HERBERT
SECOND NEGATIVE

There are several partnership agreements which cover the responses to a forcing opening on the Two Level. Fundamentally, most partnerships include the artificial Strong Artificial Two Club opening, which is forcing for one round. The responses to such an opening, however, differ among the partnership agreements. Most partnerships agree that a response of Two Diamonds shows a weak hand with less than 7 high card points.

The Herbert Second Negative concentrates on this rather large range to show whether the responder is closer to null high card points or has closer to 7 high card points. The following example should illustrate the usefulness of this convention.

Opener	Responder	Meaning
2	2	shows 0 to 7 high card points, first Negative Response
2		Opener shows his preferred suit
	2	Responder shows minimum values with the Herbert Second Negative

Opener	Responder	Meaning
2	2	shows 0 to 7 high card points, first Negative Response
2		Opener shows his preferred suit
	2 NT	Responder shows minimum values with the Herbert Second Negative

By making the cheapest possible bid over the rebid of the opener, the responder can show that his values are closer to null and very weak. The rebid by the responder contains no information about his Spade holding. The Herbert Second Negative is completely artificial.

However, in the case that the responder does hold a very good Spade suit, such as:

	K986543
	5
	76
	643

then the bidding sequence would have to be:

Opener	Responder	Meaning
2	2	shows 0 to 7 high card points, first Negative Response
2		Opener shows his preferred suit
	3	Responder jumps to show a weak, but distributional Spade suit

The danger in deciding to continue the bidding with such a distributional holding is quite evident. With such weak values, the partnership is now committed to game, a contract which could be too high. This is a matter of partnership agreement whether or not to show distributional values with very few high card points.

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.