Opening Bid:   Two Hearts or Two Spades - 6/8-10 HCP

The Weak Two Bids
A long time ago, when we first learned about weak two bids, we embraced the idea of opening with any weak hand so long as we held a 6-card suit, regardless of it's strength.  Eventually, we quit doing that, because too many opponents were finding it profitable to double us, and we got too many complaints from our partners.  Most of us today will have at least one of the top three honors and are careful about the vulnerability.

Good players will never open a weak two bid in first or second seat if they have support for the other major!

We also have an agreement that our opening call of 2 or 2 in either first or second seat will generally have 8-10 points.  In third seat we can have 6 points, and mayber less... much less.  (And, in third seat, we often preempt with a 5-card suit, especially with spades, but only with more points, such as 8-12.)
    An opening bid of 2 or 2 in fourth seat is never weak.
Although most players, especially Two-Over-One system players, will tell you that a fourth seat 2 or 2 bid has about 12-14 points, we do not constrain the bid and will bid with 12-16 points.  It is not a weak bid.

2NT Response For a Feature
This is a very old agreement, but still one of the best.  It's simple, easy to remember, and effective.  If responder is an unpassed hand, the 2NT bid asks opener if she has an outside ace or king.  Partner is trying to determine if she can play in a 3NT contract and if she will have an entry to the dummy after the long major is established.

However, if partner is a passed hand, it is not likely that she is bidding 2NT to try to reach a notrump contract.  Most likely she is simply trying to determine if game in the major is possible.  For that reason the opener should consider not only outside aces or kings in her rebid, but also voids and singletons.   (Remember though, only consider voids if partner is a passed hand.)

Honor Asking
There are many hands where responder prefers to find out how many of the top three honors the opener has in her suit.  We use an artificial response of 3 to ask.

Opener's Rebids after a 3 Asking Bid
  • 3    One of the top three
  • 3    Two of the top three
  • 3    All three of the top honors
If the opener has all three of the top honors, she can only have one more jack in the hand, at most.  Still, responder might decide to play in 3NT, instead of the major suit contract.  (Player who use the Ogust convention would probably play 3NT from the wrong side.)