mattias

GIB has been stuck and not bidding for twentyish minutes in this auction, after west passed:

Just move the browser window so that part of it is off screen?

Let me google that for you.

I don't post often, but feel the need now. You are one of very few posters with consistently high quality posts. I hope that you will reconsider soon, and will miss your posts while you are gone.

Would it be possible for each partner to specify their own hand, and also to specify opponents bidding? This would make it a lot nicer to bid bidding challenges with my partner.

Play double barreled stayman. 2♣ followed by a new suit is invitational. 2♦ is also staymanish but GF, asks for a 4-card major or a five card minor. 2♦ followed by a new sut shows a five card suit. If you only play stayman, then 2♣ followed by 2♥ should probably be invitaional anyway, not a signoff.

I've briefly played step 1 as shortness ask, steps 2 to 4 as transfers and raise as preemptive. Over the transfer opener accepts with shortness or xx, with Ax/Kx/Qx they bid lowest new suit below 3 nt or 3 nt if no new suit is available. Higher new suits show shortness and support, and rebidding opener's suit shows a semisolid or solid suit. Things are slightly different after a transfer with step 4, the suit under opener's suit. I liked it but dropped it because of memory strain. Can give some more details if anyone's interested and when I'm not on my iPad.

The ten is, according to law, an honor.

Larry Cohen's checklist: http://www.larryco.com/BridgeArticles/ArticleDetails.aspx?articleID=399

In chrome on my Android phone I can access it when I push the button marked >> in the top right corner.

How about playing Antinonsens, as per page 145-146 of this document: http://www.ibpa.com/archive/Handbook/IBPA%20Handbook%202012.pdf . At the end they give specific suggestions against the Säffle system. Note that you will have seating rights against the team playing this system, and that you are allowed to look at prepared defenses after they open 1♦/♥/♠ (Also note that their 1S opening has three dots, not two as they claim on their convention card, since pass - 1♠ shows less than 4 spades in a potentially unbalanced hand. This gives that version of the opening three dots. The distinction is important since you are allowed to look at prepared defenses if they open with an opening bid with three dots.)

We play (1x)-1NT-(Dbl) differently from 1NT-(Dbl). In the first auction responder knows that they have the balance of strength when she doubles. Therefore there is no need for us to have a way of playing in 1NT Rdbl, unlike in the second auction.

SteveMoe sent me some Meckwell Lite notes about a year ago, and I think he was happy to share them with others as well. Try contacting him. This version has GF hands with a 5+major bidding 2M over 1C - 1D. For your sequence the notes say 2m: NF, not sure which suit longer 3m: nat GF with only 4 hearts, 5+m or 4441 21+ 3H: invite with nat followups 4m: splinter raise of S

After 1♣ 1♦ we play 1♥ 16-19 with 5+hearts or 20+ almost any hand 1♠ 16-21 5+ 1nt 17-19 bal/semibal 2♣/♦ 16-19 6+, or 54 minors, no 4-card major 2♥/♠ 16-19 4cards with longer minor, promising a shortness 2nt 16-19 55 minors 3 level unbalanced hand with spades not strong enough for 1h but with too much playing strength for 1sp. The 2M bids are not ideal, but the other bids are similar to our opening structure which helps a lot with continuations.

We play that 2H shows all hands with 4 card support. Over this responder bids 2sp to play versus an 11-13 hand. Over this sign off opener continues with all 14-15 hands, so responder's direct invites are invites against the 11-13 range. The direct raises 1D - 1S - 2S, and 1D - 1S - 2NT are unbalanced three card raises, min and max respectively. This is after a 1D opener that is either balanced or unbalanced with a four card major, but if you have another way of showing diamonds and hearts it seems to work in your case as well. A nice thing is that 3-card and 4-card raises are distinguished.

I think this depends on what completing the transfer shows. If completing shows the small balanced hand and 1NT shows 18-19, then you want to open 1♣ with all 18-19 hands to free up the 2NT rebid after a 1♦ opening. From there the step is not long to also open 1♣ on all balanced 12-14 hands, and also freeing up the 1NT rebid after 1♦.

You could move the balanced hands around and get 1C as 12-16 balanced or 12-14 balanced, 1S 15-17 balanced 1NT 8-11 balanced to get rid of the dots on 1S. But then you wouldn't be able to upgrade good 14s, and it might screw with your responses to pass.

The reason for playing a strong club system is usually to make the other opening bids limited. Either that or getting to use the alert card a lot.

We play something similar over 1-level opening bids and over 2♣/3♣. Step 1 is either negative or game forcing. Over this the doubler rebids the cheapest suit with a normal takeout double. See this very comprehensive post on rec.games.bridge by Daniel Auby.

The duplimate makers are aware of this problem, and it is solved in later versions of their software. A newer version can be downloaded from http://www.duplimate.com/Download.html, see BOS-package.

I'm not sure how good your swedish is, but there were a lot of ideas thrown around in http://www.svenskbridge.se/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?45537, especially https://www.dropbox.com/s/btc1gwe6c2qeg51/5542.doc is a nice and short introduction. Be a little careful with the transfers after 1♦ - 1M though, somehow they are easy to forget :)

If the opponents bid another suit, then ♦-bids by us become natural. If not, we treat ♦ as an enemy suit, so we would bid 2♦ with a good raise.

http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/51438-trick-1-claim/page__view__findpost__p__615579?

This is what we play. The difference is that we don't use relays over 1♦, so the 1♥ response is natural. Because of this we we change the responses slightly. Also, after 1♦ - 1♠ we rebid 2♣/♦ with 1444 if we are out of the balanced range. If we're in the balanced range we can choose between 1NT and 2♣/♦. After 1♦ - 1♥ - 1♠ the responses are 1NT relay, 11+ 2♣ P/C 2♦ 9-12 with 4 spades, continue over a signoff with max 2♥ 9-12 six hearts, compare w. 3♥ 2♠ 5-8 2NT GF spade raise 3♣/♦ 4♥ 6m invite 3♥ 11-12 6 hearts good suit After 1♦ - 1♥ - 1♠ - 1NT 2♣/♦ 11-13 5+minor, 4 spades, 0-2 hearts 2♥ 11-13 5+minor, 4 spades, 3 hearts. Now 2♠ asks for the suit, 2NT is nat non-forcing and 3♣ is P/C 2♠ 11-13 4144 2NT 14-15 4315 3♣ 14-15 4351 3♦ 14-15 4225 3♥ 14-15 4252 3♠ 14-15 4135 3NT 14-15 4153 Over the 14-15 showing bids the lower bids show longer hearts so repsonder can set hearts by bidding 3♥

Here is a big number calculator that would at least let you check the calculation: http://world.std.com/~reinhold/BigNumCalc.html