[jillybean]

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You are playing disciplined weak 2's, partner will have 2 of the top 3 or 3 of the top 5 honors in his suit.
2nt* is "feature ask" asking partner to show an Ace or King outside of his preempt suit.

Please describe some hand types suitable for using 2nt*, and your intended contract.

[DavidKok]

It's a good question and I don't have a clean answer. There are slam tries that would bid this ways, and game forcing hands that need to decide between 3NT and 4M (perhaps at MP, or braving the 6-1 fit if a side suit is wide open). There's even the possibility of investigating 3NT vs 4oM this way.

However, all of these are rare. This preempt already describes the hand so well, further information is often more helpful to the defender on lead than to us.

[mw64ahw]

As a starter any hand that meets the rule of 17 and has 6.5 or better modified losers or has the ability to make 9 tricks playing in 3N.
I don't think playing feature over 2M is the best choice given the information it conveys especially with a hand like QJTxxx Kxx xx xx. Much better to conceal the suit using other methods.

[awm]

I think there are three basic types:

1. Inviting game; say ♠xxx ♥KQx ♦AQxx ♣Kxx. If partner has something like KQJxxx of spades and nothing else, game is not really very good. But if partner can produce a round ace or the diamond king it's worth bidding.
2. Inviting slam; say ♠Axx ♥AQJxx ♦Ax ♣Axx. If partner has the heart king, there are thirteen top tricks. If partner has a minor suit king, slam will be on a finesse at worst. If partner has ♠KQJxxx and nothing else, then slam is on a finesse at best (and it might be a lot worse if partner has short hearts).
3. Looking for the right game. Rare playing sound preempts, but say ♠T ♥Jxx ♦AKQJTxx ♣AQ. If partner has a heart card, 3NT is likely to be pretty cold; otherwise 4♠ may be the best chance.

[AL78]

If partner has two out of the top three or three out of the top five, how likely are they to have an outside ace or king yet not have enough to open at the one level?

[smerriman]

AL78, on 2025-September-16, 16:10, said:

If partner has two out of the top three or three out of the top five, how likely are they to have an outside ace or king yet not have enough to open at the one level?

Pretty common - AQxxxx, KQ(J)xxx, KJTxxx etc can all easily have an outside ace or king. Yes, people often seem to open 9 or 10 HCP hands at the 1 level these days, but they're probably not the ones playing disciplined weak twos..

[jillybean]

Thanks ��

I get into enough trouble opening 11 counts. In the games I am playing , no one opens 9-10 counts.

[blackshoe]

No one plays Precision where you play?

[mycroft]

To add to awm: One of my partners, with whom I play disciplined weak 2s, plays 2NT as a feature ask, with 3NT as "I have one". So that should give you some idea what contract she's expecting to play.

Sure and "if you have one and I have enough trumps, let's play 4M", but the other hand is "I have stoppers and singleton or poor doubleton support. If I can get to the board, I can knock out the stoppers and run your suit for 5 tricks, plus the 4 in my hand is 3NT. But we might only make those same 9 tricks at trumps. If I can't get to the board in NT after I knock out the stopper, better play in the suit."

[jillybean]

blackshoe, on 2025-September-16, 22:27, said:

No one plays Precision where you play?

Oh yeah, there's "those guys" whom when I started playing, seemingly alerted everything but we gave up asking because nothing made sense.

This thread has been very beneficial. I no longer play disciplined weak2's but when I did, I used feature ask without really understanding the benefit.
Feature ask was only used to make sure we have another entry to partner's long suit, which that tall guy refers to in his post.

[mikeh]

smerriman, on 2025-September-16, 16:51, said:

Pretty common - AQxxxx, KQ(J)xxx, KJTxxx etc can all easily have an outside ace or king. Yes, people often seem to open 9 or 10 HCP hands at the 1 level these days, but they're probably not the ones playing disciplined weak twos..

The next time I open 2S with AQxxxx and a side Ace….ooops….in my main partnerships 2S shows 10-13 so it would be routine. But playing ‘normal’ weak twos, very few experts would not open 1S with that. AQxxxx and a side King? Different story, other than for some big club pairs whose 1st and 2nd seat 1M is 8-15.

[pescetom]

jillybean, on 2025-September-17, 16:38, said:

Oh yeah, there's "those guys" whom when I started playing, seemingly alerted everything but we gave up asking because nothing made sense.

I suspect that if you scratch the scab more, you may also recall that you gave us asking long before they gave up explaining.
Not intended as a slight on anyone playing any system honestly, but we all met "those guys".