ACOL Two Bid

An ACOL Two Bid is a strong opening bid of 2, 2 or 2, showing a powerful hand with approximately 8–9 playing tricks and a long, good-quality suit, or occasionally a strong two-suited hand. Unlike modern artificial strong 2 systems used in many American methods, ACOL preserves natural strong two-bids in the major and minor suits, reserving 2 as the only game-forcing all-purpose strong opening.

In practical terms:

• ACOL 2, 2 and 2 = strong, natural, but not automatically game-forcing
• ACOL 2♣ = the only fully game-forcing opening

This distinction is one of the defining structural differences between ACOL and most Standard American / 2-over-1 systems.

Examples

Open 2 with 6 running diamonds and 2 side aces: AJT A98 AKQT43 5

Open 2 with 5 heart winners and at least 3 side tricks: AK KQJT94 KQ5 76

Open 2 with 8 sure tricks in the pointed suits: AQJT9 K AKJT4 93

ACOL Two Bids are forcing for one round. The conventional responses are as follows.

Response	Meaning
New suit	5+ card suit, 8+ points and game-forcing.
2NT	The negative response, showing 0-7 points.
Single raise	3+ card support, with 5+ points. Game-forcing.
Double raise	Weaker than a single raise. Usually represents a weak hand with at least 4-card support.
3NT	Natural, balanced, 8-11 points.

After hearing a 2NT negative response, opener's rebids are natural and non-forcing unless he makes a reverse, e.g. 2 : 2NT, 3.

See also the Herbert Negative convention for responding to an ACOL Two Bid.