[David Stevenson]

The main use of Gerber is when opener has shown a balanced hand and responder has an unbalanced hand with a lot of tricks. While the given hand may not be good enough as described for a grand slam unless you are lucky, consider the same hand with an extra queen. Now if partner shows a balanced hand with at least 23 points there seems an excellent chance that 7N will be good, unless horror of horrors, despite 34 points, you are missing an ace!  So now Gerber comes into its own.

[David Stevenson]

In all games of bridge there are always people whose attitude is poor. You get this in casual games on BBO and in clubs and congresses. The advantage of playing in events is that there are directors to deal with these things but they cannot deal with them unless you tell them about it. If you are confident that your convention card said Revolving or that you did not have a convention card you should not argue but you should immediately call the director and tell her or him.

As for an opponent telling you a discard was inappropriate that remark is of itself inappropriate and if you had told director then she or he would have  had a strong word with your opponent. Apart from anything else, false carding is perfectly legal.

You never need to answer what a particular card asked for, merely to explain the agreement and to let them work it out. Again, if an opponent does not like this, tell the director.

I do not know what Congress you were playing in but there has just been one in East Wales which for reasons I could not fathom took longer than any other Congress. Not only was it 48 boards, but it was slower because of an instruction from the organiser. I do feel that you might enjoy some events by picking and choosing. Several events seem to be 42 boards and there have been some events that are shorter. When you talk of the authorities you must remember that congresses are generally run by a county or the equivalent in Wales, Scotland or Ireland and each has different authorities with different ideas.

Finally, I do not know what your experiences but if for example you have been playing in the easy events run by Bernard perhaps you could try something in between before launching into a full Congress, for example the duplicates run by the EBU which are open to everybody, five main ones a day plus two easier ones for less experience players. I think it would be unfortunate if you did not play in congresses again because of one pair.

[David Stevenson]

This forum deals with what is legal. To open a strong artificial 2C it must contain either:

16+ points, or

12+ points and 5+ controls where A=2 controls, K=1 control

All your example hands contain more than 16 points so all are legal as 2C openings. Whether they are sensible to open 2C is more a question for the Ask Julian forum, though I personally would open 1S on the 2nd and 3rd hands and 2NT on the first.

[David Stevenson]

The best method after 1M (2NT), slightly different to the methods shown above, is

Double = Strong, balanced

3C = Strong, 5+ in other major

3D = Limit raise to 3 of major or better

3M = Competitive

3otherM = 6+ cards, competitive

3NT = To play

4C/D = Splinter

4H/S = To play

The reason for playing 3C and 3D this way round and not as suggested above is that after a limit raise to 3M or better opener knows what suit is agreed so does not need extra room after 3D.  He knows 3H is safe on a minimum.
But after partner shows the other major he can bid 3 or 4 of it with a fit, 3 or 4 of his own suit with sufficient extra length (usually six cards) but what happens when he has neither?  Then he can bid 3D to say he does not know where to play and responder can show 3 card support for his major or rebid his own suit with extra length or bid 3NT if suitable.

[David Stevenson]

One of the problems in bridge is that names make discussion and communication easier which is good but people often get names wrong because they have their own ideas or some friend has told them something and they have misunderstood it.

The Benjamin convention, often referred to as Benji, consists of 2C and 2D openings to show the strong hands, with 2D showing stronger hands than 2C. This is so that you can use 2H and 2S openings for other things, nearly always weak two openings. The only common modification that is used is to reverse the meanings of 2C and 2D and this is generally called Reverse Benjamin, or Reverse Benji.

The trouble is that a lot of people think the Benji refers to the weak twos so the person you spoke to when he refers to modified Benji thinks that Benji is to do with the weak twos. The simple answer is that he is completely wrong and he is probably playing what is generally referred to as three weak twos.

[David Stevenson]

The announcement is “Stayman”.

One of the problems in club bridge is that a lot of people are taught that a 2C response to 1NT shows a four card major so to them when it doesn’t (so-called “non-promissory”) it is something of a surprise. Of course this goes further because in some clubs everyone pretty much is playing it as promissory. However as players get more experienced and learn various things they find that non-promissory is the norm. In practical terms it rarely makes much difference to the opposition which it is and if they need to know they should ask.

[David Stevenson]

Sometime I might just add that. This was compiled some time ago. I rarely update my site these days. There are always new methods.

[David Stevenson]

The first point is that it is certainly allowed. There are no limits on how strong or weak you may play a jump overcall.
The second point is that there is a difference between normal methods and the occasional deviation. If this pair play their weak jump overcalls as 5 to 10 normally but when he saw this hand he just felt he could not resist then that is perfectly legal. It is not required that players follow their agreements with Partner so long as the deviations are not expected.

Of course it may be that this pair plays their jump overcalls as 2 to 6 or a wider range such as 1 to 11. These are not alertable but some helpful description should be made, such as “very weak” or “weak, wide ranging”. It rarely affects opponents how these are played and if you are counting points perhaps to find a missing queen you should ask the range not assume.

[David Stevenson]

You could call the director and if you feel misled you should even if he decides against you. It is normal bridge to play intermediate twos in fourth position and because people are so casual in their descriptions of their methods I would think a lot of people who play intermediate just say weak when asked.
I would not expect the director to adjust but he would tell the pair to explain their methods more accurately.

[David Stevenson]

The problem with a lot of claims is that people who claim often make very poor claim statements and in some cases none at all and in live bridge it is the director’s job to decide whether it is just a bad claim statement or whether it is a bad claim. When claims are made online the hand must be completed so the rule is just to play on after declining the claim and then ask the director to look at it at the end to see whether it was a bad claim or a bad claim statement.
In the example given I would think it was just a bad claim statement because the line to make it is so obvious. But it is not one of the easiest decisions directors have to make whether it is a bad claim or a bad claim statement.

[David Stevenson]

On BBO there is no hurry to call the director because every action, every time and every message is recorded so the director who will not do anything until after the hand and so does not need to be called until the end.
But you must remember that while you have learnt to play bridge in a certain way often others play differently but legally. There are very very few natural bids that are illegal. You also get players who are not very good who have some idea others would not have and bid something that looks strange. These are the normalities of bridge.

[David Stevenson]

Halmic is quite a common convention and has been around for well over 40 years. It was called Aardvark for many years and still is by many of us.  A group got together to discuss what to do after 1NT was doubled and “invented” Halmic without realising it was not new and had been played for many years.
Stewart’s method is called Helvic (or Hayashi).
If you really want to put your head in a spin there are 51 (yes, 51!) different methods on my Bridgepage at https://blakjak.org/dbl_1nt0.htm.  I advise lots of black coffee before looking at them!

[David Stevenson]

Not only is the rule clear but the comment you quote at the bottom points out that you must follow this rule. The idea that 2C shows any hand with at least 8 playing tricks is not a legal agreement. If you play it so that it may have fewer than 16 points then (a) it must have 5+ controls and 12+ points and (b) you must tell opponents that you do it on hands weaker in top card strength than normal.
Personally I would never open a Benji 2C with fewer than 18 points.

[David Stevenson]

I think, Stewart, that you should recount!  It has four controls, not five, so is not a legal 2C opening. Furthermore, 2C would not enter my head as a possibility since it is far too weak in top cards and I want partner to take my 2C openings seriously.

[David Stevenson]

While you may be right, and 1NT might easily go two off when East ducks the spade smoothly, though East might bid 2H over 1NT, the important thing is not to realise why East/West bid this way, but not to assume they will bid as you would.

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