ruleof15

While I play for many hours a week on BBO, I have no intentions on changing my way of playing to match the games found here. Sure, one can interfere with most players but excellent players will only use the wild bidding to their advantage. After having played in the top 3 strats for about 10 years. I know what it takes to be competitive. Since i have retired I don't intend on showihg the I-N-A players bad bidding.

The suggestions of not preempting when holding a 4+card major or a void was not drawn from a hat. It is a percentage recommendation. Bridge is a percentage game. When you go against the percentages, take what you get. As my name implies, i open only hands meeting the Rule of 15. If you have never seen this system work, please don't remark. Had south opened, there wold be no discussion. You are welcome to watch how it works as a kib or partner.

I laud you for taking it slow. A smart move when holding the doubleton ♣. The next move requires what your responses to Gerber are. Are you playing Roman, say 0-3,1-4, 2-5 or something else? If not playing Roman, then cue bid 3♥. Bidding the way you did allows for a full list of cues to be made. The 3♥ call is game forcing and slam investigating. Should opener bid 3♠ and you have no other bid than 4♠, opener should know you have a problem suit and opener must cover the other two suits. This slam will only make if opener has the ♠ ace and a running suit which you have no help other than the ♥ace. I can vision no hand with less than 17HCP taking 12 tricks unless a finesse works when missing an ace.

Like all bids, there are questions to be asked before making a call. What hand is going to be required to trump the diamonds. South can trump the 4th time. maybe it is too late.If the ♦ and ♠ were reversed I might consider bidding 3♥. With that not being the case, I would bid 4♣ so we could stand the punch in ♦ by trumping in dummy. I most certainly would not enjoy getting punched 2 times in dummy while attempting to play a 4-3 fit and end up in a 3-2. Since the 4-4-3-2 and 5-4-3-1 distribution are the most often dealt, I'll take the odds in my favor.

Opening 1NT with a 5-card major. What is the problem? There is a bigger problem attempting to get your partner to believe you have 15-17HCP when you open one of a suit. This is even more prevalent when players are opening at the level of one with 10-12HCP and bidding 1NT with 14-17. What difference is there in having any 5-card suit. If you are skittish about it, use Puppet Stayman at the 1-level. I liken the non-believers to be akin to those who want stoppers in all suits. As a sidebar, players who are very good at playing the hand can make 3NT on 24HCP, when it is split about even, 80% of the time.

If an established partnership, which I doubt, I would make it down 2 at 3H. An unestablished partnership or club game, I would allow the 3♦ to stand. Why have a weird score to mess up the field? If it was husband and wife, I would take the results of the 3♦. I am not stepping into that fray. Definition: established partnership; a pair who carries papers to verify, “This is what we play.”

There is no problem if you play all 3 responses to opening 1NT show a 6-card suit headed by AKQ. A transfer would indicate less. With 2♠ transfers to ♣ and 2NT transferring to ♦ with the intermediate bid indicating the holding of 2 of the top 3 honors. This would require going through 2♣ to get to 2NT with later hands.

The purpose of preemptive bidding is to make it difficult for the opponents to bid their suits and to inform your partner that your hand is suited for offense only. Making a preemptive bid with two Aces misinforms your partner as to the construction of your hand and the defensive strength it contains. This is not recommended, period. Originally the 2-bid was 8-12HCP with ½ of the HCP in the suit bid. It was an offensive bid with some defense. This was used with the 1♣ forcing system. Currently, weak and preemptive opening bids of two ♦, ♥ or ♠ indicate a six card suit and between 5 and 10 HCP, no void(s), no four cards in an unbid major suit and not more than one ace. Some players do not open weak-two bids with an ace outside the suit bid. Bids of three ♣,♦,♥,♠ which indicates a seven card suit, with the exceptions listed previously and between 7 and 11 HCP. With both of these bids most of your high cards should be in the suit bid. Have patience. If most of your high cards are not where they should be, in your long suit, then you have a defensive hand. ruleof15

Fourth Suit Forcing by Ruleof15 Let’s start with the players. What is the responsibility of each? Opener should attempt to describe their hand in two bids if a suit and if NT it will be described in one bid. This being the case, responder is “Captain” and should either place the contract or invite opener to place it. This is where “4th Suit Forcing” comes to play. How about using it to get a clarification of opener’s hand distribution? What a debacle attempting to decipher the meaning of the bid of the 4th suit. Simply it is a new suit and all new suits are forcing. This bid is mostly made by the responder. The opening bidder has made two bids by then and the hand should be described by that time. What information may be needed to place the contract? We have the suit(s) and close to the strength. How about the more exacting distribution? This removes any question as to whether the 4th Suit Forcing bid is forcing to game or invitational. There is no reason for opening bidder to know this. So, what are the responses to the 4th Suit bid? First, let’s clarify this bidding sequence. 1♣ P 1♦ P, 1♥ P 1♠= NOT 4TH Suit Forcing. Responses are with distribution of: 5-5-2-1-rebid second suit, 6-3-2-2, 5-4-2-2 & 4-4-3-2=bid NT, 6-4-2-1=rebid 1st suit, 6-6-1-0=jump in 2nd suit, 5-4-3-1= bid the 3-card suit. Since the 4th suit is not used to show cards, it can now be used to find the singleton or void. If the 4th suit contains cards, by this I mean stoppers, bid NT and avoid the 4th suit. By removing the semi-descriptive hands, the 4-4-4-1 & 5-4-4-0 (Mini-Roman 2♦) the 4-5/6-?? (Flannery 2♥), both 11-15HCP, and the 5/6- any4-?? (Georgia 2♠) 15-17HCP you will have taken about 90% of the hands. Bridge is a Simple game. Why make it confusing? Notice! The NT response has no singletons or voids. This allows responder to bid safely and use a 6-card suit as trump or run it in NT. If responder bids NT after a showing a hand with a singleton or void, it is a request to show such suit.

2d does promise a suit and the other suit would be one of the majors. I think you got DONT confused with Cappelletti.

I would open 1♣and hope lefty overcalled 1♦ and my partner passed so I could WQ a 3♦ bid.This hand is a perfect one to show the players who bypass a 4-card ♦ suit to bid a 4-card major. S if lefty didn't o'call then I would bid 3♣ which in my system indicates no losers and a 6+card suit.

I can't see the problem here. E-W can make 4♠. Their stopping requires more ability to handle interference. If one side tries to bluff by bidding on is one thing. Failure to evaluate a hand is another. If the opponents either miss the bid or its intention is no fault of theirs. Had west doubled and made 800 there would be no difficulty with the board. Not bidding to ones full potential is not the fault of the opponents.These players thinking psyche bidding works will find out that is a way to go for phone numbers when playing top competition. Psyching has been removed from ACBL games because of the stratification. In top competition it is tolerated. One psyche per round is allowed. When you suspect a psyche, call the director to get it recorded.

]The 4-card diamond suit. The basic premise of bidding according to Goren, Schenkin, Kaplan-Scheinwold and most all writers of books on bidding state 4-card suits must be bid up the line. This is not only so you will get in the correct contract but the strong hand will be up when the contract ends in a partial. Bidding this way also protects opener’s strong hand from being face up on the table. Why make it easy for defenders by having the strong hand visible? Secondly this helps if you end up playing defense, which is important because one plays defense 50% of the time. The third reason is this allows opener to confidently bid 1NT when holding one of these distributions: 3-3-2-5, 3-3-3-4 or 3-4-2-4, 3-4-1-5, 2(AQ)-3-3-5. If you check the times these combinations appear you will find they are the most popular distributions.[/size]