cwiggins

I have seen a few references online to a variation of Gazzilli where the 2C rebid is either the minimum one-suited hand or 16+ instead of the usual 5+M and 4+C minimum or 16+. Has anyone tried this?

A variation of the idea would be simply to only do two things: make 1NT = 14-16 and 1C into 11-13 or 16/17+. The potential advantages are: 1) 5M332 are handled comfortably in 1NT. And I recall an article in Bridge World by Swedish Club players suggesting putting 5M332 into 1C and having success. 2) 1D and 1M are necessarily unbalanced, so 1x-1N is logically forcing. This opens up several sequences. BTW: I loved the approach the book took of explaining the logic for the bid and then laying out the auctions. Nice work!

Does anyone know what system Lall and Hamman used? I was rooting for a forcing club system.

Upgrades of 14 counts to 15 counts is not surprising, even in a 2/1 GF context. The questions are: What do they do with 17 HCP hands? Do they upgrade none, a few, most, or almost all and open 1C? What do they do with 11 HCP balanced hands? Open none, a few, most, almost all? I see many 2/1 players upgrade 14 counts to 15 frequently. I rarely see them upgrade 17 HCP counts or open 11 HCP counts. The resulting ranges are: 12 - bad 14 Good 14 to all 17 18-19 etc. For those who aren't alerting "one point fewer than normal," perhaps they are using this scale? Personally I don't like these ranges. For me, part of the reason to open 1NT with 14-16 is to be able to open 11 HCP most of the time.

Playing RM Lite, after P P 1C P ? Responder does not have 12+ HCP. Do you alter ther responses? If so, to what? Thanks.

Assume you are playing Precision with 1NT = 10-12 in first and second seat. In 3rd and 4th seat, "Precision Today" and Cohen-Berkowitz suggest playing 1NT as 14-16. Playing matchpoints, wouldn't 1NT = 12-15 with no 4-card major make a lot of sense? Wei suggested 13-15 with no 4-card major in "Matchpoint Precision," and my recollection is that he and Ron Anderson did well at matchpoints. Pluses include: - You wouldn't miss any 4-4 major fits - 1NT is mildly preemptive. - 12-15 is more than partner has. So in many cases, the stronger hand will be declarer if you use transfers to respond. - The NT ranges after 1C are the same. Some inferences help. For example, after P 1D 1S 1N responder knows that the 1D opener has 4 hearts, which makes it more palatable to rebid 1N with hands that are 5422. The only minus I can see is when partner is broke and you have no place to escape to, you might get a low score, especially if you are doubled and vulnerable. But that seems rare.

Here are a couple of other approaches. First, from Ron Beall "Enhanced Presions" 2nd edition. After 1D-1M: Pass = weak or trap Dbl = negative. Denying 4S after 1D-(1H) and implying 4H after 1D-(1S) 1S is 4+ spades with usual continuations (including support doubles) With normal 1NT response: pass and hope to bid 1NT later Transfers start at 1NT Show at least the values for a NF freebid Lower steps may be the first step in creating a GF Higher steps = long suit, more preemptive than constructive 1NT, 2NT, 4NT, 5NT = transfers to clubs 2S and higher ask opener to bid longer (or best of equal) minor Transferring and bidding 2NT/3NT is INV/GF with a stopper Transfer to 2 of overcalled M = ask for stopper for NT -- Shows 1/2 stopper when followed by cuebid -- Shows full stopper when followed by 2NT or 3NT 3S shows unspecified solid suit -- Opener bids 3N with stoppers in other three suits -- Otherwise: bid 4 of lowest possible suit 3N is natural, NF Low level transfers tend to show -- Weak one-suited hand (normal NF free bid) -- 2-suiters (5+ in transfer suit) with 11+ HCP -- Longest suit in GF hand Raise of the transfer suit by responder is natural and INV New suits after making the transfer are natural and F1 In one of the ACBL anomalies, transfers over a takeout double are legal under the GCC but are not legal after an overcall. Second from R. J. Danielson "Relay Precision Book 5 The Catch-All Opening One Diamond" Pass = 0-8/9 HCP. May be a trap pass with lots of their suit. 1S = 4+ spades 1N = 8-10 HCP with hearts stopped. 2C = 9-11 HCP with 5+ clubs. NF 2D = 9-11 HCP with 5+ diamonds. NF. Cuebid = GF with multi-suited hand (e.g. 5431) 2N = natural, INV with heart stoppers Jump shifts = weak jump shift Jump cue = asks for stopper for 3NT (responder has a long minor). 3N = Long minor with stopper for 3NT. Double = hi power or lo power Over the jump cue and jump to 3N, responder passes (bids 3N), bids 4C or 5C to signoff or bids 4D to try for slam. Over the direct cue bid: A subsquent cuebid = confirms trump suit is the suit opener bid in response to the cuebid trumps and tells about a control in their suit. Cuebidding, Serious 3NT, etc. are available. A new suit = 5+/5+ in the suits other than the suit opener bid in response to your cuebid After opener's rebid after negative double: Bid of new suit = GF with 5+ NT bids = natural showing stoppers Cue bid = GF strength. If balanced, then no stopper in their suit. Using the cuebid as something other than a raise of partner's 1D seems a good idea.

Opener rebidding 1S only if he is unbalanced and 1NT with all balanced hands--4333, 4432, and 5m332; no singletons--even if he has four spades, leads to easier auctions and wins more times than it loses. Admittedly you will lose if responder also has 4 spades and less than an invitational hand. But my guess is that responder having 4 spades in addition to his 4+ hearts is not common (25% or less?). Since responder must also be less than invitational, that drives the probability even lower. Moreover, when opener rebids 1NT with 4 spades and responder does not have 4 spades (which is the more frequent situation), you get wins sometimes: you get a lead into your spade suit, or maybe the opponents balance into spades after 1D-1H 1N because spades are safe. Consider the follow ups based on responder's heart length. If responder has 6 hearts, it's easier and more accurate to rebid 3H and 4H over 1NT than over 1S. Over 1S, you need to worry about that small singleton or void in opener's hand. Not so over 1NT. And since responder knows that an 8+ card fit exists in hearts, sometimes responder can make an invitational bid over 1NT when it would not be right to do so over 1S. If responder has 5 hearts and less than 4 spades, responder has an easy rebid over 1NT regardless of strength assuming you are playing almost any type of new minor forcing, two way new minor forcing, or whatever). And if opener has only 2 hearts, you will wind up playing 2H when opener is minimum. On the other hand, after 1D-1H-1S, if 2C is game forcing, you may miss a 5-3 heart fit when opener is minimum and responder is invitational. If 2C is a one round force, you will wind up playing 2NT when opener is minimum and has only two hearts. Simulations show that the 5-2 fit plays better. If 2C is neither, you have other problems. If responder has 5 hearts and 4 spades, you will find the 4-4 spade fit whenever responder is invitational or better. So the only time you lose is with this distribution is when responder is less than invitational. But if responder is 5-4, it's 2-1 it isn't spades. If responder has exactly four hearts and is balanced, the rebidding is easy whenter your rebid 1S or 1N. If responder has three hearts (not a typo), 1NT enables getting to 2D or 3C easily. 1S showing an unbalanced hand with 4 spades means that 1NT will not be passed. So with ♠xx ♥xxxx ♦xxxx ♠xxx rebid 1NT and opener will bid 2m in his 5+ suit unless he is exactly 4-4-4-1. Klinger has suggested this approach (1S only with unbalanced hands) in natural systems. With Precision's ambiguous 1D, it seems even more useful. I have sometimes wondered whether it would be even more useful to have a 1S rebid show any unbalanced 2- or 3-suited hand without 4 hearts. But I've never taken the time to work out the details.

It depends on what your opening standards are. A more complete statement of my assumption is that you are using a rule of 20. If so, then partner will open with less than 11 HCP only with 10 or more cards in the long suits (5-5, 6-4, etc.) That extra length usually provides extra tricks. In these situation, 13+ HCP is enough. But if you use rule of 19 (or 18) openings, then yes, the GF limit needs to be higher than it is for rule of 20 openings. The question is: how much? Folk wisdom is that that 12 opposite 12 plays better than 15 opposite 9. 11 opposite 13 is close to 12 opposite 12 but 14 opposite 10 is close to the 15 opposite 9.

Assume that you open almost all 11 HCP hands with 5+ long M. This posting supports the comments elsewhere that GF with 13+ HCP (or 12 HCP with a fit) is a good bidding strategy. Claim 1: Opposite such a Precision opener, forcing to game with 12 HCP over 1M and no fit for partner's major is more likely to get you to the wrong contract than inviting with such a hand. Assume that you use a 14-16 1NT opening so that your 1M opening is all hands with 11-13 with 5+ cards in the M and 14-15 HCP hands with 5+ in the M but not 5332. Since I'm not at home where I have done this precise calculation, but a rough calculation for 1H is About 12.5% of 11, 12, and 13 HCP hands open 1H About 8.7% of 14 and 15 HCP hands open 1H. (The different percentage is because 5332 hands with 14 and 15 HCP are opened 1NT.) Using these rough percentages against the probability of 11, 12, etc. HCP, the result is that when partner opens 1H, partner holds 11 HCP about 29% of the time. I've used DealMaster to look at hands where opener opens 1H with 11 HCP and responder has 0-2 hearts and 12 HCP. Game contracts are highly likely to fail. So forcing to game with a misfitting 12 HCP means that about 29% of the time, you are placing a losing bet. OTOH, if you invite with 12 HCP and no fit, you get to the wrong spot (neither over nor underbidding) about 10% of the time. That's much better. Judgment plays a role, so with 12 HCP that are better because of texture, tenaces, etc, forcing to game is okay. For example, over 1♠, I would force to game with: ♠10x ♥KQx ♦AQJ10x ♣xx Because this hand is worth more than 12 HCP. Claim 2: Opposite such a Precision opener, if you have a fit for partner's major and 12 HCP, forcing to game works best. I haven't done as much research with this class of hands. But limited simulations show a couple of wholly unsurprising exceptions to this. First, if responder is 4333 with 3-card support, an invition is best. Second, if responder has a doubleton with lots of waste, (e.g. QJ, KQ, etc.) an invitation works best. These two exceptions apply judgment in a standard fashion: you downgrade a hand because it is not worth as much as the HCP add up to.

You hold ♠void ♥AKJxx ♦AK10xx ♣9xx Playing 2/1 as 100% game forcing, the auction goes: 1♥ 2♣ 2♦ 3♣ 4♠ 5♠ What do you bid now and why?

You might consider learning his system.

Having opener raise with Hx is not a bad thing. In a DealMaster simulation opposite responder's hand with opener 2=4=5-2 with a game force with Ax, Kx, or Qx in spades, 4S made 83% of the time and 3NT made 83% of the time. I.e., it's a wash. The only plausible other bid to me is 3NT, which opener will pass whether he is 3=4=5=1 or 1=4=5=3 or 2=4=5=2. - If opener is 2-2 and has at least Hx in spades, it makes no difference what you bid 3S or 3N. - If opener has 1 spade and 3 clubs, you reach 3NT. - But if Opener is 3=4=5=1, Dealmaster says you will make 4S or more 100% of the time with 6S making 65% and 7S 16%. You will make 3N or more 84% of the time, and 6N only 7% of the time and 7NT 2%. 3S is the better bid. The other choice over 2S is 3S. That may be the better choice, and if opener bids that, you should still get to slam. Over 3S, resonder knows that the short suit total is 3 (1 diamond + 2 hearts = 3) so 19-21 working points takes 10 tricks and 25 working points takes 6. The combined HCP are at least 25, so a slam try is in order. If responder cue bids 4C (semi-serious rather than serious 3NT), opener will use KCB to drive to 6S. OTOH, the SPL with only 3-card support--which is unusual--has the advantage that it helps responder evaluate his limited values correctly for slam. If responder has no HCP or wasted values in clubs, he will sign off. If he does anything else, then opener can drive to slam.

Curious. Old fashioned "Precision's One Club Complete" doesn't have a problem with these hands at all. 1C 1D 1H 1S ... 1H = 4+ F1. 1S = 0-7 HCP, 4+ spades 3D 3S ... 3D = GF with 5+ diamonds and only 4 H. 3S = natural 4C 4N ... 4C = cue in support of spades and must be shortness. Slam try. 5C 5D ... 1 or 4. 5D = queen? Actually hoping for 6N: source of tricks 6H 6S ... Yes and H-K. P 1H relays (like Relay Precision or Viking Club) also get there. 1C 1D 1H 2S ... 1H = 20+ 1S = natural, 5+ long, 5-7 HCP 4C 4D ... 4C = splinter, slammish. 4D = cue 4N 5C ... 4N = KCB. 5C = 1 or 4 6D 6S ... 6D = diamond K? 6S = no (partner could have AK for 1D) P

Your opponents are likely to have a spade fit. Partner probably has some points but didn't overcall 1S. So it is probable that he has 4 or fewer spades. If he has 3 or fewer, then they have a spade fit. You opponents are also likely to have a heart fit unless partner has 6 of the 8 missing hearts. And... the hand may belong to the opponents. A simulation with 100 hands said thay make 3H or more 47% of the time and 2H an additional 22%. The problem with 2C and with 3C, is that they are likely to find their best major fit. For that reason, I don't like either 2C or 3C and prefer 4C or 5C, which may be our par score (and may beat par if we are undoubled) and it may be the par because we make opposite say: S-Axx H-xxxxx D-KJx C-Kx