Flame

I read it, it looks nice, but i believe systems should be more focused on the majors and for that I will post my system soon. I want to make a site for it and let other people comment and help improving it.

"sensible pd" for you need this KQJXX where a sensible pd of luis (Ben i am not forgeting you :D ) who never double with a void can have less. One day soon i'll post my alterative to negative D which imo is a bad tool for many situations its been used like the one here.

1♠-X down 2 + 300 NS, +9 imps NS. But, don't let the results influence what you bid on this hand. Just bid what you think is right. Who knows even though double here won 9 imps, that doesn't mean, necessarily, it was the right bid. :D Ben I already said i would double, because i think the diffencive potential of the hand isnt too bad (even tho it contain a void) i am happy to see the result support this.

What was the result of this 1sp D ?

As you can see, this game is made even though there are many wasted values, this mean it should be easy to reach it. Like luis said opener cant pass 2h with the 5.5 losers But also responder can bid more with his hand, in not sure what your 2h shows, but responder's hand is 10 hcp + 1 point for doublton so its better then 6-10 or even 8-10, also he got only 8 losers which is too good for 2h, (yet its much better to bid 2h then to pass 2h). I would bid 1sp with it, and 3h later.

It got lost... 2♣ and 2♦ should have been there too. I added them in.. For what it is worth, I don't double very often with voids for takeout myself. I wonder why Flame not mention me too? :D ben I don't like doubling with void either, but luis never does.

Those restrictions are really stupid, they do a very bad job out there. Their job should be to make sure people wont gain an advantage by playing systems which their opponents arent ready for, this includes restricting any system that makes no real attepmt to be a bridge improvment but rather a tool to annoy the opponents or load up on their memory. But they should not be in the way of real bridge improvments. I think they are narrow minded.

I would probebly double this even tho i have a void spade, because my points are ok for diffence. This is one resson i dont like the negative double the way it played today. btw im sure luis wouldnt double with this void.

You should be fine with the 1d for spade as discribed before. I'll write a more detailed structure later tonight. the idea i am thinking of is : 1c = no 4 card spade 1d = 4 card spade or 5 card spade 5332. 1h = normal 5 card. 1sp = 5 spade unbalaced 7+ 1nt = maybe big NT 20+ any distribution 2d = 6 card diamond. ill give the response stucture in few hours (30 people are invited here for dinner in 10 minutes)

Thanks to you all. I agree that it is mainly a problem of hand evaluation, expecially for East. Still I'm not sure if it is so easy to bid 6s for me.... Its a matter of expirence. I'll tell you the basic secret, When you have a nice distribution like that what you need to do is picture partner's hand, what you are usually looking for is an example for super minimum hand but one that fits well with your own hand, then you see what these combination gives you, if this takes you to slam, then you say, if this superminimum but fit perfectly got me to slam, then a lil stronger but not fits that perfect will give me a slam too. now to practice. you had ♠A8765 ♥6 ♦AKxxx ♣Ax lets say partner open 1c you bid 1sp and partner rasie to 2sp. now what good cards do we want in partner's hand ? K of spade A of heart K of club this has small slam with chances of grand. or KQ of spade and K of club (Q of diamond or doublton might help too) those 3 cards will give us a nice small slam. even as little as KXXX XXXX XX XXX have chance to slam if the suits breaks very well [2-2 spade and 3-3 diamond] So wityh only 10 right points you have a slam ,you can imagine that with 13-14 hcp you will have a slam even if not all those points are prefect. This doesnt mean that you shoot to slam right away, but you should see the potential and try to check it.

Its not a good idea to compare PC to precsion and 2/1 at the same time, because each of these comparance is totally different. As i see it PC is a natural 5 card major when you push more hands to the 1c bid, anyone can decide which hand would he transfer from the other bids into the 1c, and you can say i dont like adding this to the 1c but i like adding that. for example i dont like adding the 5 card major strong to the 1c, because i believe in natural bidding and its adv in competition, meaning when i have 18 hcp and 5 hearts, i rather be in 1♥ (1♠) p (2♠) then 1♣ (1♠) p (2♠) other hands that can be push into the 1c is the balance with better diamonds then clubs. this is ok but i dont get too ecxited of this, since i dont give that much credit to the diamond suit, and i know this got a pay, we made the 1d better but the 1c worse and this also mean the 1c is now forcing is a big problem imo, because now you cant just cut off the 0-5 hcp hands in your response structure. As you can see i dont like the PC too much.

This is part of a full system i tried to invent, its very cool and imo very good too. Advantage : 1. You get to distinguege between spade hands with high offensive potential, and those with low offensive potential. the High potential (high ODR) include 5+ spades unbalanced, the low potential include 4 spades bal, 4 spade unbalanced, 5 spade balance (5332) 2. You get to open 1sp from 7 hcp up (8 if you think 7 is against regulations) this is an amazing premptive tool,that will come up freqently (7-12 is more the 50% of the hands), in compatitve partner is in a good position because he know the Total trumps and can estimate the right level to compite regardless the opener hcp. To use the crazy spade, we need to extende the "diamond spade" discribed earlier to include also 5323 in the 1D opening. Now the 1♠ is 7-21 5-4 or 6+ I'll demonstrat the structure i like,i'll include only the importent bids, leaving the rest to your choice. 1♠ 1NT = a: 0/10 HCP or b: 15+ HCP 2♣ = 11/14 HCP 2♠ = SO 2nt = ♠ fit 1♠ 1NT 2♣ = 5♠-4♣ 7/16 HCP 2♦ = 5♠-4♦ 7/16 HCP 2♥ = 5♠-4♥ 7/16 HCP 2♠ = 6♠ 7/16 HCP 1♠ 2♣ pass = 5♠- 4♣ 7/12 HCP 2♦ = 5♠-4♦ 7/12 HCP 2♥ = 5♠-4♥ 7/12 HCP 2♠ = 6♠ 7/12 HCP

This post is for the syac and 2/1 players too. I think anyone who understand bidding should feel unconfortable with the common 1♣ and 1♦ opening in 5 card major systems. Those two bids usually have lots of duplication with each other, they both show a balance hand with no 5 card major, opening and not good for 1nt or 2nt opening. 4432 will open 1d and 4423 will open 1c, but those two hands are almost identical and for practicle bridge they are the same. Not only that, but 1c and 1d got the lowest ranking bids which are the best bids which leave the most free bidding space for invastigate, but most of it is a waste because of this duplication. This imo is the #1 thing a system designer should aim to change. I tried many things, ill give here one example in which i tried to change the least of the natural systems, just trying to make something better then normal but not aiming for the best. Lets call it "The Diamond Spade" 1D = I got 4 card in spade, or a 6 card diamond. 1C = no 5 card major, no 1D opening (can have 4 card spade if the clubs are much better then diamonds) Now comes the question of how many clubs we need for 1c and how many diamonds for 1d. As i aim only for better and a simple system, ill go with this open 1D only with 3+ card diamonds, when there are no 3 card diamond ill open 1c even with 4 spade: 4324 will open 1c and show the spade later, the good part about this is that 1 spade bid after a club opening will show a nice club suit (probebly 4+) Now to 1c, with 3442 i'll be ok with 1c on doublton. the main problem is with 3452 or 3451, i have few suggestions : 1. open 1c anyway and hope for good 2. open 1c but play 1c as forcing (can only be passed with 3/4 clubs) its not too hard to design a system for this, since 1c is very low. 3. i think this is simplest and maybe best, spare the 2d opening for 5♦-4♥ hands, I like this because, 2D opening isnt that much of a use anyway, the bid of 2D with this 54 will have be a very good premptive value. Thats all for now, i am not getting into the responses structure because its not the point. The advantage of this are pretty good imo, the 1D bid is your strong bid ofcourse and will win you some competitve bidding, and will also give you some adv on the non competitve bidding. remember you pay nearly nothing for this. You might consider changing the major suits for this system, calling it "The Diamond Heart" this might be better in competitve since after a natural 1c (1/2/3S) you are in a bidding problem ,yes you play negative doubles but these are far from perfect. I consider this just an example, you are welcome to find better used to those wasted most expensive 1c/1d bids.

Zar just advice to bid with balance hand like you would bid if you never heard of zar points, if it takes 13 hcp then ok, i think most bid with 12 these days. I pass most 4333 12 hcp but bid almost every 4432 12 hcp.

This is not an opening in ZARpoints, only 24 ZARpoints. Need 26 to open. Mike :D The Zar point artical ,advice to open when you have an high card opening regardless of having 26 zar points, so this is an opening according to the Zar point.

How about this diffence to kamikaze 1nt. This is just a general idea, so ill speak in general , like when im saying "major" Im not yet sure if that mean just a 4 in one major, or something better, also the Hcp (10) is just a random number i choose Double = major ,10+ hcp, or very strong. Pass = 10- hcp or no major. Now after (1NT) D (p) ? Pass = some hcp and dont see much future in a major contract. bid = think i can get something better then 1nt D ,probebly either something nice in major or an offensive distribution, or just too weak and afraid to pass it (this wont happend if i know they have an escape formula here !) after (1NT) P (P) ? Double = major with good hcp ( i think this should be lil bit stronger then the direct D) Pass = weak bid = nice distibution. (didnt think of specific meaning , and irelevant to the idea) and now to the cool part (1NT) p (p) D (P) ? pass = no major with good hcp,couldnt double imidiatly because of no major. bid = way to show major weaker then imidiate D, or a nice offensive hand This is cool because i pass the double when we have no fit and i bid when we have a fit, which is a good way using the total tricks law. This got some risks but i think the risks for the 1nt per are bigger. another simple way that i would consider, is to double with spade and bid with heart. Double = 4+ spade and probebly another suit. bid = hearts + other suit. the double here will give my partner a good apportunity to leave it if we have no fit.

I wasnt clear. I ment that after (1NT) D (pass) the partner of the doubler doesnt have to take this bid out like he had to do after any natural bid instead of the 1NT. this is the weakness of the 1nt as a premptive. Now the escape formulas make this 1nt even less atractive because if i know you have an escape formula im sure i can found a way to make my bids super accurate. This claim of main isnt a practicle claim, nor that im saying that using kamikaz NT is a bad idea, but im telling you that the NT as a premptive isnt as strong as a natural bid as premptive, this is a fact that can be proved. yet the 1nt will accure more times then a natural bid and this is its power.

Im not kidding you. Compare the premptive value of 1sp or any natural bid to the premptive value of 1nt. The main diffence and the main weakness of the 1nt is that (1nt) D (p) is not forcing. Its also might be possible to think of a forcing or semi forcing pass system after this 1nt. (maybe ill post something later) I believe a big part of this weapon success is the opponents knowlege of how to play against it, or their fear of the 1NT bid.

If you have a problem getting to this slam, i suspect that its not a system problem, but more of a hand valuation problem. West hand is a minimum opening and east hand is exactly what you need for a smal slam vs a minimum opening. on any system, if west can show spade support and opening value , east should take this to 6sp.

Not sure what mp stand for. You can use 2♥/2♠ strong, but then you will have to spare 2d for weak 2M multi, and will have to bid something else with 4414 (sin D) this can be done with a decision to open it 1d, or just scramble between 1d , best major and 1NT with a sgl honor. I think this is wrong, if you want to try precision do the right way and open 1c, maybe you will like it better.

I second this. Actually, our 3rd seat 1N gets extended to 8-14. We assume we never have a game since partner can't have many points and is not extreme shape. All 2-bids by partner are sign-offs, even 2♣. Absolutely a great preempt when combined with a weak-opening system. Whats so great about this weapon ? As much as i think about it, the only true value of this is that your weak opponents dont know how to play against this or maybe when they hear the 1nt they get scared. In general playing a non natural prempt has a problem as for its premptive value because opponents can double it and double isnt forcing !

Well i asked the question because i like leading Ks when im strong and partner is weak, it worked many times for me so im not virtually talking , however i have lots of respect to partnership things like when leading partners suit and leading by our agrement, im not the one you will find leading 5 best when we decided to lead 4th best, i want my partner to feel confortrable, and i know that on the long run this is very importent. here on this hand i think the odds are unclear and i would lead by agrement and not the K, but i have nothing about leading the K and in general i think most players not do that enough. ♥ Happy independent day to anyone from ISRAEL ♥

I know many good players who doesnt know those ovious saftly plays, i include myself in this group, to make this play i had to think , i never saw this combination before, and i might have overlooked this in real game. Its just what you were thought to believe is importent. I dont think a suit safty play is that importent, its cool when the right hand comes up, but its very rare that the all hand depend on this play, many time you can play a safty in a suit but take a chance of getting a ruff in another suit, and of those hand that are suited for safty only in few the safty will help.

Those K leads are great but with 6 card suit, with 5 if the Q is sgl then opener will have 4 card suit and another stoper. not if partner has 9xx yes but thats too rare, you want partner with exactly 9xx and sgl Q on table, it can happend but its alittle bit too much to ask for and even then you will need to know to play small spade next if you are on lead. leading the K is not without a price, you will not like it if declere has QXX

Like the two before me said, you already have a good resson to lead spade, your partner bid the suit, you need a good resson for not leading a spade. bridge is a simple game, and leading your partner suit will make your partnership alot more healthy