I've been trying to learn SEF (le Systeme d'enseignement francais = french bidding system) for some time now. It has lot of similarities to Standard American, and some interesting and notable differences. E.g., it does not use Gerber (not sure why, perhaps because 1-♠-P-4♣ is spliter and shows good spade support, game values, and a singlton or void in clubs. In addition SEF seems to use many of the same names for certain conventions which are not at all the same as the corresponding name elsewhere. For example check-back stayman is a 3♣ response to 1♣-P-1♠-P-2NT, rather than a 2♣ bid as explained in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stayman_convention. Unfortunately all the documentation of SEF which I have found is in the French language, which makes it in accessible to most of the world. I'd love to know some of its history, and how it does in competition against SAYC. Jim
