Comments on Gerben's Bridge Blog: 4- and 5-card majors

And what about canape style? Not too much popular ...

2009-10-27T23:59:39.149+01:00

And what about canape style? Not too much popular now, but very powerful. You start with shorter suit. If you don't find support, now you have great probability to find support in second longest suit. Don't be afraid, that you will not have occasion to show second suit. Vice versa, SAYC, ACOL and others don't show second suit much oftenly.

Hi GerberI was wondering if you could tell me whic...

2007-02-24T13:41:00.000+01:00

Hi Gerber

I was wondering if you could tell me which is the most used bidding system in Germany. I am currently learning the 5-card major, and was hoping to play next time I'm in Germany. Many thanks

guayanna a*t gmail

Rubensohl was of course invented by Bruce Neill of...

2007-02-06T12:03:00.000+01:00

Rubensohl was of course invented by Bruce Neill of Australia, not Ira Rubin.

I am finding it more and more interesting that the...

2006-10-19T05:14:00.000+02:00

I am finding it more and more interesting that the European style is far more tolerant of a short club opening than here in North America. I also am starting to see the benefits of transfer responses and rebids.

I don't think that 5 card majors are significantly superior at slam bidding versus 4 card majors. Often with five card majors you're forced to find your fit at the three level, and the room lost dooms many to the 3NT making 4 or 5 versus 6 of the minor.

Frankly, I'm starting to want to play with more Euro-based players.

Although I agree with my friend Mike, the short cl...

2006-02-02T00:33:00.000+01:00

Although I agree with my friend Mike, the short club has a serious advantage in constructive auctions when you play 1NT=14-16. Whether you play that 1C-1D-1NT=17-19, or transfer responses to 1C, you will often be able to show the strong balanced hand at a lower level. This avoids being overboard with the 17-count when the field is in 1NT, and it frees up the 2NT response. If I could play with myself then I'd play short club with transfer responses.

Han

I agree with your assessment until the last step. ...

2006-01-16T13:50:00.000+01:00

I agree with your assessment until the last step. Playing Better Minor, you can usually assume that partner has 4 diamonds for a 1D opener and 3 or 4 clubs for a 1C opener. It can turn out badly, but will rarely be a disaster. Putting th 4=4=3=2s into 1C gives you slightly more safety after a 1D opener, but significantly hurts your competitive bidding after a 1C opener IMO.

To look at it another way - a 1D opening is frequently precisely 4 cards, so the occasional 3 card holding will usually survive. A 1C opening is fairly unlikely to be on 3 cards, so the optimal strategy with Better Minor is to support more aggressively than you would if you knew that partner had exactly three - if you do that and he turns out to have two, you have problems.

There is also another step that you didn't mention - opening 1C on all balanced hands (this is also 5542, but again is a much more significant development than any since English Acol->Dutch Acol). The merit of this method is that you opening 1D and rebidding 1NT is now free - I open 1D on 4DlongerC, which helps you compete on those hands and knowing that partner won't have 4 diamonds in an unbalanced hand after opening 1C is very useful.

In his 2/1 book, Mike Lawrence writes:There are se...

2005-12-03T13:32:00.000+01:00

In his 2/1 book, Mike Lawrence writes:

There are several reasons why you might choose one system over another.

1. You might choose one system because it is accurate.

2. You might choose a system because it is easy to learn.

3. You might choose a system because it is more fun to use than the other systems.

In terms of being easy to learn, and in terms of being fun, I think the system to play is a basic four card major system.

After this he compares 5-card-major and
4-card systems in several areas, and
concludes that in part-score or game
bidding the pros and cons cancel each
other. It is in the slam bidding area
that he considers 5-card superior.

I play bridge mainly for amusement,
winning is nice but not necessary to
have a good time. I mostly play online
bridge and I don't care much if people
turn out to cheat by using MSN besides
their online bridge program, or
whatever. If their game gets too
unrealistic I may make a joke about it.
Even more fun to beat those peeps. For
my kind of player it is VERY important
that a system is easy to learn and fun.
Avoid misunderstanding at all costs.
So, according to Mike Lawrence then,
four card major systems are superior for
me.