[Brian Davies]

Bernard will no doubt give us some very persuasive arguments why we should choose Benji rather than 3 week twos. But since this thread has already kicked off the discussions, here are the reasons why I dislike three week twos:

• As a pre-empt 2D is pretty feeble. Opponents can still bid either major at the two level.
• It is often unhelpful as a constructive bid. Imagine partner with 16+ and wanting to investigate game. 5D isn’t usually attractive, but four of a major is more likely if you hold a three-card suit and partner holds five. Unfortunately the 2NT inquiry makes it very difficult to find the major.
• There is a gap between the upper end of a one-level bid and a game-forcing 2C bid. In the US they fudge the 2C bid to not make it game forcing. This leads to double negatives and other complications.
• The EBU still has 2C as game forcing (except the specific 2C-2D-2NT), but this means that the range of a one-level bid is extended to often include 21 or even 22 HCPs. But this needs a lot more judgement and a knock-on impact on responses with the need to keep the bidding alive with most five counts and many four counts.
• The 2NT opening also becomes distorted with unsuitable hands.
• Slam bidding becomes more complex as opener tries to over-compensate for top-heavy bids of 1X.
• A weak two diamonds is far from the universal choice across the world, suggested in comments above. There are probably more uses for 2D than any other bid. Multi, Weak-only Multi, Transfer, Flannery, Mexican 2D (balanced 18-19), Precision 2D (4414) … the list goes on!

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