Strong Two Clubs

Strong Two Clubs

In most natural bridge bidding systems, the opening bid of 2♣ is used exclusively for hands too strong for an opening bid at the one-level. Systems that incorporate a strong 2-club opening bid include modern Standard American, standard Acol, 2/1 game forcing and many others. Typically, the bid is reserved for hands that are almost strong enough to bid to the game level on their own power, or even stronger. The exact requirements for the bid vary considerably depending upon the system used and partnership agreement.

In Charles Goren's original bidding system, and "traditional" Acol, all the opening bids of two of a suit signified a very strong hand. This later became known as the strong two bid. However, pioneer bridge inventors like Pierre Albarran and David Burnstine saw that the frequency of such bids is fairly low, and that a 2♣ bid can be used for all strong hands, leaving other two-level opening bids for other purposes (for example, weak two bids).