[Vampyr]

 gwnn, on 2020-January-29, 04:06, said:

Whenever I prepare for a squeeze, I remember the acronym BLUE and spend about 5 minutes trying to remember what the letters stand for (yea I just googled it too, no need to reply explaining it to me - I'll forget them in 5 minutes anyway). Without the "mnemonic" I could plan and execute the squeeze in 10 seconds.

(Not to say that I always execute squeezes correctly, just that the acronym is not helping.)

Gosh. All I can recall is busy. Must be getting old.

[barmar]

 Zelandakh, on 2020-January-28, 10:38, said:

That is interesting - it is standard over there? I have always just used fast arrival so 3M > 3NT > 4M. That seems to me extremely easy to remember!

That works, too. This is more about the specific range, it's the same as the usual 15-17 1NT.

There's a mnemonic for Truscott defense to strong club. There are two bids that show non-touching suits: Double and 1NT. 1NT shows the pointed suits because 1 has a point at the top.

[Tramticket]

 gwnn, on 2020-January-29, 04:06, said:

Whenever I prepare for a squeeze, I remember the acronym BLUE ...

Yes, I have always found this unhelpful. I know that I need a squeeze card, menaces, entries and timing ... but none of these helpful words seems to relate to BLUE!

[gwnn]

 Tramticket, on 2020-January-29, 09:00, said:

Yes, I have always found this unhelpful. I know that I need a squeeze card, menaces, entries and timing ... but none of these helpful words seems to relate to BLUE!

Busy (in two suits)
Loser (count rectified)
U - I think under? The defender must be under at least 1 menace? (no, googled it again, it is upper)
Entry (to the menace)

[pilowsky]

Here's one I call Michael in honour of the Canadian expert MikeH. If you open a weak 2 in the majors and partner responds with 2NT (15+ forcing), then a bid of the Mi- nors favours playing in the suit whereas a bid of the majors is C(hael) onstructive and favours playing in no trumps. Minor keys are sad and Major keys are happy so there is also a musical relationship.

[Zelandakh]

 barmar, on 2020-January-29, 08:36, said:

That works, too. This is more about the specific range, it's the same as the usual 15-17 1NT.

The ranges I know are approximately 12-13, 14-15 and 16+. Are you playing 12-14/15-17/18+? I want to bid 4M over 2NT as little as possible so making it the most common answer from these 3 just makes no sense to me.

 barmar, on 2020-January-29, 08:36, said:

There's a mnemonic for Truscott defense to strong club. There are two bids that show non-touching suits: Double and 1NT. 1NT shows the pointed suits because 1 has a point at the top.

That is another interesting idea. I learnt that you double when you hold the suit bid and bid 1NT when you hold the other pair. So (1♣) - X = ♣ + ♥. (1♣) - 1NT = ♦ + ♠. (1♣) - (1♦) - X = ♦ + ♠. (1♣) - (1♦) - 1NT = ♣ + ♥. Of course the best-known mnemonic in this area is CRASH, which typically translates either to X = same colour; 1♦ = same rank; 1NT = same shape, or to X = ♥; 1♦ = ♠; 1♥ = same colour; 1♠ = same rank; 1NT = same shape

 gwnn, on 2020-January-29, 09:33, said:

Busy (in two suits)
Loser (count rectified)
U - I think under? The defender must be under at least 1 menace? (no, googled it again, it is upper)
Entry (to the menace)

The U is Upper I believe, though Under is arguably more descriptive of what it actually means - at least one of the threats needs to be in the hand playing immediately after the hand being squeezed.

[gwnn]

(bf added by me here)

 Zelandakh, on 2020-January-30, 04:27, said:

gwnn said:

Busy (in two suits)
Loser (count rectified)
U - I think under? The defender must be under at least 1 menace? (no, googled it again, it is upper)
Entry (to the menace)

The U is Upper I believe, though Under is arguably more descriptive of what it actually means - at least one of the threats needs to be in the hand playing immediately after the hand being squeezed.

 Tramticket, on 2020-January-29, 09:00, said:

Yes, I have always found this unhelpful. I know that I need a squeeze card, menaces, entries and timing ... but none of these helpful words seems to relate to BLUE!

I think the most likely etymology is Blue Monday. Squeezes never work, just like nothing works on Mondays.

[Zelandakh]

 gwnn, on 2020-January-30, 04:50, said:

I think the most likely etymology is Blue Monday. Squeezes never work, just like nothing works on Mondays.

Or alternatively, players trying to visualise using the BLUE acronym pull off a squeeze once in a blue moon.

[sfi]

 Zelandakh, on 2020-January-30, 04:27, said:

Of course the best-known mnemonic in this area is CRASH.

A similar mnemonic is CRO (colour-rank-other). Of course, I've always wanted to play variations of this just for amusement value, including: SHARC (maybe SHREC with a bit of imagination), ORC, OCHRE, ROC and so on.

[PeterAlan]

 Zelandakh, on 2020-January-30, 04:27, said:

That is another interesting idea. I learnt that you double when you hold the suit bid and bid 1NT when you hold the other pair.

That's how I remember it, and you don't have to change the X / 1NT mnemonic if you play correspondingly over 1♦.

If you play Helvic over 1NT(X), as my regular partner and I do, then Truscott has the same pattern for the touching two-suiters (the suit + next up), which also eases memory strain.

[Vampyr]

 Zelandakh, on 2020-January-30, 05:28, said:

Or alternatively, players trying to visualise using the BLUE acronym pull of a squeeze once in a blue moon.

It was a decent book though.

[gwnn]

 Zelandakh, on 2020-January-30, 05:28, said:

Or alternatively, players trying to visualise using the BLUE acronym pull of a squeeze once in a blue moon.

Or alternatively, say "oops, sorry for misreading your post. Obviously you explained what 'U' stood for but I was too busy trying to educate you to notice that you actually said 'upper' in your post. Oh well!"

[FelicityR]

A maxim: The less you have to remember, the less you have to forget (Just came to me while reading this thread.)

But in all seriousness, asking your (regular) partner questions (and your partner doing likewise to you) about your system, conventions and gadgets away from the table in a Q&A session as an aide-memoire works well I find. Your partner telling you what a particular bid means when you've forgotten it, or vice versa, does seem to lock it in the memory better. The only problem comes when both of you have forgotten what a specific bid meant then it's "oh dear".