jmcilkley

In 1st or 2nd seat I like a preempt to be a good suit, 2 of the top 3 honours - for exactly this reason Partner has not passed and may have a big hand and if the preempt could be weak he will not know how to proceed. If a partner I trusted opened 3h on this, missing K, Q and J, then I would wonder what was going on. Maybe he also has an ace. Axx in spades as well as A 7 times in hearts would make a sure slam so I would certainly go looking for it with 4nt and expect to hear 2 keycards. Surely h could not also have a K in a minor as with 10 points and 7 hearts he would open 1h. So the grand can;t be on.

I would hope noone seriously thinks it would be Gerber! Nor can I see the point of a splinter bid in partner's suit (although the 1c opening might not show clubs, I guess. 3c might well be a trial bid asking for help in clubs for game (quite possible if playing 5 card majors) I would take it as a cue bid in clubs with slam interest and denying first round control of spades.

Thanks for that. I was interested in this system as it goes well with a weak nt - the 1c opening includes hands in the 15-19 balanced range so that would include a strong no trump. Normally I feel that 5 card majors do not go well with a strong no trump but this may be the answer

I have seen several top players now opening 1c on balanced hands in the 15-19 range and use transfer responses. However, I have struggled to find much online by way of replying to this. I have managed to piece together something that seems to work ok to me and would be happy to email this to anyone else interested. I would also be happy to hear from anyone else that plays, or is thinking of playing, this. It can be used with any other bidding system but my version includes 5 card majors and a 12-14 no trump, multi 2d, Lucas 2s' etc.

This is a 7 loser hand, partner has had opened and supported spades at the lowest level possible so I'm thinking also 7 losers so I'm going to bid game.

So what about this? 1c opened, overcall of 1s, responder doubles, otheropp passes. Now is 2d a reverse? Maybe the double just shows 4 hearts and 8+ points and does not promise also diamonds. In that case the 2d redid must be a reverse so forcing while 2h is not!

sorry, bidding was 1C-1S-dbl by p-pass-2D

Playing natural I open 1C and LHO overcalls 1S, partner doubles and I rebid 2d. How many points am I showing? Obviously if I bid 1H I will definitely be showing up to a poor 15 but is it different if I bid 1D? Mike C

I played ASPTRO for ages but never found any hand where 5 of a major plus 4 of a minor enabled the 4 card minor to be of any use. So I decided to modify it so that now 2c shows either 4 hearts plus 5 of another suit - or 6 hearts. Similarly for 2d to show 4 spades plus 5 of another or 6 spades. Now I would rarely overcall with just a 5 card major unless it was a very good suit or I also had a 4 or 5 card minor as well. i don't know if there is a name for this variation, Mike C

With 19 points many would bid 3NT but maybe you are worried about missing a possible spade fit. In uk Crowhurst is now quite popular where the 1NT rebid is 15 to 18 (we play weak 1NT opening 12 to 14). This means that 2NT rebid will show exactly 19 points and allows partner to bid at the 3 level to show 5 hearts or 4 spades. 3NT seems to be the right contract. Mike