luis

When we open 1c we use a very simple approach to identify three suiters: 1c - 2nt = three suited hand short in a major 3c = relay 3d = short h 3h = relay 3n = 4441 4c/4d/4h = 5-0-4-4, 4-0-5-4, 4-0-4-5 3h = short s 3s = relay 3n = 4441 4c/4d/4h = 0-5-4-4, 0-4-5-4, 0-4-4-5 And we use the "extra" space in the 1c-1h structure to show three suiters show to a minor 1c 1h (4+ spades) 1s* 1n (4+ hearts) 2c* 2d = three suiter 2h = relay 2s = short clubs 2n = relay 3c = 4441 3d,3h,3s = club void 5 sp,he,di 2n = short diamonds 3c = relay 3d = 4414 3h,3s,3n = diamond void 5sp,he,cl 2h+ = S2 with spades and hearts With this approach three suiters are completely wiped out of the S1 and S2 schemes and thus you have more bidding space for common hands and the relay structure becomes even easier to memorize. You just have to remember that 1c-2n is the two suiter short to any major and with a minor shortage you bid both majors first and then the 2d bid with 2h+ in S2 as usual.

Just in case someone is interested the structure over 2d+ bids we use is the following: 2d (three suited hand with 4 or 5 clubs) 2h/2s/3d/3h/3s etc... Pass or correct if the short suit is the one bid. 3n/4h/4s = to play 3c/4c/5c = to play, preemptive 2n = asking bid 3c = 4441 shape 3d = asks for shortage 3h/3s/3n = shortage in d,h,s 3d = 5 cards in diamonds 3h = asks for shortage 3s = void in h, 3n = void in spades 3h = 5 hearts 3s = asks for shortage 3n = void in d, 4c = void in s 3s = 5 spades and 0 diamonds 3n = 5 spades and 0 hearts 4c/4d/4h+ = 5 clubs and void in d,h,s Then a relay asks for controls and denial cuebids are used. 2h = Three suited with short clubs or weak 2 in h 3h/4h etc = preemptive 3c/4c/5c = pass or correct if short clubs 2nt = asking bid 3c = 4441 shape, singleton club 3d = weak 2 in h 3h = 5-4-4-0 3h = 4-5-4-0 3s = 4-4-5-0

About opening bids I'd suggest to play 1c through 2c as in the notes (2c =majors) etc. Then 2d+ openings can be played as you want, with my pd we shifted all the three suited hands to 2x openings to simplify the relay structure and have more bidding room since three suiters are not that common, besides that showing a three suiter inmediately gives us a lot of competitive advantage. We play: 2d = Three suited hand with 4 or 5 clubs 2h = Weak 2 in hearts or three suited hand with short clubs (always 4+h) 2s = Weak 2 in spades 2n = 8-11 Minors (frequently 5/4) Many other options can be played like 2d = Multi 2h/2s = Weak 2's with 5 cards 2n = whatever My approach is less agressive but removing the three suiters from the relay structure is really a good idea, believe me. About Richard comment about 1c auction: - Maybe 1d positive is more efficient but simplicity is the key to start learning and the 1c structure of German moscito is 100% symetrical to all the relay structures used after 1d,1h,1s so it's very easy to learn. I'd strongly recommend starting with this structure.

Ben, Almost perfect :-) But the S2 scheme handling here was wrong. Everything is perfect up to 2d relay entering S2 now the bids are: 2h = canape (d>h) 2s = equal length 2n = h>d and club shortness 3c = h>d and equal shortages 3d+= h>d and spade shortness S2 list So the bid should have been 3d showing 1-5-4-3 exactly (the first distribution in the S2 list) As Richard said 5-4-3-1 hands are usually shown at the 3d level :-)

Hi Ben, Let's start with denial cuebidding. After controls are asked a non 3nt relay bid starts denial cuebbiding. Responder (relayee) then scans his suits in length order. If two suits have the same length or the precise length is unknown (7321 hands) then they are scanned in rank order (s-h-d-c). The rules are: First scan: * Long suits (3+ cards) - Stop if you have AK or if you don't have the Ace nor the K. Skip if you have the A or the K. * Short suits (2- cards) - Stop if you have the A or K, skip if you have AK or nothing. Second scan: * Long suits - Stop without the Q, skip with the Q * Short suits - Stop with the Q, skip without the Q Third scan: * Long suits - Stop without the J, skip with the J * Short suits - Stop with the J skip without the J Yes but 4s is the bid that denies A or K in clubs, 4nt stops in the singleton diamond thus showing a singleton A or K of diamonds. Exactly. Hope this helps.

Most players playing non-sayc methods do alert, pre-alert and provide a defense. Nevertherless sayc players insist in ignoring those methods, and defaulting to meta-defense every time something is "strange". Then if they get a good result the opps are crazy maniacs that wanted to confuse you, but if they get a bad result they are trying to confuse you so first check if they can nullify the board via some legal artifact (a missalert or something) then check if the sayc-friendly director can do something...if all fails just wait and hope that some organization would eventually ban those methods. Everybody is allowed to play whatever the rules allow and following the rules regarding alerts, pre alerts and defenses. You can't be unethical if you follow the rules, and you are not unethical for playing a non-standard system. That's the only truth.

Why? If the regulations and conditions of contest allow you to play a system then it is up to your opponents to design proper counter-measures, if they don't want to do their homework and have an accident for being confused it is self-inflicted damage. If most of your opps play vanilla systems then designing a system to mess them while perfectly adhering to the regulations is legal and it is also ethical.

Misho, I like the term "meta-defense", there're many conventions and bids that have good results because you just make your opps default to their meta-defense methods. A meta-defense is when your suits are suits, your almost never double and you bid 3n expetcing to make and if you have doubts you take the bid that is less likely to cause an accident or you just pass. As obvious if your opps are restricted to such conditions you have an advantage, frequently a tactical bid by responder completely destroys the comptetitive capabilities of the meta-defenders.

Hi Ben, First of all we changed the slam investigation tools from german moscito to a standarized control-asking bid followed by denial cuebidding. In my opnion this is superior to the CAB+SABs approach of the original German Moscito. I'm sure Ron and Richard will agree with this. Your guess about the German Moscito auction is almost ok, in German Moscito after shape is known 4d is used as a terminator while all the other bids are control asking bids (CABs) setting up the trump suit (this is important!) then non-trump suit bids are SABs (Suit asking bids) while the trump suit at any level is to play. Sometimes smart players can setup a different trump suit than the one they will really use to play the hand but handling that is very subtle and you have to foresee all the probable responses by pd and how the auction will end. In the presented hand North S Void H T98xx D KQJxx C KQT South S AKTxxx H Void D Void C AJ9xxxx 1c (15+ any) 1s (4+h) 1n (relay) 2c (diammonds) 2d (relay) 2s (equal length) 2n (relay) 3s (0-5-5-3 exactly) Now 3n is to play, and 4d is the terminator so 4c,4h,4s and 4n are CABs setting up hearts, diamonds, clubs or spades as trumps respectively. An interesting approach here would be to setup hearts (the cheapest) suit as the trump suit and then ask a SAB in clubs to find if responder has KQ of clubs to play 7. This approach is less efficient and loses more space (due to the terminator and 4 different cabs) than then generic-CAB followed by denial cuebbidding. The later has the problem that in order to play in a suit the suit must not be a relay :-) So Sometimes you must play 5s because 4s would have been a relay. That is normally harmless since you are only asking if you have slam chances and the 5 level if you are unlucky to end there should be safe. Besides those advantages the method is easy to remember and to handle and you have to think less. Do change :-)

Hi Peter. 1) xxx-xx-xxxx-xxxx Pass 2) xxxx-x-xxxx-xxxx Pass 3) Kxx-xx-xxxx-xxxx Pass 4) Kxxx-x-xxxx-xxxx Pass 5) Kxx-Qxxx-xx-AJxx 2d 6) Kxx-Qxxx-xx-AQxx 2d 7) KJx-Qxxx-xx-AQxx 2d 8) KJx-KQxx-xx-AQxx 2d 9) KJx-AKxxx-Ax-AKx 2d Wow :-) The hands are either too bad for me to bid something or too god to just raise to 2s.

Preempt transfers are better than normal transfers in pairs tournaments, against weak players or against unprepared pairs or unprepared teams. As The_Hog said if you arrange a defense against transfer preempts you will be in disacvantage (they will know what a direct dbl is, what a late dbl is, what the cuebid means, what a direct overcall means, late overcall, direct 3nt, late 3nt etc....). Since most of the time the other pair/team won't have a prepared defense the method will make your results better than normal preempts because the opps are unprepared and because you are right siding the contract. Luis

You shouldn't feel insulted, pd just erred.

With 14 cards you have a very good chance to score the last trick for down 1 and it will be very difficult to squeeze you. The problem is that if declarer has only 12 cards he might have just a few losers.

I'd never raise 1m-1M to 2M with 3 cards. If we do have to play in a 4-3 fit then better if it is a known 4-3 fit and not a surprise. Besides that you can end up playing a bad slam in a 4-3 fit with a better fit in a minor or worst without any fit at all. But that's only my opinion.

1 spade. The most doscuraging bid I can make. IMO a 2d or 2c bid as well as 1nt does promise some values, about 7+HCP. OTOH 1s can be 0hcp and as in this case a 3 card suit. Luis

So flytoox can you post the entire hand so we can take a look? BTW: I apologize if the term "bidding aberration" sounded rude to you, I've produced worst auctions and not only in my past :-)

Si it wasn't a transcription error :-) I'd have opened this hand 1c and bid it as a 6-5 hand with 5 hearts and 6 clubs, but I can accept the 1h bid. Now if we do open 1h we should rebid 3c over 2d, and if pd bids 3s rebid 4c . 1h is doubtful but perfectly acceptable. 2h is wrong and 2nt just describes a 6-6 hands as a 6322 with 6 hearts. I agree with the reversal approach suggested by Inquiry based on losers the hand is worth a reversal. 1c-1d 1h-1s 2h-xx 3h Seems to prefectly describe the hand as some sort of freakish 6-5 or similar. And we have a lot of space.

I can't understand any of my bids :-) I opened 1h now over 2d did I bid 2h? Seems impossible. And 2nt over 2s? Incredible. If that's true I 100% abstain from answering because the bidding is a complete aberration. Maybe there's a transcription error then I'll be happy to give an opinion.

Richard concedes but I don't :-) If my pd thinks that KQJxxxx of clubs in 2nd seat red vrs white is worth a 4c bid then I disagree and we would have to talk about it, but if he just decides to bid 4c in this particular hand then I fully support him. As I said I just don't like my pd to be a predictable player and I don't want him to be a crazy bidder either so some small twists from time to time are all we need to make life harder from opps. Don't you like when they go into the tank with that expression "how can I know what does this guy have......" If you always pretend/demand pd to have his bid and stress that to the limit you will make him play like a cyborg. In another thread I was the only one that said that a 5s opening bid should be preemptive :-) Maybe I'm too biased towards the Marty Bergen preemptors school so don't take me seriously.

Hi pb, I've suggested this in another thread, but can't hurt to post it again, my recommendation is: 10-12 NV vrs V 12-14 Equal VUL 15-17 Vul vrs NV Luis.

Hi, The Latex sources of the document will be welcome, maybe I can produce a better formatted document for the version we play. Thanks! Pls send it to luis@fuegolabs.com if you can be so kind. Cheers, Luis.

Hi draco, Yes we are overloading 1NT but for some very strange reason we've found that 80% of opponents suicides occur when we open a weak NT, either they pass all the time with game in their hands or decide to bid and get smashed for a number when they don't have to. They confuse themselves about what they play against weak nt, how to reopen etc. That's why I don't mind losing precision when we open 1nt as long as we open 1nt more hands.... Maybe this doesn't happen where you play but I still prefer to have a problem in the bidding after 1nt rather than after a forcing NT auction when things tend to get really dark.....

Hi all fellow students :-) I've uploaded some notes to the WWW http://groups.yahoo.com/group/moscito/file...System%20Notes/ You will find: - System notes for German Moscito (less agressive than Aussie but ACBL legal and very precise for slam bidding) - Relay structure (can be used with German or Aussie versions, based on rules doesn't need memorization) - Interference over relays (what happen when they bid based on rules to prevent problems) You are invited to download and read these files they are very raw and very simple but it's a start isn't it? You can post questions in this forum and I'll try to answer them all. I'll try to arrange some practice lessons/lectures so we can practice together if you are interested. Welcome to Moscito. Luis

Hi Ben, please let me know what email address you are using often and I'll send you some very raw notes that I have for a player like you they will be enough! Luis

I'm playing weak NT allowing 5M-3-2-2, 6m-3-2-2 or 5m-4M-2-2 distributions and I think that the results are being favorable. Maybe the accuracy of our contracts after opening 1nt is not as good as it was but now we have a lot of relief in forcing NT sequences after 1h-1s or 1s-1n (we reverse the meaning of 1s and 1nt after 1h). For example we can play 1s-1n;2n to be forcing and that gives a lot of flexibility to the system. Bah, I'm still experimenting and evaluating this.