[mycroft]

One of the nice parts of this bid is that players *will* respond on crap, because they're afraid of 1C-AP playing the 3-1 or 3-2 fit. Then partner, who is more likely to have the 18-19 balanced hand when they have crap than a priori, rebids 2NT, -3 or 4, possibly doubled, and if they run, definitely doubled. So they decide to play this Karosel 2D opener, which means they never have to worry about that auction again.

Do they know what to do with 1m-1M; 2NT now that it's not 18-19 balanced? No. Do they notice that it sometimes goes 1m-1M; 4M off one (for the same zero against all the 110s or 140s as they no longer get after 1m-1M; 2NT)? Of course not. Have they found out how often, if they pass these crap hands in a "bad" fit, they actually play it, and how often when they do partner actually has their suit, and how often even when they don't, 1C off whatever is a bad score? Yeah, right.

I am not decrying this convention - it *is* good, in the correct context. Maybe not as good as the alternatives, but style is style. But I'm betting it's being played more often than not without the followups and the negative inferences worked out, without the idle bids being used to assist, just because someone showed them this neat convention that solves that hole in the NT ladder that seems to frequently lead them to bad scores.

[Echognome]

jillybean, on 2011-September-11, 08:33, said:

Yikes, no wonder we are playing 'modified responses' I don't particularly want to play this convention but I am playing in
a sectional this weekend with a partner who has this as her favorite gadget. I was hoping to get a quick overview of it so I could understand it better but I am going to leave it after seeing the actual system.

I play with this partner once or twice a year when we get together at tournaments, we have a great time and usualy do very well.
We have a very basic 2/1 card which is fine but I had to work to get inverted minors added, we don't play leb. I know it is her mentor who has got her playing this and a very similar response system to 2C, oh joy.

It came up last night which is what prompted the post because we didn't know how to bid over interference.

---

Making 4, after which my partner said "so how do you like it?"

I don't understand your partner's 3NT bid at all. She already showed 18-19 balanced and does not have a club stopper.

I think it's a fair question you raise though in your original post. I think we have all played with partners that love a particular aspect of system and we agree to play it as a compromise. She did say it was her favorite convention, not the best convention. I think your best bet is to learn it the best you can according to how she plays it. She won't expect that you will know all the continuations and how to deal with interference and all of the negative inferences involved, but that is ok. Try to refocus your energy and that of your partner by asking meaningful questions on what different competitive bidding sequences mean and what her style of preempts, overcalls, jump overcalls, etc. are at different vulnerabilities (if you do not know already). It is not worth your time individually or your partnership time to spend a lot of time on a convention which is unlikely to show up that often when you play and you will just do your best to survive when it does.

[whereagles]

blackshoe, on 2011-September-12, 12:20, said:

What convention is this?

Player A: Cappelletti
Player B: Hamilton
Player C: Helms
Player D: Pottage

They're all right.

Thank you for the names. I'll proceed to have them all locked up and quartered.