The Multi Coloured 2Diamond

What's It All About and How To Defend Against It ?

By Harold Schogger

The Source of this article is Bridge Conventions The Multi-Coloured 2Diamond by Brian Senior form the bridge Players Handbooks which are published by Probray Press Nottingham.

Many of the British Players on OKBridge are playing a convention called the Multi Coloured 2Diamond which is not licensed in the USA. However as there are no restrictions at present on OKBridge it is advisable to know how to deal with it when it arises at the table.

What does the Multi 2Diamond promise ?

The bid promises a number of different hands and only when opener makes his rebid does it become evident what the bid was all about in the first place. Suffice it to say that most of the time it will be WEAK and DISRUPTIVE.

The bid generally promises one of the following 3 hands :

However the English bridge Union allows that the hand may also be made on the following:

As you can see the opener can be quite disruptive and should really only be played by regular partnerships who know what they are doing. However if you are playing against such a partnership on OKBridge then you might like to try one of the following defenses.

Defending the Multi 2Diamond opener

To say that there are almost as many defenses played against the Multi as there are pairs playing tournament bridge is an obvious exaggeration, but certainly there are a lot of very different ideas about how the defense should be organized.

One basic area of disagreement is what to do with very strong hands. Some players maintain that these are more easily shown by passing initially and then bidding after you have heard which suit opener holds. This approach clears up some of the uncertainties and makes a cue-bid of the opponent's suit available. On the other hand there must be an increased risk of being preempted to a high level before you have had a chance to describe your hand, so a number of players prefer to bid immediately on very strong hands.

Another area where there are differing views is the extent to which the system should be geared towards extracting a penalty as opposed to concentrating on reaching one's own best contract.

What is absolutely essential is that a partnership should have discussed and agreed on their defensive scheme, otherwise disasters are inevitable.

Defense in Second Position

Where a strong hand commences with a double it is described by making a further bid. A strong balanced hand would double again, while a shapely hand would bid a new suit or make a cue-bid. Unless partner has made an encouraging noise a player who holds a balanced 12-15 hand should not bid again.

Responder to the double must assume that it is the balanced 12-15 type until proved otherwise and bid accordingly.

2Diamond Dbl Pass ?

2Diamond Dbl Positive Bid ?

If second in hand bids 2Heart or 2Spade he should have a sound opening bid and four or more cards in the suit bid and shortage in the other major. In effect he has said that, in his opinion, opener probably has a weak two in the unbid major. Responder should bid as if responding to a takeout double.

Second in hand after passing, example.

2Diamond Pass 2Heart Pass
Pass ?

2Diamond Pass 2Heart Pass
2Spade ?

Double - Strong balanced 16+ points with good holdings in the majors optional but penalty based.

In fourth position

Here the defense is more difficult as there is no certainty of getting another chance if you start with a pass. Fortunately there is no need to bid on moderate balanced hands as partner has failed to bid and so has either less than an opening bid (when you are missing nothing) or has a good hand where he intends to bid on the second round. Again the scheme is based on the principle of telling partner which suit you think the 2Diamond bidder holds.

2Diamond Pass 2Heart ?

2Diamond Pass 2Spade ?

Fourth in Hand after Passing

This is a standard balancing situation with all bids limited by the failure to bid on the previous round. Suits are natural and double is for take-out.