Antoine Fourrière

Still, must partner play notrump? Because if I am to play in 6N, what does LHO lead? Should a good player lead diamond(s)? No, certainly not. His partner rates to have four. Clubs in front of the singleton? With both King and Queen, probably, but not otherwise. Spades and Hearts are welcome. And there are leads which would make declarer feel that LHO holds the heart queen - spades if queen and jack are not in the same hand, for instance.

Your first four bids should also have done the job, at least on that mesh. (But that's not a reason for not learning Moscito!) North holds: S: AQXXX H: A D: XXX C: AKXX South holds : S: KJXX H: XXX D: AK C: QXXX 1C 1S 2S 3H 3N 4C 4N 5K 5H 6C 7C/S The key bid is 3N, which means 4S (you do not play 3N after such a start) and lets responder show slam interest and four clubs. Opener then learns that responder has four keys out of six and the higher queen. Still, it could be useful to know that responder has five spades and four clubs, and I would like to play five-card major answers.

Ekren and Frelling try to maximize the frequency of openings. Thus it would be illogical not to include the 8-10 HCP hands, which are quite frequent. The problem is that those 8-10 HCP represent nearly the quarter of the deck, and that the deal might well belong to your side. So, opening with a 4-4 seems an aberration, unless you have both majors, and even then opening 2H may send you in a 4-2 fit when there is a 5-2 fit in the other major. Still, two systems - at least - manage to include nearly all hands with 11+ HCP at the one level. They are the Polish Club in its fading 2C-as-a-game-force version (played notably by Kwiecien-Pszczola) and the Moscito. 2C as a game force has a frequency of less than 1%. The Moscito uses 2C to show a six-carder in the 9-14 HCP range (frequency: about 1.5%, according to hrothgar's Moscito 2001). If you relocate gently the 2C hands at 2N and 3C (in the case of the game-forcing 2C, I see no reason not to put the big balanced hands in the 1C opening and to play the 2N and 3C bids as forcing to 4H, because you cannot stop at 3N with a singleton in front of a blank responder), you have freed all the two-bids for canape preempts. Now 2C can show a canape with four clubs and a five-card suit or three clubs and a six-card suit (or a six-four), 2D a canape with four diamonds and a five-card suit or three diamonds and a six-card suit, etc... (with a 6331, you have the choice between two tripletons) If responder is not strong enough to relay at 2N, he may pass with four cards or three cards and a singleton (or a doubleton if he doesn't want to compete), bid three to suggest five cards, or bid the next suit as a non-forcing relay. That style - which I've never played, incidentally - doesn't look too good with five hearts and four spades, so, another idea is to play 1N as a sort of Comic NT: 16-17 or a weak hand with four spades and four or five hearts (you still open 2S with 3622 and perhaps 3631 and 3613). Over 1N, responder may still transfer in a major or bid 2C for clarification. Over 2C, opener answers 2D with a strong NT without any need to ask for range, and 2H with the weak major type. Of course, that treatment is not compatible with the Moscito. (Yes, that is not GCC-legal, but what's the point now there is BBO?)

1. 6SP 2. 6NT

Is the 11+ redouble really useful at that level, when you have no hint whether opener has a real suit (because you do not play the weak notrump or - if the opening is in diamonds - the Polish Club) ? I would prefer redouble to show four spades (and perhaps four hearts) and one spade to show five, or redouble to show four hearts (and perhaps four spades) and one heart to show five. (or some other permutation) Redouble for hearts seems more useful, since support doubles are easier after 1m (x) 1S (2H) than after 1m (x) 1H (2S).

It is true I'm willing to sacrifice 2H and 2S as other preempts. But my point is that a 2H or 2S with a weak notrump and five cards in the suit bid could be just as disruptive as, say, 2H and 2S Muiderberg. I simply destroy with another type of hand. If LHO has 10 HCP and less than three cards, he is unable to balance, as he would have after 1M (pass) 2M (pass) pass. After 1M 1N, I would use transfers: 2C would show diamonds, or clubs with a weak hand, 2D would show the other major, and 2oM would show 15+ with clubs, at least when the opening is 1H. (I always open a strong notrump with a five-card major, and I would do just the same with a weak notrump.) But after 2M, I believe the priority is to play the right game, which is often a game by the undescribed hand. The opponents already know too much, as always. The 3C relay should serve only three purposes. 1) Finding a 5-3 fit in the other major 2) Not playing 3N when we have a common doubleton because responder is 5422 (If we have no fit (or if responder is 4333) and they have no nine-card fit, 3N by undisclosed hand it must be. If responder has a fit and a doubleton, only a power try is acceptable, so I don't believe 3M should be preemptive.) 3) Exploring a slam I think 3S and 3N by opener over 3C should show the same doubleton, without and with the King of the opened major, because it is valuable for slam, and not very useful to the opponents even when there is no slam. As for the splinters, they do not come very often, but there are situations in which I want opener to evaluate his hand. After all, a jump after 1N 2C 2M is a splinter even when the notrump is weak. But a splinter in opener's major is less than desirable, which is why I believe opener should tell immediately whether he holds the king of his five-card suit. (4C over 3S or 3N is classical Blackwood, 3S over 3H asks opener to rebid 3N with the King and to answer directly his number of aces otherwise, 3H over 3D asks opener to rebid 3H with the King and to answer directly his number of aces otherwise) Case in point Qx Axxxx 2H 3C? Txxxx AKQJ 3S 4C? AKx Qx 4H 4S? KQx Jx 5D 5N Not wonderful, but responder has at least 50% of chances of getting away with murder. (Opener has shown a doubleton spade without the heart king, one ace, and the kings of diamonds and clubs without the king of spades. I guess 5H would be another relay, because opener has not the slightest idea about responder's fit.)

I like the multi with a sane opening (at the two-level, a six-carder or a five-five) and the natural bid with a preempt which still makes sense but is more risky, like Muiderberg, 2H Ekren for the majors, or 2H and 2S in the version of the Moscito which appears on Richard's site. The same strategy holds true for a 3C or 3D opening which shows 7-10 points with six good cards. So, I prefer 3C for clubs and 2N for the minors to the other way round. (I could accept 2N for diamonds and 3D for the minors. The latter is certainly wild, but 3C for the minors already gives double for a penalty-oriented hand in either minor and 3D for takeout, and 2N isn't more constructive than 3C for a club one-suiter.) If I want to mix the six-card weak twos and the five-and-five weak two-suiters, it is because responder should have the same reaction in front of either with a fit: bid three with three cards, including a 4333, and four with four cards, except perhaps a 4333. These are LAW-abiding raises. I agree that the multi gives two bids to LHO, and I would like him/her to wait clarification, which I prefer to come back only partially, and/or at the three level. (I played that convention at French tournaments in the eighties. It worked quite well. It is true the opponents weren't prepared, but I feel they should defend against it like against 2D multi or 2D Wilkosz. Which they presumably did.)

There is little doubt in my mind that you must open the weak twos in a major and the weak two-suiters with at least one major (I mean five-five or better). But two diamonds is not very good for constructive purposes. Besides, if you play Wilkosz, when responder has two hearts and four spades, he has to bid two spades and the bidding may well stop there when you were cold for four spades. And if you play the multi, 2D 2S 3H (or an equivalent) cries out that the opponents have a good fit in spades. So, why not use two diamonds for the game forces (the unbalanced game forces, if you choose to open the big balanced hands with one club), and report all those openings in an opening of two clubs? Over 2C, 2D: asks for the major, either constructive or afraid of a major-minor two-suiter. 2H: please pass only with a weak two in hearts, but bid your second suit if you have a weak two-suiter with hearts. So rebid 2S with a spade one-suiter or a two-suiter with spades. 2S: please pass only with a weak two in spades, but bid your second suit if you have a weak two-suiter with spades. So rebid 3H with a heart one-suiter or a two-suiter with hearts. Anyway, I support hearts. 2N: Constructive with my own hearts. (After 2C 2D? 2H, 2S is the relay and 2N is constructive with spades.) 3C, 3D: non-forcing 3H: pass or correct. Mandatory with any 4333 which is not worth a game invitation. Of course correct with hearts and spades because I may have three hearts and five spades. 3S: pass or correct. Of course correct with hearts and spades, because I have three spades and at least four hearts. 4H: pass or correct. Toss a coin with hearts and spades. Once your partner has some degree of fit, he is not in a big quandary : you have hearts or spades, so it's basically a two-way situation. (If he hasn't three cards in both majors, the above structure gives a decent cop-out.) But your opponents are in a seven-way nightmare. If LHO bids 3N, which he should do as often as he can, although these two-suiters are ominous for notrump purposes, pass by opener strongly suggests hearts, double shows spades and 4H shows both majors. After, say 2C (pass) 2H (3D), double should show spades and pass deny them. Comments?

Has someone experimented with two of a major as showing a weak notrump with five cards in the bid suit in a five-card major cum strong notrump structure, whether American or Polish? It should enhance our constructive bidding, and be rather annoying for the opponents. Answers: 2S over 2H : to play 2N : invitational (but could be long clubs) 3C : game-forcing relay asking for the doubleton 3D : to play 3M : invitational 3H over 2S : to play simple jump: splinter 3N, 4M : to play Opener rebids 3C on 2N with a maximum in case responder has a bunch of clubs.