

One major advantage of the artificial opening bid of 2♣ for all types of strong hands is that other opening bids at the two-level (2♦, 2♥ and 2♠) become available for weak two bids, thus eliminating many possible bids for the opponents. These weak two hands appear 20 times as often as the very strong hands, which illustrates the inefficiency of reserving all opening bids at the two-level for very strong hands.

An alternative is to use strong two bids for hands which are strong but not game forcing, which reduces the range of one-level openings and helps bidding accuracy. However, since weak twos are so useful, there are methods which allow weak twos in hearts and spades and use 2♦ to show a different range of strong hands; these are Benjaminised (Benji) Acol, Reverse Benji and the Multicoloured Two Diamonds.

Another advantage is the relative precision with which strong balanced hands can be bid. An opening bid of 2 NT indicates a balanced hand with 20-21 HCP in Standard American or 20-22 HCP in standard Acol, and for even stronger balanced hands, the opening bid of 2♣ can be used. The opener's rebid (in these cases always in No Trump) then indicates the strength of the hand using steps of 2-3 HCP. Hence 2♣ - 2♦ - 2NT shows 22-24 HCP's in Standard American or 23-24 HCP in Acol, while a 3NT rebid can show 25+ HCP's.