New bidding system book available

[jwmonty]

In your chapter on 1M openings and the 2/1 GF style of bidding, you said

I actually developed a complete set of nonforcing 2/1 responses, along with auctions to show the strong hands, as a possible method for Revision...

I would be interested learning more about the NF methods you mention - would you be willing to share those notes or at least describe them briefly?

My research indicates that it is impossible to prove whether 2/1 NF or 2/1 GF is a better method.

I ran into similar issues investigating 2/1 NF methods in response to 1M - the NF hands were pretty rare and so it was hard to tell if the method was an improvement or just "different." In the methods I was working on, I used a forcing 1NT for most inv+ hands without support for opener's major (although some weak hands could bid 1NT too).

No prob, Rob. Send me a private message and I will email you an old version of the 1M opening chapter that contains that material. You will see that I used the same basic approach that you did.

[jwmonty]

I have just finished the third edition of the Revision Club book. As usual, it is available for download in zip format at Dan Neill's website:

 

http://www.geocities.com/daniel_neill_2000/sys/

 

You can also download the individual files (there are thirteen of them) from box.net. The addresses for each file are as follows.

 

Foreword:

http://www.box.net/shared/yk8m7lzubx

 

Introduction:

http://www.box.net/shared/n2ol767nv5

 

Part 1, Major suit openings:

http://www.box.net/shared/xa0v09yfen

 

Part 2, 1D opening:

http://www.box.net/shared/vo08fq7l2m

 

Part 3, 1NT opening:

http://www.box.net/shared/30czj25vym

 

Part 4, 2NT opening:

http://www.box.net/shared/bu29m9unvo

 

Part 5, 2C opening:

http://www.box.net/shared/jites5v4dz

 

Part 6, 2D opening:

http://www.box.net/shared/3e6pdvzv5b

 

Part 7, 1C opening:

http://www.box.net/shared/iatb9uz5b9

 

Part 8, preempts:

http://www.box.net/shared/nucigyh8he

 

Part 9, defensive bidding:

http://www.box.net/shared/emg3koqci0

 

Part 10, miscellaneous extra ideas:

http://www.box.net/shared/d3iplkri1t

 

Part 11, carding:

http://www.box.net/shared/p82xcl6cb0

 

For those of you who prefer to receive the files directly from me as email attachments, or who wish to communicate with me for other reasons, the email address is as before, jwmonty@earthlink.net.

 

Most of the changes made in this edition were the result of playtesting and bidding practice sessions (thanks to Greg Morse for partnering me). I was gratified to learn that almost everything in the system seemed to work well enough. There have been no major disappointments. I noticed a few things that could be added or improved. Here are some of them:

 

1. The 2NT response to a 1M opening, which shows a limit or better raise, did not give opener enough different rebid sequences to show different hand types. This created problems in slam auctions. Opener is now allowed to define 18 different hand types without going beyond 4M. It works much better now.

 

2. There were some idle bids in the 1NT opening structure that could be used to show slam tries by responder. I added some sequences.

 

3. I never liked the followup auctions in the sequences 1D-1M, 2M and 1H-1S, 2S. I have always believed opener should be allowed to raise with three-card support, but this resulted in problems when responder had a game try. The 1D sequences have been rewritten so that there are more ways to stop in a partscore and avoid getting to 3M on a 4-3 fit when opener does not accept a game try. Slam tries in these auctions are improved also. As for the auction 1H-1S, 2S, I learned that a lot of the pressure could be taken off of this auction by redefining the sequence 1H-1NT, 2x-2S to show exactly four spades, invitational values, not forcing. The 2S bid here is not really needed for any other purposes, and this allows you to play either 2S or 2NT when opener is rejecting the game try, something that formerly was not possible with the 2NT bid in the auction 1H-1S, 2S-2NT being used as forcing, as it should be.

 

4. Previously, when a 2C opener had a four-card diamond suit on the side, without extra values, there was no way to stop in a diamond partscore facing an invitational hand. This proved costly, since many of responder's invitational hands that are short in clubs (so that there is no 6-2 club fit to use as a signoff spot) contain four or five diamonds, and you need to find the diamond fit on these hands. In the new version, it is possible to do this. (There is also an equivalent method for doing the same thing when opener shows clubs after opening 1C.) I thought my methods after a 2C opening were good before, but now they are even better. If you play Precision with a 6+ 2C opening, you should at least have a look at this chapter even if you have no interest in the rest of the system.

 

5. Defensive bidding methods when the opponents open at the one level in a suit have been rearranged. There are now more ways to show a canape hand, 4M and 6m, without going past 2M. This is accomplished through various cuebids and canape jump overcalls.

 

There are hundreds of other changes, most of which are really just corrections of typos and the like. If you found the previous editions to be of no more than casual interest, you don't really need to read this one. However, I thought that since I have finally cleaned up the details to my own satisfaction, I ought to make the results available to anyone else who is interested.

[glen]

thanks for all your revision work! now hopefully Dan has enough bandwidth

[Rossoneri]

I can host it as well, if you (Jwmonty) don't mind.

[jwmonty]

Sure, go ahead.