ACBL Individual Tourneys

[cellist]

In the ACBL Individual toruneys (perhaps other, non-ACBL also), the rules state that you must post a CC. Does this refer to, literally, using the CONV button and loaded a prepared convention card? Or is it OK to use info in your profile?

 

I would like to see something where the first 60 seconds or so of each round in an individual tourney is allotted for discussing your system and posting a CC. I realize that 60 seconds is not long enough to discuss anything elaborate, but you can at least talk about blackwood vs rkc, carding, and a few other basic options. Of course, you can always 'allot' the first however-many-seconds-you-want to discussing system, but it seems that it would work better if this were simply built in to the clock.

 

Phil

[epeeist]

I think that's part of the "default" rules that appear for all ACBL tournaments.

 

Unless the policy has been changed, I asked one of the ACBL tournament directors, who agreed that for an individual so long as using something straightforward like sayc or 2/1 it didn't make much sense (i.e. not required).

 

I've never had a problem with, in an ACBL individual, briefly discussing bidding with p at the start of each round. Of course, there will always be things arising you may have forgotten to discuss (Hmm, if not agreed on trump suit is it rkcb for last suit bid or normal blackwood? If opponents bid over 4NT blackwood, are we using DOPI, DIPO, or something else?). It's not really possible to discuss everything, and to me that's part of the fun of an individual; if you don't like it, play only in pairs... B)

 

A CC even in an ACBL individual is sometimes useful, e.g. to prepare my own (straightforward) sayc CC, open it, and then each round say "I have an sayc cc open p, please let me know if you disagree with anything". Of course, if p's profile says 2/1 I'm willing to use that instead.

 

The problem I have with some players' profiles is, they're so full of abbreviations for various conventions it takes longer to say what you're NOT willing to use from their profile than to simply agree on a basic approach. Again, I see pairs games as the time to have a fully fleshed-out system; in an individual, agree on basics and then take your chances... :)

[Gerben47]

Anyone have a prepared "WJ2000 with a 2♦ opening bid the ACBL will allow" convention card?

 

I guess one could play 2♦ as weak two.

[epeeist]

Although I like the default cc's, I had a bad experience in one ACBL (individual) tournament.

 

The opponents had the default sayc convention card open, so I (naturally, and I thought excusably) assumed 3 ♣ after 2NT was Stayman (that's how it's defined in the ACBL SAYC booklet, and his p thought so too, bidding 3♦ response). Unfortunately, 3♣ was natural, showing a 7-card suit which ended up running in 7NT redoubled. Of course, in all honesty I couldn't be sure whether I would have doubled if I'd thought 3♣ was natural and not Stayman, and was not granted an adjustment (I had 8 HCP and good major suits, so thought grand slam in NT unlikely to make).

 

Of course, opponents played slowly and I was foolish enough to complain about this resulting in "ave -", which got corrected to 7NT redoubled making...at IMPs... :lol: