Hand evaluation. Rule of 25, Opening 2
Many players reserve all opening bids in a suit at the 2 level to mean something strong that can't be passed. (More advanced players sometimes use "weak 2s", but we are not thinking about them here).
How strong must I be to open 2 of a suit ?
- Does your hand conform to the 'rule of 25' ? You add your high card points to the total number of cards in your two longest suits to see if you satisfy this condition, or
- Your hand contains the normal high card strength associated with a one level opening bid in a suit and has a minimum of eight clear-cut tricks, or
- You have a very large number of points (23+), and need to make a coded bid.
For the Rule of 25, just as with the rule of 20, you must be sure that your High Card Points are not wasted in the short suits.
Now try the quiz
Can you put all this into action ? Try the quiz for this subject by clicking on the link at the top left of the page, just below the main menu.
(You can try quizzes for any other subjects too while you're there. Look out for the thin red line).