DRURY
CONVENTION

Mr. Douglas Drury devised the Drury convention. Mr. Drury was tired of sitting in the Fourth Seat, and after two passes, having his Right Hand Opponent open a weak hand, while sitting with a moderate to excellent opening in a Major suit. Therefore, in order to protect himself from landing in an unsuccessful contract, he devised the conventional Forcing 2 Clubs Response for his partner, who has already passed.

The convention devised by Mr. Douglas Drury also gives his partner a way of describing his hand, even though there has been no intervening bid. It must be noted that the Forcing 2 Clubs Response bid by the responder is completely artificial and says nothing about the Club holding. The Drury Convention may only be applied when the responder has a suitable fit, distribution, and sufficient values with the Major suit bid by the opener. This should become clear in the following examples. If this is not the case with the holding of the responder, the responder must seek another bid.

The problem, however, with Third and/or Fourth Seat openings after two, respectively three passes, is the question, whether the opener is holding a 1) sub-minimal, 2) minimal, or 3) a much stronger holding. The intention of the Forcing 2 Club Response is to answer just this question.

North	East	South	West
Pass	Pass	1	Pass
2

West	North	East	South
Pass	Pass	Pass	1
Pass	2

The distribution of North could be similar to the following hands:

Q85 1075 AK93 Q62

J106 A754 AJ93 86

Analysis of both hands:
North holds the 10-12 required points for supporting his partner in the bid Major suit of the examples of the bidding sequences above. The question is whether South, in both bidding sequences has a sub-minimal, minimal, or stronger holding. Using the Drury convention, North now becomes obligated to further describe his holding.

If the opener has a sub-minimal holding, then the bidding sequence continues as follows:

North	East	South	West
Pass	Pass	1	Pass
2	Pass	2

If the opener has the appropriate values for a standard opening, then the bidding sequence continues as follows:

North	East	South	West
Pass	Pass	1	Pass
2	Pass	2

or any other appropriate, descriptive bid.

If the opener has a stronger holding and the intended rebid by the opener would have been 2 Diamonds, then the opener can jump to 3 Diamonds, especially if the holding is particularly distributional. Otherwise, it is suggested that the opener temporize with a 2 Diamond denial rebid and rebid Diamonds naturally, later in the auction. A third option is to rebid 2 No Trump.

North	East	South	West
Pass	Pass	1	Pass
2	Pass	3

With this distribution and amount of values, Mr. Douglas Drury devised the Forcing 2 Club Response bid to show exactly this distribution of 3-card support and amount of values ranging from 10-12 points. This bid by the responder is forcing and must be alerted.

The opener looks at his holding once again, and if the opener decides that game is not possible, the auction can stop on the Two Level. If the opener has extra values, then opener will try for, or simply bid game.

The Drury convention also applies even if there has been an opening by the opponents, as in the following bidding sequence:

North	East	South	West
Pass	1	1	Pass
2

Even though East has opened, and South has overcalled, the already passed North hand will bid a Forcing 2 Clubs with the required support and amount of values indicated in the two examples above. The opener will then be able to make the decision whether to try for game or leave the auction end on the Two Level.

The Drury convention also works with the Heart Major suit, although the passed partner has the opportunity to bid 1 Spade. Therefore, the frequency of the Drury convention has been lessened considerably. If the responder subsequently bids 2 Clubs during the auction, this bid does not activate the Drury convention. Also, if the opponents intervene immediately with an overcall of 2 Clubs, then the Drury convention also becomes inactive and can not be applied.

North	East	South	West
Pass	pass	1	2
Drury becomes inactive

In the convention devised by Mr. Douglas Drury, a response by the opener of 2 Diamonds strongly suggested a sub-minimum opening, and the responder would simply end the auction on the Two Level. This treatment did not have that much appeal for the bridge players using Drury, so they came together and modified the convention, which ended up being called Reverse Drury.

REVERSE DRURY

This variation of the Drury convention became popular during the 1980s. This is more or less the modern standard version of the convention devised by Mr. Douglas Drury. After a Third or Fourth Seat opening of a Major suit, especially Spades and less frequently Hearts, the responder, who is a passed hand, shows a strong raise with at least a 3-card support, and 10-12 point range, by bidding 2 Clubs.

The opener will sign off on the Two Level with a minimum hand, and this is known as Reverse Drury. However, the opener will simply bid game with sufficient values, knowing of the 3-card support in the hand of his partner. If the opener rebids 2 Diamonds or the second Major suit, these rebids are natural and forcing, and game is a strong possibility, especially if a second fit is discovered.

As with all Partnership Agreements, it must be stated, that South can show a hand willing to accept an invitation to game by bidding any other suit. Some expert bridge players use this new suit as a Help Suit Game Try. Other bridge players play that the opening bidder must rebid two Diamonds with any hand willing to accept an invitation to game. This allows the responder to show a second suit or return to the trump suit with minimum invitational values.

This is why the Partnership Agreement is so important.

BERGEN DRURY

The undisputed bridge expert Mr. Marty Bergen came to the conclusion that surrendering the 2 Club bid as being a natural bid would be a small sacrifice to pay, then surrendering the 2 Diamond bid also would be a small sacrifice in order to allow the responder to describe his hand more accurately.

Mr. Marty Bergen concluded that a 2 Club response by his partner, who is already a passed hand, could show a 3-card support for the opening Major suit with 10-12 points, and that a 2 Diamond response by his partner, who is already a passed hand, could show a 4-card support for the opening Major suit with 10-12 points. Although this seems immaterial at first, let us take two examples to show the difference and importance of this form of auction.

74 AQ9 854 KJ875

74 AQ95 85 KJ875

West	North	East	South
Pass	Pass	Pass	1
Pass	2

West	North	East	South
Pass	Pass	Pass	1
Pass	2

With the first holding, Mr. Marty Bergen suggests bidding 2 Clubs to indicate 3-card support after the bid of 1 Heart by his partner. With the second holding, Mr. Marty Bergen suggests bidding 2 Diamonds to indicate 4-card support after the bid of 1 Heart by the opener. Upon examining the two hands, one concludes that Hand 1 has one more loser than Hand 2, which could mean the difference between a part-score and game. With this additional information, the opener has a better chance to reach game, knowing that there is a 9-card trump suit instead of an 8-card trump suit.

Although the original version of the Drury convention as devised by Mr. Douglas Drury has undergone modifications, it is up to the partnership to conclude which form of the Drury convention it wishes to play. Whichever modification the partnership chooses to include in their bidding process, it should be included also in their individual Partnership Agreement.

If you wish to include this feature, or any other feature, of the game of bridge in your partnership agreement, then please make certain that the concept is understood by both partners. Be aware whether or not the feature is alertable or not and whether an announcement should or must be made. Check with the governing body and/or the bridge district and/or the bridge unit prior to the game to establish the guidelines applied. Please include the particular feature on your convention card in order that your opponents are also aware of this feature during the bidding process, since this information must be made known to them according to the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge. We do not always include the procedure regarding Alerts and/or Announcements, since these regulations are changed and revised during time by the governing body. It is our intention only to present the information as concisely and as accurately as possible.