esmarti

You might be interested in a method suggested in The Bridge World by L. Torkelson about 30 years ago (in 1975 I believe). I played it for several years with a partner long ago and enjoyed it. The article was titled "A Disciplined Diamond." It was played in the context of a strong club system. 2C and 2D openings are 12-16 HCP, natural with at least 5 cards in suit opened, and DENY a 4-card major. (We played that 1C+HCP showed 17 if unbalanced, but you can adjust the range to fit your strong club opener). Typically these bids actually have 6+ length in the suit opened, having only 5-card length if they happened to have 4 cards in the other minor. 1NT opener is a weak NT = 12-14 HCP balanced. 1D was opened with: a) a balanced hand of 15-17 HCP (shown by rebidding cheapest NT over responder's bid), or :ph34r: any 4441 of 12-16 (or whatever your range is for a non 1C opener), or c) unbalanced hand long (5+) in one of the minors, with one or both 4-card majors. (Of course since the long minor might be clubs, you might have literally zero diamonds. But the odds of getting passed out in 1D and having to play it with zero diamonds is virtually nil.) The interesting thing about this was what opener's rebids show after having opened 1D. Responders bids are assumed here to be fairly natural and typical of Precision. If partner responds with 1H or 1S, opener will: - raise to the appropriate level with 4-card support; - rebid 1NT with hand "a" above (without 4-card support); or, - rebid in a suit with either "b" or "c." Since opener must have a 4-card major if he doesn't have a balanced hand, the choice of the rebid suit can help indicate the number of cards opener has in responder's major. After 1D-1H, 1S by opener would be unbalanced with 4 or more in an undisclosed minor, hold 4 spades, and deny more than 2 hearts. With a weak hand, a misfit, and desire to get out in the minor, responder would now bid 2C and opener could pass or correct. If, instead, opener had rebid 2C or 2D over responder's 1H, that would be unbalanced, show 4 spades, be natural in the minor bid, but also promise exactly 3 hearts. Knowing that opener had 3-card support for hearts might be all responder needed to know to pick the right part-score. Things are similar after a 1D-1S start, except the roles of the opener's rebids are reversed a bit. In this case. the 2C or 2D rebid is natural in the minor, promises 4 hearts, and denies more than 2 spades. A 2H rebid (1D-1S; 2H) denies 4 spades, shows 4 hearts, is long in an undisclosed monir, but because it is a reverse and, therefore, an otherwise inefficient sequence, it guarantees exactly 3 spades. We found that the 2 of a minor opening put a lot more pressure on the opponents and we didn't risk missing 4-4 major fits. And, on the competitive auctions starting with 1D we knew partner either had a strong NT or a 4-card major (or both), which made competing easier for us. Hope you found this interesting. Would love the opportunity to try and play this style again.