[rbforster]

I came up with this the other day on a lark and thought I'd share. It's not supposed to be particularly well thought out, but maybe just a fun variation on "Standard" that you could teach people as an introduction to artificial systems. In fact, I taught one of my parents who's a member of the old "party bridge" school and has never played duplicate at all. We had fun, and that was the point. Without further ado, the core of the system is...

1♥ 12-14 balanced (or 4414)
    1♠ forces opener to bid 1NT, either to pass with a weak balanced hand or to bid again to make a natural invite (2X or 2N)
    1NT GF artificial, opener describes their shape via transfers
    2X 5+ suit weak, to play

Most of the other opening bids are still the same as Standard.

1♦ normal, but now 4+ unbalanced since the weak NT option is moved to 1♥
1♠ normal 5+
1NT normal 15-17 (or 4414)
2NT normal 20-21

And now to make up for our lack of a natural heart opening, we have:

1♣ One of 3 hand types: (forcing and artificial)
  1. A normal 5+ 1♥ opening
  2. Any very strong opening (like strong 2♣)
  3. 18-19 balanced
Responses are natural, but weak hands or those without direction can bid 1♦ waiting.

After 1♣-1♦:
1♥   normal 1♥ opening
1NT   18-19 balanced
others   very strong natural

And lastly we need a bid of clubs since 1♣ shows (mainly) hearts, so we make 2♣ natural:

2♣ 5+ natural unbalanced clubs similar to precision (2♦ invites and asks for a 4 card major)

I thought I remember reading about similar ideas where someone had used 1♠ as their weak NT bid. I liked 1♥ better since you could right side NT with the GF relay on good hands, but relay with 1♠ on weak hands to force opener to play 1NT.

[EricK]

I have thought of something similar but in a "Little Major" context (i.e. 1♣ = ♥; 1♦ = ♠)

[bhall]

A worthy ancestor of the Minotaur that I play now was "Little Major Canape'," where:

1♣ was 4+ ♥ or big and balanced,
1♦ was 4+ ♠,
1♥ was 15-20, minors or one long minor, and
1♠ was 12-14 NT or any unbalanced strong 2.

Alas, this is playable only in the Spingold and Vanderbilt.

[gwnn]

I think it's cute. The unlimited 2♣ will never work, though.

[rbforster]

gwnn, on Jan 9 2008, 01:26 AM, said:

I think it's cute. The unlimited 2♣ will never work, though.

Yeah, I agree. I didn't want to make things too artificial in my original design, but to handle that you probably want to limit the range on 2♣ and add the rest of the club range to 1♣. Maybe something like this:

2♣ 12-17 5+ clubs (precision style, but stronger)

1♣ add 18+ club hands, now with 1♣-1♦ continuations
  1♥ heart hand
  1♠ strong club hand
  1N 18-19 bal or 4414
  2X very strong natural

[Free]

I read about a similar system with 2-under openings, I think it's called Utropia:
1♣ = 5+♥
1♦ = 5+♠
1♥ = balanced/4441
1♠ = 5+♣
1NT = 5+♦

Dunno how it performs...

[akhare]

Free, on Jan 10 2008, 08:49 AM, said:

I read about a similar system with 2-under openings, I think it's called Utropia:
1♣ = 5+♥
1♦ = 5+♠
1♥ = balanced/4441
1♠ = 5+♣
1NT = 5+♦

Dunno how it performs...

Should perform pretty OK (assuming the rest of the system deals with it).

Todd and I use a similar structure, with 1♣/1♦ promising 4+ card major, and 1♠ = ♦s.

Is Utropia a FP system or do they just use 2♣+ for the stronger hands? They may not need it, because they can always make all openings forcing to at least the minimum level of the implied suit...

[david_c]

Free, on Jan 10 2008, 02:49 PM, said:

I read about a similar system with 2-under openings, I think it's called Utropia:
1♣ = 5+♥
1♦ = 5+♠
1♥ = balanced/4441
1♠ = 5+♣
1NT = 5+♦

Dunno how it performs...

I can guess.