msjennifer

The Blue Team Club has the 2D opening which ranges from 17 to 24 HCP.In my personal opinion and in experience it was found difficult to find an exact defensive structure against it.However, the Precision 2D is based on short D and limited to 11/15 HCP and it is a call made as there is no provision of any other suitable opening bid in the system and is easier to defend and bid against for the opponents.(Real) experts have devised different methods for defensive bidding against Precision 2D openers as the upper limit is limited to 15HCP.However ,It is better to pass on the first round if your RHO opens a Blue Club 2D as the hand has minimum 17 HCP in it.Normally,it is a good policy to keep quiet on normal hands and intervene with strong distributional hands only.

Personally,Sir,I am of the opinion that there are too many top cards(6controls)in three suits with just xx in the spade suit as also the 5/4 excellent holding in the minors points to a suit contract rather than NT.Exchange the club King for spade King and the picture suddenly changes.On such hands we bid as per system and we do not have the sole purpose of preempting opponents holding such a strong hand.If the opponents have the Majors and they are advanced players an One NT opening is not going to stop them from bidding ,not in the least.This is a strong and constructive hand and the standard approach system clearly says it's an 1D opening.These days the sole deplorable tendency of obstructing the opponents is on increase.This is against the system,and that should be reserved for non defensive distributional long suited hands.1NT is a very poor and misleading opening bid on this particular hand.

Sir,would you be kind enough to tell me what will be your bids ,A) If 2C is a one round force. B) 2C is a passable,or rather to be passed,bid.Of course ,one has to keep in mind the take out double by LHO(who could have used a Michaels cue bid but did not).

Phil G,Sir,you acted correctly ignoring partners alerts.If you had acted on the basis of partners alerts it would have been an unfair action.Confusions about the gadgets can easily occur in an unestablished partnership and in events like BBO and others where there are no provisions of partnership convention card ,which is as we all know,compulsory ,in all events in various open events all over the world.The more the gadgets the more is the possibility of confusions arising in the heat of the game.Its all in the game and that is what makes bridge more interesting than an intellectual game like chess.

Since 2C is supposed to be a runaway bid and absolutely NF ,personally,I feel to show your 5 losers strong hand a bid of 4 Club is advisable.

Unfortunately one was born an expert(?) One was never ever a beginner. Those who open 4H have not answered my question that what will they open on x,AKxxxxxx,xx,xx ? They can't open 4H ,as that bid is reserved for the garbage hand,so Pass,1/2/3 H are left.Judge for yourself !

If his profile says that he plays the Wriggling convention then his bid of 2C is automatic.He and you are on different wavelengths.But if your partner knows the meaning of your xx then he is expressly telling you that 2C is a far better contract with 5/6 carder club suit.So PASS is the bid with this hand.And if it turns out that your wavelengths are different then pass and hope for the best and hope the opponents will help you by competing further.

It appears you want to teach EIGHT voters to drop out of the class.I have not seen even a single renowned book on bidding various systems advocating to open with s bid Of 4 H on the garbage hand.Perhaps your new book may change the face of bridge and I wish good luck to you.Your super champion intentions are meant only to obstruct opponents and also your partner.I follow what is given in the text books and my teacher ,who has international repute having won many events like the Reisinger et all.He just asked me to IGNORE your and others comments saying "They have the right to open 4H ,but at the same time they are not ENTTLED to ridicule others not agreeing with them".A very POLITE answer indeed ! So I shall just ignore the rebukes and continue to enjoy bridge in my own way by not opening on the garbage.Good Luck.

Although no one bothers about at what level you open such a hand after two passes in the 3rd seat ,there have to be some limitations of the 4C(Tr to hearts) and 4D ( Tr to spades) and 4H/S openings in the first two seats.As we were taught 4C/D bids are directed to be 0,1 2 down contracts (with an A or K outside)as per the vulnerabilities,whereas 4H/S openings in those seats are directed to be 1,2,3 down contracts ( with no honors outside)as per vulnerabilities and it is not at all advisable to break these rules just to preempt opponents and misguide the partner about the values he expects from your hand.I feel strongly that the 4H bid is the best bid to break ones partnership.What will you open with x,AKxxxxxx,xx,xx ? Will you now say 1,2 or 3 H,since now you can not open 4H ,a bid which you reserved for the garbage hand given in the example ? Why quote Edgar Kaplan who died almost 20 years ago on 07/09/1997 ?

Any bid except PASS is a bad bid in second seat .The WORST possible bid is 4Hearts.I shall pass. I fully agree with rmnka447 and the argument that has been made therein.

3Club.Nothing wrong in telling partner what to lead.A heart lead may prove dangerous and may very well happen if we bid hearts just now.We can wait and watch.

I never ever played rubber bridge so it is too naive for me to comment on the given situation and yet I shall try.I shall first ask if they play lebensohl.If they do then I feel that a low level prevention will not work.There are 2 options available as per my judgement 1) Pass so as not to disclose the fit.and 2) an adventurous 5NT which "may "stop them from bidding a grand.

Amusing indeed!

I know none will agree with me!We x a major suit opening when we hold at least Jxxx in the other major,not more than xx in their major and at least a Qxx support in the other two remaining suits.Over a minor suit opening We x when we hold decent 4/3 or 3/4 in the majors ,no wasted honours in their bid minor and at last Qxx in the fourth suit .The HCP range may be a good 12 to 15 HCP.We play 16/18 NT In all these.( we play explorer relay with 8+ if LHO passes and Lebensohl if LHO intervenes!) With 16 plus the treatment we give is beyond the scope of the present query.We overcall OneSpade with the given hands as the honors(HCP) are all concentrated in two suits there are 3 cards in hearts and only three rags in the fourth suit.All this may sound rubbish but we have hardly lost more than a very very few imps or MPs with this method.

If this means that the team which played Precision system and won for three consecutive years coming out of retirement after using the Blue Team Club system was a very low level team,,I strongly disagree with the statement.Perhaps ,Culbertson alone might have agreed with the statement.Those OLD days are gone and better be forgotten.But oh yes,these hands are totally unfit for opening if one plays a Forcing Pass system!!!

We play precision and certainly shall open all three,either 1D or 1NT depending upon the vulnerability

Yes indeed!Kaplan and Reuben's hand evaluators are obsolete as they are too conservative.Forgotten for good as some would say!

OTHER

No! I did not forget it!A strong hand too can employ SA Texas and later on 4NT etc to reach a correct contract.It also prevents opponents from bidding a lead suggesting Suit at a cheap level.

How would one have tackled trumps if the contract was 6H and not 6D ? Well,just play the same way here.Do you get me Steve?

Then it will no longer be South African Texas.To tell the truth,In thousands of deals played I have not seen EVEN A SINGLE hand where Gerber for Aces could have been useful.For us Gerber remains an obsolete gadget no longer of any use whatsoever.This is the reason why 4C is played as a transfer to Hearts.As regards the detailed concepts ,please read my later post.Many players use 4C(with or without jump) as RKCB if Diamonds is the agreed suit and 4D as RKCB if clubs is the agreed suit.

The SA Texas can be played with the only purpose of preempting the opponents.With a strong hand with a long suit and slam ambition we will try to go slowly to enable the opener to clarify his hand or for the responder to show his hand in details and for this purpose we use the usual four suit ransfers namely 2D/H/S/NT .We use the SA Texas to show a WEAKISH hand with 1) with not the slightest slam ambition or 2) to preempt the opponents,having practically no defencive values.The 4H/S over partners 1NT opening or overcall is to play in order that the lead may not go through an unprotected King in responders hand,and show a game hand WITH defensive values.

The 1S opening is TOO aggressive.Since a fit is not known,questionable defensive tricks,the singleton CQ go against it.The rule of 20 also is not satisfied.The hand may be played finally in 2 H or rarely 2S,and that is all it is worth irrespective of the opponents holdings.LTC can not be applied here as there is no 8+ cards fit in any suit,

Sir,I am not sure but the Australian Ron Klinger may be able to help you.

I do not think any one will bid a slam on these hands and more so after the 4C bid.There are too many ifs and buts involved.How do you know iff opener has DJ and responder has S10 ? Perhaps,some statistics expert can tell us,what are the chances of finding these 2 cards in the partnership,Also what are the chances of success keeping in mind the clubs will be 8/1 or 9/0 perhaps.It is very very easy to bid the slam in NT after seeing all the 52 cards.We call such 52-card experts as Expert Opticians.The statistical experts can also tell us the chances of finding spade finesse right as also the diamonds breaking 5/0 are.!