Unusual vs. unusual is a competitive bidding convention used in contract bridge by the opening side after an opponent has made an showing two suits (e.g. a Michaels cuebid or an Unusual notrump overcall).

Description

The Unusual vs unusual convention is used after opponents have made an overcall that specifies two suits, for example using: The convention does not apply where only one suit is specified, for example: For completeness a defense to use when a single suit is bid is shown below.

Variations

There are several variations that are subject to partnership agreement including:

Advantages and disadvantages

This convention is an application of the Useful Space Principle and where a meaning is assigned to all available bids and therefore no bidding space is wasted. In some auctions there is an advantage to the opening team taking away bidding space from the overcalling team. In other cases the advancer might have no support for the overcall's suit but still have to make a preference bid, in this case the responder's bid means they can pass with the possibility that the opening side will be playing a three-level contract with a misfit. The only bid lost is the Negative double (if used by the partnership) to show precisely three-card support for partner. There is also the general disadvantage to more complex bidding systems that will be used relatively infrequently and have different meanings to different partnership: the impact of a misunderstanding within a partnership might prove more costly than the potential benefits.