alanb

There should be room for all. There are lots of restricted play events at any tournament - 99er games, 199er games, 299er - it doesn't seem too much too ask that there be a few crumbs thrown to those of us who are at the other end of the spectrum of bidding experimentation. Defining an 'Open' side game as meaning Mid-Chart would not drive any players away from the game. I would love the opportunity to wheel out my whole bidding system once in a while against like-minded folk.

How would you modify this opposite a 12-14 NT? 2D seems to allow for only a very general game try, as opposed to the more specific side suit/help suit/whatever game tries you can have after a transfer. Are the 2H/S bids unilateral sign-offs, or do they promise enough values that opener can raise on an extreme fit?

The events that allow Mid-chart conventions are very limited. The KO teams at a regional and the final few steps of National events. I have two systems, a General chart and Mid-chart version, and almost never get to play the Mid-chart. Forked bids like the Multi 2D can't be played at, say, a regional Swiss Teams or Flight A pairs. Too scary for North America :). I understand it is a pretty routine part of many systems in Europe, but here it impossible to play it even to get used to the darn thing, except in the KO events at Regionals. www.ACBL.org has the complete set of rules and restrictions.

In a 17+ club system we use a forked forcing pass over relatively low level interference (to 3D) to show very weak and very strong hands, while direct bids are always game forcing but slam-negative. Limiting the direct bids helps when opps jump around a lot. If they do not show an anchor suit, (Suction or CRASH type systems) our direct bids are take-out for that suit. We are trying to maximize the shape information on the assumption they are likely to suck out a lot of space.