craziest convention

[gwnn]

What's the craziest convention you've ever played in offline bridge? Midnight teams also count.

[Bbradley62]

Opening 4♣ is Gerber. Partner was playing in his first-ever duplicate, and I didn't get around to telling him this would be alertable. On the first hand, I picked up: x, AKQJTxxxxx, x, x .

[Cascade]

We once played that we opened our shortest suit in a speedball.

[MickyB]

Inverted SEF - better major, 5-card minors, 2C and 2D are weak, 2H and 2S are strong and artificial - sure I have played something weirder, I'll post here again if I remember.

 

Also "bid if you've got twelve points and I'll bid 3NT" was good fun too, 50% session with the caddy who didn't know what a trick was 30 minutes beforehand

[Furlan]

Inverted SEF - better major, 5-card minors, 2C and 2D are weak, 2H and 2S are strong and artificial

Does that include 1NT=20-21 and 2NT=15-17? :rolleyes:

(I have actually thought of trying that before...)

[Hanoi5]

Totti Transfer. We played Rubber (social) Bridge with this guy Totti who played the dummy horribly so he always bid a suit when he wanted to play NT or NT for his partner to guess his suit, so:

 

1NT*-2♥

2NT**-3♠

4♠***

 

* I want to play in a suit

** That's not the suit

***That's the suit!!!

[nigel_k]

I played MUD for a while when I first started and didn't know any better.

[MarkDean]

When I was pretty new to bridge and a friend and I were filling out a card, we agreed to play that 3S over 2NT showed 35(32) and exactly 8 HCP. Never came up.

[Cyberyeti]

I don't often flat out refuse to play the pet method of a pickup partner, but I drew the line when somebody tried to insist that a change of suit over his overcall guarantees 1 or less of his suit.

[PeterGill]

People give count in the card play.

I had just read about giving count on opening lead (1/3/5/7th leads).

We decided to give count in the bidding.

 

1C showed a Hand Pattern of three odd-length suits (4333, 2335, 2731 shapes etc).

All other opening bids showed one "odd-length suit" (3442, 5422, 7222, 7420 etc) with one level opening bids showing 4 or 6 or 8 cards in the bid suit, and 2 (or 4) level opening bids showing 5 or 7 cards in the bid suit.

Responder relayed with good hands to find opener's shape, and just bid naturally

(non forcing) with bad hands.

 

In practice, it was a very bad bidding system. We played it just once.

[Lobowolf]

Stolen bid doubles, but in my defense, I had a student who insisted.

[helene_t]

A complex of multi-twobids including:

2♥: weak with spades or weak with 5-5 spades/minor or strong with hearts.

 

Roman Revolving leads, i.e.

- odd encouraging

- high even asks for the higher suit cyclically

- low even asks for the lower suit cyclically

[gnasher]

I used to play a defence to a weak notrump called Roche, in which a 2♣ overcall also shows a weak notrump.

[Cascade]

I used to play a defence to a weak notrump called Roche, in which a 2♣ overcall also shows a weak notrump.

Sadly that method is commonly played around here

[gnasher]

I used to play a defence to a weak notrump called Roche, in which a 2♣ overcall also shows a weak notrump.

Sadly that method is commonly played around here

It ought to work OK if you find partner with a 6-count and a five-card suit, but I often found that there was a third weak notrump at the table, and when that happened it was always on my left.

[Trinidad]

A long time ago, my partner (a novice) and I (also a novice) played an ACBL instant matchpoint game. I am looking at a 1255 distribution with 19 HCPs. My partner opens a 15-17 1NT. I decide to reevaluate my hand because of the length in the minors and invoke the craziest convention: G€#߀#. I hear that we have all the aces and bid 7NT.

 

Thus, the simple auction was:

1NT-4♣

4X-7NT

 

It turns out that my partner has upgraded his 14 HCP 3523 distribution with a few tens to 15 HCP and he makes 7NT.

 

The booklet reads: '7NT is the best contract, but absolutely impossible to bid.'

 

Well, yeah, if you don't play G€#߀#, that is. :D

 

Rik

[kenrexford]

I could fill a book with oddball conventions that I have actually played before. I probably have at least a dozen that beat or at least tie everything already suggested. LOL

[jjbrr]

i played that the opening lead of the ♦7 was a signal to partner that the contract, from my point of view, was unlikely to be beaten

[jjbrr]

Also we once played that all first-round bids were suction, and we convinced our teammates to do the same at the other table. We were very successful.

[gwnn]

what is 4333 in suction for example?

[Gerben42]

Playing Fantunes-style with NF suction openings (i.e. 2♠ opening shows ♠ or minors, etc.) was pretty crazy... Or the 2-way 1NT opening (15-17 or weak with ♣).

 

Perhaps also the weak 2NT opening (13-14 balanced).

 

Lots to choose from :)

[Echognome]

I played in Ireland once with three members of the university team. After some poor performances in the morning session, we mixed things up in the afternoon. We played "lucky dip" for partners and "lucky dip" for bidding systems. So you drew for your partner that session along with a baseline system. The systems were pretty wild. One of them we played psycho suction openings with psycho suction responses. The little old ladies (and men) there weren't bothered in the slightest.

 

For just plain bad system, I remember that a common convention at the first club I joined in England played that over their weak NT, 2♠ = 11hcp and 2NT = 12 hcp.

[hrothgar]

I once played Power System in a serious partnership

You wouldn't believe the number of alerts

[mikeh]

Playing in a sectional speedball pairs in the late 1970s, in a small town where one of the local players sponsored a cheap bar...over pre-game drinks, my partner and I discussed, in not much detail, the following structure in a strong 1N method:

 

1♣ showed ANY 4333 out of range for 1N. 1♦ was a relay response, promising 8+ hcp...all other suit bids were weak

 

1♦ showed 4=4 or 4=4=4. 1♥ was a relay, as above

 

1♥ promised a 5 card suit somewhere...1♠ was a relay

 

1♠ was either 5-5 or a 6+ suit, 1N was a relay

 

 

Mercifully, I forget the details of the relay.

 

I do remember that we missed every 4-4 major suit fit we held, other than when we opened 1N...and that we won in both a landslide and a drunken haze...and I became a Life Master as a result.

 

We never played it again. I suspect it was illegal, but it was a small town speedball held during the wee hours of Saturday morning at a time when drinking at the table was not only permitted but, in that town, virtually required. So the atmosphere was pretty relaxed...and the average age of the players was probably in the 40's whereas now it's in the late 60's at best.

 

A year or two later (I think...time blurs) I was playing in the speedball pairs at the Reno Regional....it started around midnight December 31. The tournament supplied each table with 2 bottles of california bubbly...and another friend and I started against two people we knew well, who were teetotallers. I think both bottles were empty by the time the first round ended, altho in our defence I should point out that the game didn't get underway on time.

 

We were playing 'stoneage', but had no discussions of that other than that we were not playing stayman, or any ace asking conventions. Everything was 'natural'.

 

Things weren't going too well (altho we had scored more wine by now) when we sat down against Meckstroth...I think this was the year before he hooked up with Rodwell...anyway, he was high on the McKenny and his partner was, I think, in 6th place and a good showing would move him into 5th.

 

Meckstroth opened a major (hearts, I think) and partner doubled. The auction proceeded with my partner doubling 2♥ along the way and then 3♥, which I passed despite my stiff small heart and horrible hand.

 

Meckstroth looked unhappy, but at one point ruffed a card in dummy...dummy had 2 trumps...and I underruffed with my deuce equivalent. Meckstroth looked up and smiled and said 'things are looking up'. He called for dummy's last trump and I pitched. Meckstroth folded his cards and returned them to the board, announcing '800'.

 

It turned out that we didn't play takeout doubles, tho I hadn't realized this. Meckwell and his partner were really good about it...I guess they could tell that I hadn't the faintest idea of what was going on and that we were both hammered.

 

A lot has changed in tournament bridge, and much of it for the better (no smoking for one thing) but sometimes I miss the fun that we used to have. The fact that the bridge may be better is only partial compensation.

[jdonn]

When playing TOSR we used to require an ace or two kings to make a positive response to the strong club (as well as the requisite 8 hcp). So we agreed to play 1♣ 1♦ 1NT 5x as showing 14 or 15 hcp with the king of the bid suit and the rest in queens and jacks. We will win (or lose) a big swing one day for avoiding a 33 hcp 6NT on two balanced hands off an AK.