david_c Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 I've recently been playing a Polish Club variant with Mike (mickyb). I've written up the system notes for the 1♣ opening and you can find them on this page. Important / distinctive features of the system: Opening bid:- We open 1♣ on all balanced hands in the 12-14 HCP range without a 5-card suit (so a 1♦ opening will not be 4-3-3-3 or 4-4-3-2).- Some hands in the 18+ HCP range are opened 1♦ or 1♥ rather than 1♣. Response to 1♣:- 1NT is natural and invitaitonal.- 2♣/2♦ are non-forcing. We have artificial sequences to deal with strong minor-suit hands. Other agreements:- Some use of transfers by responder after an overcall.- Many other artificial sequences, both in uncontested auctions and in competition. Opener's diamond bids are very often artificial. It's quite serious stuff, but the aim is to have enough agreements to deal with any situation that might come up. There's a particularly long section on competitive auctions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickyB Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 I'm a recent convert to Polish Club, David's blog on bidding theory convinced me of the merits of the system. The file is quite in-depth, however it covers a lot of auctions of which I would not have been confident about the meaning, whatever system was being played. Well worth checking out IMO. Btw, we open 1♣ on (43)15 and 4405 minima. Some will consider this to be a distinguishing feature, although I'm told that WJ also recommends 1♣ on 4405 - a 2♣ opening is just too likely to preempt yourself out of your own major suit fit, and responder already had to allow for 4414 minima with opener. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awm Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 In my (admittedly limited) experiences with Polish Club, the biggest difficulty was opponents bidding over the 1♣ opening. A lot of questions came up.... (1) It seems like you almost have to play negative free bids, because there are many hands where you are fixed if you pass and opener has a strong hand, but also fixed if you bid and it's forcing and opener has a weak notrump. But how do you handle actual good hands when playing NFB? (2) You need to decide which of opener's rebids in competition show extras. Is opener allowed to balance on auctions like 1♣-2♦-pass-pass if holding a 4414 minimum? (3) You need to be able to deal with the occasional "weird" defensive methods. Certainly the possible weak meaning prevents opponents from going as crazy as they sometimes do over a strong club. But over strong club, at least responder knows opener has a good hand and can bid freely in a lot of auctions where he'd have to pass over a nebulous club. Anyways, none of this is to say that Polish Club is a "bad system" but you need a lot of detailed competitive agreements in order to get it to work. Most of the writeups I've seen for Polish Club variants devote little to no space to this important issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickyB Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 Adam - (1) Agreed - we don't have any auctions at the two-level or above where free bids are natural and forcing. Most are competitive, with the odd situation where transfers are used. We play transfers from 2NT upwards over two-level overcalls. Obviously, after a three-level overcall, there will be some guesswork on hands that wish to force to game opposite a weak NT. (2)+(3) Hopefully you will/would find that this document does a pretty good job of describing which bids show which hand-type(s), and it deals with artificial overcalls. In the auction you mention, a double can be based on a minimum with 4-5♣ and 0-1♦, but any higher than that the double shows at least the 15+ hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerben42 Posted July 17, 2007 Report Share Posted July 17, 2007 (1) It seems like you almost have to play negative free bids, because there are many hands where you are fixed if you pass and opener has a strong hand, but also fixed if you bid and it's forcing and opener has a weak notrump. But how do you handle actual good hands when playing NFB? Yes, this is one of the reasons why in Poland "everyone" plays NFB at least after 1♣. So how to show good hands? It really starts to get interesting after an overcall of 1♠ or higher, so let's take 1♠. Here a new suit on the 3-level is natural and forcing. Also Leaping Michaels applies for the big 2-suiters. Other situations are similar, and don't forget Lebensohl after 2-level overcalls. (2) You need to decide which of opener's rebids in competition show extras. Is opener allowed to balance on auctions like 1♣-2♦-pass-pass if holding a 4414 minimum? Yes, he is. Even situations like 1♣ 1♠ p p X can be the weak NT.A new suit is always the 18+ variation, though, except for a bid of 2♣. 2NT can be played as a kind of good-bad here for the 15 - 17 ♣ type OR "I've really got a great hand". (3) You need to be able to deal with the occasional "weird" defensive methods. This has never caused a problem for me. Most of them are bad anyway... (Naturally I still believe the one I'm playing is not bad, but I've yet to be proven wrong :) - still, it has held up to discussions with good players, where good means "European champion" type good) As I said on the 1-level it does not really hurt, and on the 2-level assume it went 1NT* (some weird convention, aren't there like zillions in this situation!) ? * 12 - 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.