MONSTER HANDS:

If you have 22+ HCP or nine quick tricks (you can win nine tricks, assuming you can choose the trump), open 2C. This is a reserved bid, and it is a violation of bridge rules to bid it under any circumstances other than those for which it is designed, provided you are using weak twos in your bidding system.

Responding to a 2C Opening

Considering the strength of your partner's hand, you won't have to worry too much about possible bids by your opponents, but it does happen. If your partner opens 2C, you must bid unless your RHO bids first. Let's look at how to handle matters when RHO passes.

If you have 7 or fewer HCP, bid 2D to tell your partner that you have poor support. This doesn't rule out games or slams, even if your partner has minimum points for the opening, but it does mean your partner has to work a little harder to find game or better. As you'll see below, there are possible conditions for bidding 2D with more than 7 HCP, but they are fairly rare.

With 8+ HCP and a 5-card suit, bid that suit (at the two level for majors or the three level for minors). With exactly five cards in the suit you want to bid, you must have a queen or better to bid the suit; otherwise, bid 2D or, with 5-3-3-2 distribution, possibly 2NT. Of course, if you have a garbage 5-card suit and points everywhere else, your partner must logically have honors in your suit. This is the exception to the exception, but it is also a rarity among rarities.

Finally, with 8+ HCP and NT distribution, bit 2NT. Some beginning players think, and I say this from experience, that 2C shows something about the club suit. It does not. You must not make any of these positive bids—again, those are any bids other than 2D—under the assumption that your partner has a useful club holding.

Why not bid more? Bidding space. Because your partner's 2C opener shows nothing about the shape of his hand, you need time to determine where to place the contract. In bidding hands in which your hand and partner's hand are so far apart, space and time are not the same; save space, even at the expense of a longer auction. Any information your opponent's get at that point will probably not help them find a setting trick.

Partner's Responses:

If your partner sees your negative bid (2C), he has a few options. He cannot pass your bid reliably, so he has to bid naturally. He will look for the same criteria as responder's bids, though his points are already established. With a 5-card suit, he will bid that at the lowest level available (he can get away with a solid 4-card suit if he has 4-4-4-1 distribution and thus cannot bid 2NT, but this is rare)

With NT distribution, he will bid one of the available NT levels to show his point range more accurately. 2NT here shows 22-23 HCP, 3NT shows 24-26 HCP, 4NT shows 27-29 HCP, and 5NT shows 30-32 HCP. Sure, he could have more than 32 HCP, but then why even bother asking you to bid? The odds that you would have 8 HCP are so small as to be meaningless, and he could just as well place the contract without any help from you.

If you have responded with 2H or higher, your partner is in heaven. You've promised 30+ points for the partnership (fewer if he is bidding on tricks he can win, but it's still strong) and shown a great deal about the shape of your hand. Any suit he bids after that is natural, and you should be able to derive its meaning fairly easily. However, the exception comes when you have bid 2NT and he bids 3C. This is Stayman, functioning in all respects as if it had been bid over a 2NT opener, and it asks for a 4-card major.

I mentioned earlier that it was unlikely that your opponents would get involved, but sometimes they will gum up the works of your fine auction. Be guided by these rules: 1) if you would have bid 2D if opponents had passed, you should pass, and 2) if you have something good to say (you would normally have bid 2H or higher), say it. All bids are natural at that point, and your partner will probably determine very quickly where to place the contract, especially given the valuable information that your opponent has added to the auction.