Ogust bridge convention

Return to the Bridge Burglar’s Guide to Bridge Bidding Conventions

The Ogust bridge convention is probably the most exact system of determining what the real possibilities are for a partnership in which one partner opens with a weak 2 bid but the other has a good hand.

The weak 2 opener no doubt had expectations of playing the hand on defense since he has a weak hand, but his partner with the good hand will now attempt to shift from an expected defensive role to offense.

The Ogust bridge convention, which at first sounds complicated but really isn’t, is named after a bridge player Harold Ogust, who invented it. Under Ogust, if you open with a weak 2 and your partner bids 2 No-Trump, he or she is asking you for point count and just how strong your trump suit is.

If you are at the bottom of your point range for a weak 2 hand (5-8 points) you bid 3 Clubs if you have only one honor in your trump suit, and you bid 3 Diamonds if you have more than one honor. So the two minor suits are reserved for weak hands.

If you are at the top of your point range (9-11 points) you reply 3 Hearts if you have only one honor in your trump suit, 3 Spades if you have 2, and 3 No-Trump if you have all  the top honors in the trump suit.

So in other words:

  • 3 – weak hand, weak trump suit
  • 3 – weak hand, pretty good trump suit
  • 3 – strong hand (relatively, for a weak 2; weak trump suit)
  • 3 – strong hand, pretty strong trump suit
  • 3 NT – strong hand, dynamite trump suit

The answer will tell the responder everything he/she needs to know to determine the final contract as the captain of the enterprise.

Comments

  1. Roger Freeman says:

    I and couple of different partners respectively play 3 weak twos and weak 2s in majors and use of weak 2s is v common
    in the area. Seems to me that Ogust 2NT and all possible responses should really be alerted. I am interested to ponder all the
    likely explanations to be offered by the alerting partner. I have not heard the responses alerted and the Ogust bid when alerted is usually followed by “partner is requesting more information” but the responses are usually not alerted but only
    followed by silence. Alternatively, one bridge humour column me gut suggest that Ogust alert be followed by” I am being invited to further misdescribe my hand”(apologies for horrible split infinitive!). I suspect that full alerting and explanations could give away in quite costly manner.

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