[shanbari]

fred, on Jun 14 2005, 05:52 PM, said:

Here's what I like to do. It is mostly natural and logical (to me at least) and as far as I can tell it works pretty well.

1) Responder always rebids a 5-card major unless he has primary support for one of opener's suit and enough to force to game. In that case, he shows his support. Opener will continue by making his most natural bid so you won't lose any 5-3 major suit fits by playing this way.

Note that responder promises neither a good suit nor any values when he rebids his major - he could have a terrible hand. After responder rebids his major, opener has to jump or bid a new suit in order to force. The reason why opener should not rebid his 5-card major with the type of hands described in the first paragraph follows from this.

2) If responder jump rebids his major, he is showing a suit that can play in slam opposite a small singleton. This call is forcing to game, but it does not necessarily show any slam interest.

3) If the 4th suit is available at the 2-level, it is an artificial negative. Opener has to jump or bid a new suit in order to force over this - all of his other calls are non-forcing. If responder then rebids the 4th suit he is showing a "directionless game force" (ie a hand without primary support for partner and no stopper in the 4th suit).

4) 2NT is always natural and forcing to game. This you might call the antithesis of Ingberman.

5) In 1C-1S-2H and 1D-1S-2H, responder's return to 3 of opener's minor is non-forcing. Responder's rebid of the 4th suit is an artificial game force with at least 3 cards in opener's minor.

6) In the auctions mentioned in 5) above, in my system there is no need for responder to show a "bad hand with 4-card heart support". That's because I play something called "Reverse Flannery Responses". For me 3H would be forcing in both the auctions mentioned in 5). If you don't play Reverse Flannery you will have to tweak 5) in order to come up with a system that can handle everything.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

great structure, fred, and it fits very well with reverse flannery as well.

one more question.

1c - 1s;
2h - ?

if responder had 5s 3c WEAK hand, do you prefer 2s rebid or 3c rebid ?

thanks,

SHAN

[fred]

shanbari, on Jun 15 2005, 02:22 PM, said:

fred, on Jun 14 2005, 05:52 PM, said:

Here's what I like to do. It is mostly natural and logical (to me at least) and as far as I can tell it works pretty well.

1) Responder always rebids a 5-card major unless he has primary support for one of opener's suit and enough to force to game. In that case, he shows his support. Opener will continue by making his most natural bid so you won't lose any 5-3 major suit fits by playing this way.

Note that responder promises neither a good suit nor any values when he rebids his major - he could have a terrible hand. After responder rebids his major, opener has to jump or bid a new suit in order to force. The reason why opener should not rebid his 5-card major with the type of hands described in the first paragraph follows from this.

2) If responder jump rebids his major, he is showing a suit that can play in slam opposite a small singleton. This call is forcing to game, but it does not necessarily show any slam interest.

3) If the 4th suit is available at the 2-level, it is an artificial negative. Opener has to jump or bid a new suit in order to force over this - all of his other calls are non-forcing. If responder then rebids the 4th suit he is showing a "directionless game force" (ie a hand without primary support for partner and no stopper in the 4th suit).

4) 2NT is always natural and forcing to game. This you might call the antithesis of Ingberman.

5) In 1C-1S-2H and 1D-1S-2H, responder's return to 3 of opener's minor is non-forcing. Responder's rebid of the 4th suit is an artificial game force with at least 3 cards in opener's minor.

6) In the auctions mentioned in 5) above, in my system there is no need for responder to show a "bad hand with 4-card heart support". That's because I play something called "Reverse Flannery Responses". For me 3H would be forcing in both the auctions mentioned in 5). If you don't play Reverse Flannery you will have to tweak 5) in order to come up with a system that can handle everything.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

great structure, fred, and it fits very well with reverse flannery as well.

one more question.

1c - 1s;
2h - ?

if responder had 5s 3c WEAK hand, do you prefer 2s rebid or 3c rebid ?

thanks,

SHAN

2S. First priority is always to rebid a 5-card major (unless you have a game force with both a 5-card major and real support for one of opener's suits).

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Fluffy]

It's obvious that people play level 2 voices as weak, but IMO this is a mistake, consumes too much space with the hands that normally happen more(when you have 8+ instead of 6-7).

Althou obviously posting this won't help me, I won't find any upporters for playing it , and anyway I play it differently on my partnership hehe.