4 card majors, limited openings

[aelred]

I have recently developped some interest in this kind of stuff (4 card majors, strong/art club/diamond, canape possible, a general aggressive approach to bidding). A question to you group: what are the best references available online (English or French only)? Books and/or articles you'd recommend?

 

What I'm looking for is something in the lines of Auken-von Arnim; there were several Nordic systems in the same spirit I believe (bridgeguys.com refers to the original Carrot Club as being a 4 card major system) - alas, my first quick search produced mostly materials in Swedish and such ...

 

I'd do a more extensive search but there is no time left - I leave tomorrow morning for a bridge tournament in neighbouring Bulgaria. So I thought I might just post here a short note.

 

Any helpful pointer will be highly appreciated. Thank you all!

 

Aelred

[Edmunte1]

You can look at http://www.clairebridge.com/encheresetsystemes.htm

[Flame]

http://floyd.best.vwh.net/bridge/caroclub/caroline.htm

[skjaeran]

http://home.no.net/raptor/sys_it.htm

[hrothgar]

if you're interested in MOSCITO, my notes are typically considered one of the better resources for learning the system.

 

Unfortunately, they haven't been updated in a while and there is no documentation about a number of the more recent innovations like the transfer 2/1 structure and the accompanying modifications to the relays.

[MickyB]

IIRC, Carrot Club only opened 1M on four cards when holding 4M5♣, enabling the 2♣ opening to promise 6 cards. This is a rather different style to Auken/Von-Arnim and similar who open 4 card majors as often as possible (could be 11-13 bal, could be 4M5♦ min, etc).

[Gerben42]

http://www.geocities.com/gerben47/bridge/magicd.html

[Robert]

Hi everyone

 

I played a lot of Blue Team Club in the 70s. Four card majors often with canape followups.

 

A convention that I found(Hackett brothers) useful was to invert the 2NT and 3C bid after 1M-2Red-? The 2NT bid showed a club canape with any range and opener bid higher 'if' partner merely bid 3C to show the extra values. If you held a balanced hand with extra values, you bid 1M-2Red-3C* game forcing.

 

You might want to check on the methods that the Hackett brothers played. They liked to open a 4M in front of a six(seven?) card minor. If you like aggressive openings they really like to show those 4 card majors.

 

Regards,

Robert

[akhare]

Unfortunately, they haven't been updated in a while and there is no documentation about a number of the more recent innovations like the transfer 2/1 structure and the accompanying modifications to the relays.

Richard,

 

Weren't you working on updating your notes (hint, hint) :)? I think several other people will greatly appreciate it too...

[Free]

I believe he lost his work due to a computer crash. I still have some "new" version, but it's from 2004, and also doesn't say anything about the transfer 2/1 structure... :(

[joshs]

You can find my canape club system on dan neill's system page.

 

Basic Structure:

1C: Strong

1D: Balanced out of 1N range, D, Minors, or any 4441

1M: 4M and longer minor OR 5+M and other major OR 6+M

1N: Balanced

2C: 6+C, no 4 card major

2D: Multi when allowed, Flannary when not (since thats a problem hand in the system)

2M: 5M, 4+m

 

My usual ranges are 10-15ish 1/2 white and 11-15ish 1/2 red and about 2 points Heavier in 3/4 (so 1C is 16+ and then 18+). You may modify ranges to taste. I do recomend if you open very light in 1/2 that your 3/4 seat bids are sounder, or you play a different system in 3/4. It makes no sense to have a 1C opening in 3/4 seat be a puppet to 1D since responder rarely has enough for a positive....

 

The 1M and 2M openings create a lot of action, especially the 2M bids.

 

Over the 1M bids, 2 of a lower suit is Constructive to INV but not forcing. 1N is forcing, asks for hand type (you bid your long suit, or the other major to show both majors). 1N then a new suit is game forcing, and then there is a natural gameforcing auction. The response to 1N was not forcing, and you can bid 1N on any balanced hand looking for the best place to play, even without values if you think that will improve the contract (or make life difficult for the opps). There are a few ART raises and asking bids also, see the notes....

 

5332 hands with a major but out of the range for 1N are usually opened 1D, but can be opened 1M (rebid=2M) or 2M depending on honor structure.

Flannary hands, when not playing flannary you have to open 1H and rebid 2H over 1N.

The Flannary hand is the biggest problem hand in the system since you sometimes have to rebid Jxxxx type suits.

 

 

A funny hand from sunday's swiss:

Alex: ATxx - Ax KQJTxxx

Me: KQJxx xx KTxx xx

 

Auction: Alex in 1'st seat both white.

1S(If only 4, then 5+ in a minor)-P-3D(limit raise)-4H

5C(natural)-5H-P-P

6C(natural)-x-P-6H

P-P-6S-P

P-x-All Pass

 

One opponent xed 6C on Axxx, trying to chase us from the cold 6C into 6S which could be beat. I held my ground. The other opponent ran for cover. I had no idea who was making what, but I knew partner was something like 4027 so bid 6S. The player with a club void forgot to lighter x, and the other opponent went crazy and decided to not lead the CA and a club which beats 6S.

[keylime]

Larry and I will be playing Ultra Club at the NABC's trying to win with our team of six the 0-5000 MiniSpingold:

 

The basics are as follows:

 

1C - strong

1D - the out of range NT or a diamond-major canape where the major is longer with maximum values or one/both minors

1H/S - 4 cards, can hide a longer minor

1NT - 11-13/14-16 depending on colors

2C - 6+ clubs, no major

2D - (GCC) intermediate natural in diamonds; (Mid-Chart when approved) an intermediate multi with a side suit of 4+ clubs [problem hand for us]

2H/S - balanced 5332's, natural

2NT - both minors

 

We're pretty active in the bidding, 10-15 with sometimes 9 counts if shapely opened for 1M. The pluses are the ability to locate the 4-4 and the 3rd suit fit. We use 2C as our art g/f, analogous to Josh's 1NT all purpose force. We have a few artificial raises but if anything our methodology is highly constructive (we have g/f fit jumps, siebert adjunct raises, 1M-3M is mixed, so on).

 

I like our structure over 1C - positive g/f these days; a much improved method that is analogous to our canape style (1C - 1H for example is a G/F with 4+ spades, but may have canape tendencies).

 

However, you will need good competitive bidding agreements. You'll need bids to show 5-4's in competition, along with some matrix of transfer advances/overcalls.

 

All in all, am looking forward to playing this in Nashville.

[rbforster]

I've been thinking about adding a few possible 4 card major shapes to my limited normally 5+ card major openings. In particular, I was thinking about something like this:

 

1C strong

1D 2+♦, balanced outside NT, unbalanced 4/4+ minors, or primary diamonds

1H 4+♥, all 5 card major hands plus 4414 and 4405 shapes

1S 5+♠, 5 card major style

2C 5+♣, either 6+ or 5C/4M

2D and higher weak

 

The idea was to unload the (relatively rare) precision 2♦ shapes into the 1♥ and 2♣ openings to free up 2♦ for a sound weak two bid that will help out with other aspects of the system. I know the 2♣ opening is overloaded with (43)15 shapes, but I think I've got that covered.

 

Any suggestions on dealing with the possible but rare 4 card heart opening with possible club canape? My first reaction (based on probabilities) is to just ignore the 4 card possibility and play my normal 5 card major methods, but it would be embarrassing to not find 4-4 spades or NT instead when hearts are only 4-3 in auctions where partner will raise with 3 card support.

 

I'd welcome pointers to any systems with a similar 1♥ opener to see how this is treated. Thanks.

[gwnn]

why not make 1♥ 5+ and 1♠ 4+ to make it more annoying to opps? in a TWF-ish way.

[rbforster]

Maybe, although I wasn't planning on opening a lot of 4♠ hands in 1♠ like The Way Forward does for preemption. I'll rely on all my light openers for preemption more generally :).

 

More seriously, I figured by starting 1♥ with 4-4 majors we'd find the right spot more easily since we could still respond in spades cheaply. Either way the auctions 1M-2M-P can lead to 4-3 misfits. But at least by starting 1♥ you gain on

 

1♥-1♠-raise works well obviously

 

1♥-2♥-2♠ (natural 4+) where you can still end up in either spades or 2NT, whereas the 1♠-2♠-2N auction can't check for 4-4 hearts safely

 

1♥-1NT(semiforcing) can stop in 1NT without missing a spade fit, while starting with 1♠-1NT seems like you either rebid 2♥ which could be risky without a fit or pass, risking missing a heart fit.