Flannery bidding convention

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The Flannery bidding convention (all these bidding conventions are named after their inventors) is a typical example of the modern bidding conventions in which a player uses one bid to convey two – or maybe even three – different features about his or her hand. Thus, the bidder in effect gets “two for the price of one” and manages to convey more information to his/her partner while still keeping the bid low.

In the Flannery system, a 2 Diamonds opening bid (which has to be alerted because it is not part of the Standard American repertoire) means the opener has 15 high-card points with 5 Hearts and 4 Spades. So here the opener gets two for the price of one because with one bid, he gets to communicate the fact that he/she has two biddable suits, and in which order he prefers them. The responder can jump on either one of the majors if he/she wishes, but a responder may also say 2 No-Trump as an artificial “waiting” bid,” asking the original opener to further describe his hand.

The disadvantage of using the Flannery convention is that it eliminates the use of a normal “weak 2” opening bid of 2 Diamonds. You just give up that bid in the belief that it will rarely lead to anything good.

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