David Stevenson
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The sad thing about the online game is that people are suspicious of many actions that have happened over the years in clubs without comment. Nowadays strange actions are reported if successful and not otherwise.
While this is true in fact this hand looks more suspicious than most of the hands that get reported to me when I am directing in the EBU BBO tournaments. I would certainly have drawn it to the attention of the director. Of course if you were playing in a private game nothing can be done.
If I had been the director I would have asked overcaller to explain his bid and I would have asked advancer (overcaller’s partner) to explain his bid. But it is not impossible that it was bad bridge rather than anything worse.Like most asking bids (unlike telling bids) there really is no minimum, just whatever the player judges is right for Ogust or a feature ask. This is a bit like Stayman which beginners learn shows game try values or better and there are always people who get upset when an opponent uses Stayman on a much weaker hand. Since Ogust or a feature ask is used as a game try, or occasionally on any hand where responder is definitely going to game but wants to investigate either for the correct game or because he is interested in slam, the only effective minimum is what respondent judges is a game try.
To answer your last post but one this is another approach that people have said over the years but we expect people to follow the rules. If you are playing a convention, be it Stayman, Ogust, Roman Key Card Blackwood or anything else and your opponent asks you are required by law to tell him what you are playing, not to fudge it by saying ‘asking’, ‘strong ask’, ‘ace ask’ and so on. If your partner gives a proper explanation you are not allowed by law to take any advantage and if you do so deliberately it is cheating. Whether you do it deliberately or not you must expect to get ruled against.
To answer your last post, the opening poster was playing Ogust so talking about Ogust is a correct answer to her query.
The opening post was about the use of Ogust and it is correct to describe an Ogust bid as Ogust, or to describe it in more detail. The main alternative use of 2N is a feature ask and it is correct to describe it as a feature ask, or to describe it in more detail. Describing 2N as a strong asking bid seems to me to be trying to keep agreements from the opponents which is not permitted.
No. The EBU has given a rule and it should be followed. If someone says clubs or a balanced 12-14 I would assume that they do not have a five card suit other than clubs since the EBU has said that if you can have a five card suit other than clubs you are required to say so.
As for alerting and not announcing that is just breaking the rules because they cannot be bothered to follow them.
You need say nothing when opening 1D. You are perfectly entitled to use judgement within the confines of your system and if you think the hand unsuitable for 1N that is your choice. Personally I use the term ‘flat’ to mean any 4333 and feel they do not play as well, so I would be tempted to pass rather than bid 1N on a flat 12 points.
There is an ongoing problem in bridge especially amongst less experienced players who expect others to bid the same way as they do and seem to think you should follow absolute rules and not use judgement. In practice judgement tends to come with experience and so it is not possible to assume one person will bid the same way on a hand as others do.The EBU has made a specific rule that if you are playing a short club and it may contain five diamonds then this must be part of your announcement so your opponent was correct. When you play a short club the way you do on BBO you must write “may be 2, may have five diamonds” in the explain box.
I am interested in your comments which I think shows part of the problem. You refer to ‘natural bidding’. It is not: natural bidding is to bid your five card suit before your three card suit.
But your comment that ‘it’s a fairly normal treatment in this sort of system’ is at the root of the problem. One of the problems I have to deal with repeatedly in this column and its predecessor in Mr Bridge’s magazine is an expectation that other people bd the way you do. It is often wrong and you must do your best not to mislead people by assuming they know your methods. Just out of interest, I play a short club with three partners and with each of them I would open 1D on your hand. I am not suggesting your methods are unreasonable or uncommon but they are not universal.Just to deal with something that probably is irrelevant, if 2C is not forcing it needs to be alerted.
As to whether South’s question provides unauthorised information (UI) to North, yes it does. So North must not choose a call suggested by the UI if there are logical alternatives (LAs). So would a number of people consider pass, and some of them choose it? My immediate reaction is no. It is difficult to believe anyone passes 2C out with such a suitable hand for a takeout double. So if people are not passing then pass is not an LA and the double is acceptable.It is normal to play (1H) P (P) 2N as a strong balanced hand with a good heart stop. Opinions differ as to the range, I have heard 17-19, 18-20, 19-21, 18-21. Whichever you play would bid 2N with your hand and while it is complicated I would expect to get a plus score.
Playing these two bids as you do (and so do I) be careful not to describe them as ‘Weak’. If playing live bridge you announce ‘Weak to Intermediate’ when partner opens one. Similarly if playing on BBO or RealBridge with self alerting before making the bid you write ‘Weak to Intermediate’ in the box.
Naturally the opponent has no right to be rude.
However, he is correct. If you are playing three weak twos then you are not playing Benji and you should amend your SSD to take the word Benji off it. Benji refers to a 2C opening to show a pretty strong hand and a 2D opening to show a very strong hand.
My guess is that you believe Benji refers to weak twos. It does not. It refers to a method of playing two artificial strong bids so that you can show Acol twos with one bid and an Acol 2C with another. This allows you to play two of a major as weak without losing two different types of strong opening.At level 2 a 1N opening must show at least 10 points and have no singleton, void or seven card suit.
I have always understood that 5332 is semi balanced. The term is used in conversation.
In the EBU a pair may agree to play 1N with a range, whose lower end is not less than 9 points:
‘Natural, non-forcing with a continuous defined range. A ‘natural’ 1NT opening has no more than nine cards in two suits, no void, and does not have seven hearts or seven spades. The range must be the same when holding a singleton.’
This is the EBU’s definition of natural for a 1N opening. Note that is not the same as whether it is semi balanced or balanced. A semi-balanced hand is 5422 or 5332 or 6322 and a balanced hand is 4432 or 4333. Some people use the term flat for 4333. So a 1N opening is not limited to balanced and semi-balanced shapes.
If a pair agree to include a singleton in their definition of a 1N opening then it must be part of the announcement, eg “12 to 14, may have a singleton”.
