Laird Posted July 26, 2003 Report Share Posted July 26, 2003 Hello Everyone..... perhaps a way to introduce this topic is to use the summary of the Acol system provided by Old Foggey...Wayne Burrows ( Cascade) also provides an excellent summary of reverse Benjamin Acol... "It's very easy and logical. Basic ACOL is just 12-14 NT, the ability to open a good 4-card major (if that's the best bid), strong 2's (8 playing tricks - forcing for 1 round), and limit bids in suport of pds suit, or in NT (if that's the obvious bid). Plus any conventions you agree on, including all the usual SAYC gadgets. (How can a system be defined as a collection of conventions which MUST be used?). Please don't talk to me about ACOL with 5-card majors, 15-17 NT, and weak 2's, lol! Benji ACOL DOES use weak 2's in majors. So a 2C opening shows a strong 2 in any suit, and 2D opening is GAME-FORCING with 2H negative response. 2D-2H-2NT shows 23-24 points, so is the only time bidding can stop short of game - if responder has almost nothing. I prefer Benji, as the reason for weak NT is its greater frequency and pre-emptive value, so logically weak 2s shd be preferred to strong, for the same reason.Apart from all that bidding and play are common sense as they shd be in any system".(Old Foggey) My feeling is that whilst it is a popular and easy to learn system I'm not sure of its robustness for international competitive bridge..... Misho asked me to provide some advantages/ disadvantages.... Advantages.....Easy, simple natural system popular in Uk, Europe and Commonwealth nations.Bidding and play logical and based on common sense... Old FoggeyAdditionion of Benjamine convention and multi 2 diamond arguably increase its utility. Disadvantages.... Not popular in top level international competition..."Top pairs use highly scientific systems such as Meckwell precision variants, Polish multi - way club or Italian systems like 'Nightmare'"... hrothgar...Acol.... "not built for competitive bidding... solid natural system"... Codo John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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