For a couple of days, Lovey and I have nominally been playing this new convention I cooked up to atone/make me feel better for one of my more spectacular errors. I opened 3D first seat non-vulnerable with AKQxxxx and out and it went pass, 4D, pass, and I stupidly thought Lovey's bid must be invitational - after all, how else could he invite? After bidding 5D, which the opponents were kind enough not to double, I immediately realized I was an ass, but I was still intrigued - what's the best way for Lovey actually to get more information from me here? So agreed the following weird convention:
After 3C/3D, the next step up either shows a forcing hand with that suit OR a general asking bid. After that:
The next step shows - a good hand but no support for the suit responder bid
Two steps - a good hand and support for the suit responder bid
Three steps - a bad hand and support for the suit responder bid
Four steps - a bad hand and no support for the suit responder bid
I thought this convention was great. When you bid a forcing suit over partners 3 level minor, when do you ever get any information other than a raise or a rebid of the original minor? How do figure out if 3NT is going to make if all you need to know if that seven card minor is headed by something to be proud of? AND this system still preserves a way of bidding a forcing suit and finding out if there is support.
Fortunately for everything except this convention, Eric (Bob) and Argenta got in last night. Whilst talking bridge, Bob took one look at my card and panned this convention. "Are you telling me that 3H over 3D doesn't necessarily show hearts?" "You know, if you're going to psych a heart I'd rather not have partner tell the opponents I might be." "I've got a recommended defense to this convention - bid 4S with any 13 cards." After laughing this one off and defending it vigorously, Bob attacked it on more frightening grounds - "Is this even general chart?" We took a look at the general chart itself, and it's unclear exactly where this falls. Is it an artificial raise not game forcing? How different from Ogust is this really, just because it might also show hearts? Please post your comments and or professional directorial opinion.
Because we're in a rush to the sectional, I won't tell you about any of our best hands from yesterday. It was a great session, we robbed a couple people, made some good bids but we got a bad score for a great slam save and I misplayed a few hands. More on this later, and the session from today.
2 comments:
Dude, it's the 21st century, just play gambling 3nt like everyone else in the known universe.
See you in a few days.
Yes, the whole scheme over 3C/3D is legal under the GCC (see Item 6 at this link: "[LEGAL:] ARTIFICIAL AND CONVENTIONAL CALLS after strong (15+
HCP), forcing opening bids and after
opening bids of 2C or higher."
Mike is right, however; playing a gambling 3NT eliminates much of the worry about 3NT, although I suspect that some scientists like Multi because it frees 2S to include some minor preempts and lets 3C and 3D be more narrowly defined.
By the way, every time you write "rough" instead of "ruff" it makes me cringe. Pretend that you learned something when you took Daily Themes.
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