[Cyberyeti]

barmar, on 2015-March-26, 11:58, said:

Surely it was the overcaller who had 6 good spades, not the strong club opener.

Sorry yes, post edited.

[Zelandakh]

Cyberyeti, on 2015-March-26, 11:49, said:

Partner opens a strong club, RHO overcalls 2♠ and plays there. We met the one pair in the universe that plays strong jump overcalls over a 16+ club

Perhaps a jump overcall is strong without a question but weak after asking the meaning of 1♣.

[manudude03]

I had this auction tonight:

(P)-P-(2C)-3S.

I somewhat assumed this would just be natural pre-emptive. Partner alerts it as intermediate (11-15), we may be waiting a while for that to come up again.

[perko90]

Worst agreement:

Ptr: 1NT (15-17)
Them: X
Me: "What's the X?"
Them "Takeout"
Me: "Takeout?!"
Them: "Yes, he promises 3-card support in all the suits and opening count"
(after hand)
Me: (to myself) sure enough, a 13 pt pancake!

[Zelandakh]

perko90, on 2015-March-29, 16:44, said:

Ptr: 1NT (15-17)
Them: X
Me: "What's the X?"
Them "Takeout"

It is a surprisingly common agreement.

[Siegmund]

Yes, extremely common among the live novices. And it's completely impossible to get them to alert it, indicate it on their convention card, or otherwise grasp that that isn't the standard meaning of the call. Sigh.

[mycroft]

One of the many reasons we play "rescues on over all doubles, Alerted or not." But 12-14 is my *strong* NT.

Of course our rescues allow us (in fact, encourage us) to play 1NTx and 1NTxx...

[TylerE]

One local pair plays what I refer to as reverse 2/1.

So, something like 1♦-p-2♠ shows opening values and 4+ cards.

[32519]

Last night I encountered this crazy agreement at the table -
1♣ = 9+ cards in the black suits, 5-15 HCP
1♦ = 9+ cards in the red suits, 5-15 HCP
1♥ = 9+ cards in ♥ and ♣, 5-15 HCP
1♠ = 9+ cards in ♠ and ♦, 5-15 HCP
1NT = 9+ cards in the majors, 8-15 HCP
2♣ = 16+ HCP, any distribution
These guys didn't seem to have any bid for the common 4333, 4432, 5332 hand patterns, 12-15 HCP. No surprise then when they ended up stone last for the evening?

[gordontd]

32519, on 2017-November-21, 22:49, said:

Last night I encountered this crazy agreement at the table -
1♣ = 9+ cards in the black suits, 5-15 HCP
1♦ = 9+ cards in the red suits, 5-15 HCP
1♥ = 9+ cards in ♥ and ♣, 5-15 HCP
1♠ = 9+ cards in ♠ and ♦, 5-15 HCP
1NT = 9+ cards in the majors, 8-15 HCP
2♣ = 16+ HCP, any distribution
These guys didn't seem to have any bid for the common 4333, 4432, 5332 hand patterns, 12-15 HCP. No surprise then when they ended up stone last for the evening?

They probably had fun though. Unless the cards had been dealt by hand.

[Zelandakh]

32519, on 2017-November-21, 22:49, said:

Last night I encountered this crazy agreement at the table -

These guys didn't seem to have any bid for the common 4333, 4432, 5332 hand patterns, 12-15 HCP. No surprise then when they ended up stone last for the evening?

According to your list they also have no opening for hands with both minors and 4441s. It seems quite likely to me that you have an incomplete understanding of their system from the few hands you played against them and they either use 2♦ and/or 2NT to cover some of these hands or bundle them into a lower opening such as 1♣.

Out of interest, were you playing your Lee 2♦ opening against them? It might be that they had a similar impression about you as you got from them!

[32519]

Zelandakh, on 2017-November-22, 08:31, said:

According to your list they also have no opening for hands with both minors and 4441s. It seems quite likely to me that you have an incomplete understanding of their system from the few hands you played against them and they either use 2♦ and/or 2NT to cover some of these hands or bundle them into a lower opening such as 1♣.

Turns out you were right about this. Having now played many more hands against these guys, I still think it is a dumb system. The opening bid is based on where the MAJORITY of HCP's lie, minimum suit length = 3. The better players in the club are starting to exploit this weakness in their system. It tells you in which direction to take any needed finesse in all 4 suits! To update the first post on this crazy agreement, this is what we now have -
1♣ = majority of HCP's are in the black suits
1♦ = majority of HCP's are in the red suits
1♥ = majority of HCP's are in ♥ and ♣
1♠ = majority of HCP's are in ♠ and ♦
1NT = majority of HCP's are in the majors
2♣ = 1 suited hand, 16+ HCP's
2♦ = 1 suited hand, 16+ HCP's
2♥ = 1 suited hand, 16+ HCP's
2♠ = 1 suited hand, 16+ HCP's

The only thing about this crazy agreement which (to me) seems to have any merit is this: the more cards you have in the two suits shown with the opening bid, the lower the HCP count needed for the opening bid.

Just to illustrate this dumb agreement, last night these guys missed a laydown 4♥ contract. The opener had 5 babies without a single honour. He had (I think) 12 HCP's in total with the majority concentrated in ♠ and ♦. Systemically he opened 1♠, his partner had preference for ♦ and they ended up playing in 2♦ which made. Responder had 3 cards in the ♥ suit, all of them honours. Everyone else bid and made 4♥.

[32519]

These guys have finally cottoned on to the the fact that the better players at the club were exploiting the fundamental weakness of their system i.e. when they open the bidding and our side ends up declaring, we know in which direction to take any required finesse in all four suits. They now have a new system which isn't any better. They have come up with this for their opening bids -
1♣ = 8-10 HCP
1♦ = 11-12 HCP
1♥ = 13-14 HCP
1♠ = 15-16 HCP
1NT = 17-18 HCP
2♣ = 14+ HCP majority of the HCP concentrated in the black suits
2♦ = 14+ HCP majority of the HCP concentrated in the red suits
2♥ = 14+ HCP majority of the HCP concentrated in ♥ and ♣
2♠ = 14+ HCP majority of the HCP concentrated in ♠ and ♦
2NT = 14+ HCP majority of the HCP concentrated in ♥ and ♠

Their previous 1-level opening bids has now become their 2-level opening bids, but with more specifics a) the HCP starts off at 14, and b) both the promised suits must now contain a minimum of 4-cards each.