How SAYC happened

[MojoLA]

I was at the bridge club a few months ago when a young asian fellow stopped in to see how the games worked. The director invited him to kibitz my table, and I chatted with him a little between hands. He admitted that he enjoyed playing bridge and sometimes played online. And he mentioned that he played SAYC.

 

I suspect that at my club, like most, if you say you play "SAYC" they'll answer, "what?"

 

I wrote a blog post about how that happened, and my role in it. It was fun to think back on the history of online bridge, leave it for ten years, and come back to see how it has evolved.

 

Here's my post -- you might enjoy it. :) http://mojo.whiteoaks.com/2010/09/27/how-sayc-happened/

 

Mojo

[barmar]

I don't agree with your comment:

Secondly, weak jump responses and non-forcing Stayman are not part of SAYC. You shouldn’t say you’re playing SAYC when you’re not playing SAYC!

Many people don't want to play exactly SAYC, because SAYC has some treatments that almost no one actually plays (like 1m-2NT game forcing). They use SAYC as a starting point, and then add/subtract to get a system they prefer. This is easier than listing all the conventions you play.

 

Or they intend this to mean "I play SAYC, but I also know these other conventions, and I'll play them as well if you want."

 

Back when I used to play with randoms on OKBridge, I noticed that many people put SAYC in their profile, but didn't play Jacoby 2NT (few of them actually read the SAYC booklet). So in my profile, I wrote "SAYC (including Jac2N)" as a reminder. It's not redundant if the reader doesn't realize it.

[barmar]

BTW, I also had a hand in popularizing SAYC on OKbridge. I took the description that was included in the Unix client, and converted it to HTML when the OKbridge web site was created. This was when the web was in its early infancy, and there were no fancy tools for creating web pages.

[campboy]

I did a quick search and everything I can find indicates that NF Stayman is part of SAYC.

[MojoLA]

BTW, I also had a hand in popularizing SAYC on OKbridge. I took the description that was included in the Unix client, and converted it to HTML when the OKbridge web site was created. This was when the web was in its early infancy, and there were no fancy tools for creating web pages.

 

I remember you barmar! :)

[MojoLA]

I did a quick search and everything I can find indicates that NF Stayman is part of SAYC.

 

One could argue that NF Stayman is part of every system that includes Stayman, since it doesn't require a partnership agreement to invoke it. :)

 

Mojo

[mgoetze]

Maybe some people are confused as to the meaning of "NF Stayman". I take it to mean that e.g. 1NT-2♣-2♦-2♥ is non-forcing...

[barmar]

The name I usually use for that is "creeping Stayman" or "walking Stayman".

[Zelandakh]

Maybe some people are confused as to the meaning of "NF Stayman". I take it to mean that e.g. 1NT-2♣-2♦-2♥ is non-forcing...

The term "non-forcing Stayman" comes from the days when many top pairs played 2D as "forcing Stayman", meaning forcing to game. So NF Stayman technically means bidding Stayman without a GF hand. The proper name for bidding Stayman and passing the response is "garbage Stayman". The name for the conventional use of 1NT - 2C - 2D - 2H to be non-forcing with 2 suits including hearts is "Crawling Stayman" or "Creeping Stayman". Finally, when 1NT - 2C - 2D - 2H just shows hearts and a weak hand, this is simply Stayman and how lots of people played prior to the popularisation of transfers.