plh@ukma.UUCP (Paul L. Hightower) (03/07/85)
>Have you ever used this convention/system competitively? One of the problems >with systems that are non-standard is that they not only slow down a duplicate >match significantly, but tend to frost the opponents. While this latter >condition is not always bad, I've always considered it "bad form" to make up >strange systems and then use them in duplicate matches. After all, your >convention card must look like the rough draft of War and Peace by the time >you're through with it. >...bob garmise...at&t bell labs, columbus... Good point, Bob. Yes, I have used it in local duplicates. Every bid in the system is either a treatment or Class B convention, and thus is legal in all but novice games (or a rare restricted-to-class-A club game.) We alert 1C as "semi-forcing but natural", 1D as "possible negative", and the 1NT rebid, along with the second-round Stayman and transfers. Technically, we should perhaps alert virtually every bid as "non-standard", but I'll start doing that when others consistently alert a 1D response to 1C as "denies four-card major." I frequently play against rubber bridge players who regularly open 1C on a singleton or doubleton, calling it a "short club" ! One important point about my style or system is that no elaborate defenses are required to cope with it. The alerts keep an opponent from being misled when leading after a sequence like 1C-1D-1NT, which would ordinarily show 12-14, but we use to show 18-20. Notice that this is a natural bid : it suggests 1NT as a contract, and we frequently play it there. Paul Hightower University of Kentucky