What is better in bridge strong 1 club or strong 2 clubs?

Answer 1

In my opinion, there is no true answer to this question. Both bids have their strengths and weaknesses. Which is better depends mostly on your style of play and playing/bidding ability. Instead of saying which is better, I will post some information regarding both.

A strong 1C opening is often considered to be anywhere from 15+ to as high as 19+ by some partnerships. The minimum I typically see played amongst experts is 16 or 17+. The purpose of a strong club is to better define our other opening bids. The 1C itself is actually considered one of the downsides of the system as a whole. It is vulnerable to preempts and without good agreements regarding interference, you will be left in the dark. A positive of the 1C is that we keep the bidding as low as possible, leaving a lot of room to further discuss information regarding our hands. This is where some pairs throw in relay structures to a 1C opening.

A strong 2C opening is played in a few ways. Some pairs play strictly 23+ HCP. Others may play 20+ unbalanced or 22+ balanced. Some even include weaker, but still strong, hands with 9+ certain tricks. A strong 2C can be played as an automatic game force unless balanced. Response structures vary, but this is up to you and your partner.

In conclusion, which is best cannot be answered here. Both methods to show strong hands have merit. It depends on how you use them in your system as a whole. I have seen many strong club systems put together so poorly that the whole system is damaged. I have also seen some 2C bids including hands that shouldn't be put there as well.