Monday, April 11, 2005 6:17 PM
Hand Evaluation - Artificial Club Systems ( Fixes
)
PITBULLS:
Theoretically, artificial club systems are a better way to
bid Bridge hands - period. Starting at a low level with well defined HCP ranges
must
lead to better
results. You have lots of room to explore
& exchange information with a nice starting point. There are 3 major disadvantages to club systems
. 1) it is artificial so natural bidding describes your distribution better 2) the opponents pre-empt all the time so spoil your
auctions anyway 3) the degree of memory work
involved is prohibitive unless you play
professionally.
The
artificial club systems start at 17 HCP for a reason. Standard bidding handles
hands 17
HCP+ less well than the other ranges. With HCP’s under this range , simple raises & 1NT rebids describe the hands quite well so no help is
required. It is the higher range hands , right up to
the demand two bids that problems arise.
Expert players only have two options to keep the playing field level. Switch to a forcing club
system or improve standard bidding.
Improving standard bidding usually means “brain storming” & figuring out
how a relay can fix things.
Here
is our attempt to level the
playing field. We are trying to improve Standard Edmonton by adherence to the “useful space” theory & keep
bidding as low as possible similar to forcing club systems. One of the worst
bids in standard bidding , is the raise of partners
major response directly to game with huge hands. This violates the principle
of fast arrival & forces slam exploration to start at the 5 level. This “standard
bidding “ drove people to artificial club systems. We
have the understanding that a jump to game is always done on distributional hands. I held ♠xx ♥AJxx ♦x ♣AQJ109x & opened 1♣ . Tom bid a heart , I bid 4♥. Tom knew I had
distribution rather than HCP’s for this bid. He had ♠Axxx ♥KQxx ♦Axxx ♣K so pulling full
weight to his stiff club king, drove the hand to 7♥ . This made &
most people were in 4♥ or 6♥ .
OK , if you jump to game on distributional hands , how do
you show the 18-19 HCP ranges with balanced or with distribution ? With distribution , there is no problem
as you can splinter. With 5-4-2-2 or 4-4-3-2 hands enter the 3♣ strong jump shift. The 3♣
jump shift is our attempt at having a forcing club bid within a standard system . A 3♣ strong
jump shift is used for a multitude of hands. In any auction , a 3♣ strong jump shift demands a relay to 3♦ . Now partner can describe his jump shift . If he bids your major at the 4 level he has the old
fashioned jump to game in that major with 4 of them but rich in controls. If he
bids 3NT, he
has the club strong jump shift. If he bids hearts , he
has a heart strong jump shift or if he rebids his major he has a hand too
strong to rebid his suit at the 3 level. A simple fix to a difficult problem.
This opens the door for 1♠-P-1NT-P 3♥-P to be done on
invitational values so prevents the obligatory raise to 3♥ by responder. If
partner opens 1♣ with partner responding a major ,
the out is rebidding 2NT with all balanced hands including the 4 card
major. This makes the structure complete so that a raise to game in a major is only done on distributional
hands.
Leaping
to 3NT to show strong hands just pre-empts partner from further exploration.
The club system fixes that aspect
of bad bidding. Now, within a
standard system, we
have the understanding that a leap to 3NT is a picture bid. We have the 2NT
raise as showing the 18-19 HCP hand & relays sort things out after that. 1♠/♥-P-1NT-P 2NT (18-19 ) & 1♣/♦-P-1NT-P 2NT (18-19)
. This allows us to bail out to a minor with an unsuitable hand. 1♦/♣-P-1♥/♠-P 3NT is a
picture bid with a long suit. We use a 2NT rebid on 5-4-3-1 or a club jump
shift to show the strong hands. The only variance to this understanding is a
leap to 3NT after a 2/1 or other forcing auction always shows 15-17 HCP’s.
Another
fix you should do with standard bidding is take
advantage of the fact that it is a natural bidding system. This means rebid NT
will the class of all balanced hands whether there is a
major or not. This implies that one of a minor , a
response & a bid of a major always shows 5
of the minor. This identifies the minor fit quickly so good games or slams
can be reached. You just need 2-way new minor forcing after 1NT rebids to
ferret out your major fits .
Exploit the strength of natural bidding by keeping it natural. Do not be a slave to 5 card
majors especially in 3rd or 4th seat. Open a natural 4
card major if that’s where you live. Opening 1♦ on xxx is terrible
bidding.
Another
shortcoming of standard bidding is invitational 2NT bids & jump to 2NT rebids . These are very clumsy for follow up bids to work
with any degree of accuracy. The forcing club has a decided
advantage with these hands. Enter the club
relay as a band aid
for all
2NT rebids & jumps to 2NT. The 3♣ bid
always relays to 3♦ after a 2NT rebid
& signifies just game interest or worse. This bid also checks back for major fits so
allows natural
raises to be limit raise or better . The relay puts on
the breaks so to speak & allows natural bidding to be the game force & slam try
hands. The relay also allows a slam try in partner’s minor below 3NT.
Natural
bidding is one of the strengths of a non
club system. Identifying weak hands
quickly with the relay prevents futile slam tries & wrong games. The relay also allows you to bail out to a partial , if you had
a “distributional” response.
The
direct jump to 2NT or 3NT by responder after a minor opening has many gaping
holes in the structure. 4th suit forcing auctions at the two level are awkward so Granovettor has come up with a nice fix .
He proposes 2NT by responder be treated as a “new suit” & forcing one round. Opener may bail out
with a weak distributional hand by rebidding her suit. The 2NT bid as a new suit again allows the power of
natural bidding. Partner can pattern
out & describe her distribution before 3NT is reached. This allows nice
Moyseans ,
alternative games & minor slams to be reached. The direct invitational jump
to 2NT after a minor opener is poor & should be replaced by 2NT as forcing
to game or
invitational plus . This avoids the silly leap to 3NT after a
minor opening with a game force hand pre-empting partner to the 4 level. This 3NT bid should be a picture bid of a
soft 1NT opener.
Another
area where standard bidding is at a disadvantage to a strong club
system is the 2♣ opener. Since we start at the 2 level
, strong two suiters are not handled very well or very strong balanced hands. Enter the relay to try & fix things. The 2♣-P-2♦-P 2♥ demands a relay to 2♠
so now a 2NT bid shows a stronger range of the NT hands. If partner bids a suit
after the relay , it’s a heart two suiter.
A 2 spade rebid also demands a relay to 2NT and all spade two suiters can be shown. Relays are a useful
fix for standard bidding shortcomings.
1NT
openers & 2NT openers need minor suit exploration tools or
a way of identifying
5 card suits bid by the NT opener. We have a 3♠ relay after a 2NT opener to find our minor fits. We also have a club
“re-stayman” to find 5 card suits or minor fits after NT openings.
The NT bid is the corner stone of standard bidding so having fine tuned
understandings after that bid is to your advantage. Additions to Stayman
& Transfers to show all the Smolen hands , all the 5-5’s major/minors or both minors forcing to
game or invitational completes the system.
Playing Puppet Stayman after 2NT is a decided
advantage & relays to 3NT to show minors completes
the system after 2NT.
Experts are always trying
to fix standard bidding. Lebensohl like bids like
the good-bad 2NT , Rubensohl & Lebensohl
are designed to patch ambiguities in standard bidding . D.S.I.P. doubles add
more structure to competitive bidding & reins in the penalty double. With
enough good understandings & treatments , standard bidding (in my opinion ) can compete quite nicely with artificial club systems at any level. You
need these standard bidding fixes well understood & ironed out by
the partnership though or advantage forcing club system.