Roadmap

The worldwide popularity of the Multi Two Diamond opening to show a weak two-bid in either one of the majors has experts looking for the optimal use for opening bids of two in a major. One popular treatment appears in today’s deal.

The opening diamond lead went to East’s 10 and South’s ace. South won the first trick because he did not want a spade shift. This would be an easy one if the clubs split 2-2 or if one opponent had a singleton king. Catering to the actual lie of the cards, which was quite likely, South led a low club to dummy’s 10. East correctly played low. Declarer continued by running dummy’s queen of clubs. West would have been a hero had he ducked his doubleton king on the first round, but he did not have it to duck, so the queen held the trick.

South still only had eight tricks, but the chance for an endplay against West was substantial. South cashed his ace-king of hearts and his ace of diamonds, before exiting with the nine of diamonds. West could cash three diamond tricks, but then had to lead a spade into declarer’s ace-queen and the game rolled home. This was well played, but once again we see a two-suited bid draw a roadmap for declarer in the play.