Atul

Playing a FP system, one possibility is to introduce a "forcing fert" :huh: in addition to the FP. Basically, the idea here would be to cut out the unbounded 14+ opening FP range to say 14 - 17 or something along those lines. Thus the opening structure might resemble something like: Pass: 13/14 - 17; any shape 1C (Fert): 0 - 8 mostly balaced OR 18+ any shape 1D, 1H, 1S: Transfer oriented opening bids; 9 - 13- 1N: 9 - 13 balanced etc... Presumably all responses except 1N to 1C opening would show 3+ and be NF -- opener now bids 1N w/ the 18+ hand. or bids a suit to suggest another place to play. Perhaps, jump bids can be used to show suit oriented 18+ hands... Atul

Well, I too am a fan of the 1D positive / many SP responses scheme over 1C and what you seem to be suggesting that this structure is for some reason inferior to the traditional 1C - 1D structure because it's susceptible to inference by the opps. Do you have any data to support this conjecture? From a purely statistical viewpoint, the 1D response constitutes only 38% of all of responder's hands. Therefore, for this scheme to lose, the opps must be able to effectively interfere at a level that prevents us from reaching our own game or forces us to guess too high. Can you post some hands and the vulnerability where you deem this possible and maybe someone can run a dealer script to compute the likely frequency of this happening? Atul