— 1 
— 1 
auction is a matter of tactics and does not show
anything extra.
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Q. Are there system changes between matchpoints and IMPs?
A. No. At IMPs you are more apt to play 5-of-a-minor than 3NT, or choose 6-of-a-minor instead of 6NT. Slams are more important at IMPs.
Q. What about the level of competition?
A. We use the system in the strongest competition.
Q. What would you do different if your goal was to shoot pigeons?
A. I have tried most of the notrump defenses: standard, Astro, Brozel, Hamilton, and Woolsey. I think Woolsey is the best. Brozel or DONT allow you into their notrump auction more often, and so might net more matchpoints against bad players.
Q. What is a minimum response to one-of-a-suit and how far is it forcing?
A. A minimum response is 7 notrump points, and is forcing to 1NT.
More to the point, responders continuing to 1NT or raising spades in
the 1 — 1 — 1 auction is a matter of tactics and does not show
anything extra.
Q. Can opener ever raise responder's major with three in a 1 — 1 auction or a 1 — 1 auction?
A. John and I do not.
Q. What is a 2NT response to one-of-a-suit?
A. The American Standard 13-15 notrump points.
Q. What do you do with the unbiddable 11-12 notrump point hands
over 1 ? Here is an example:
A J x x x
1 Pass ?
A. I would bid either 1NT or 1 with this hand. The more general
answer is: invert, or bid a 3-card major, or jump to 3 with six
clubs, or underbid with 1NT, or overbid with 2 or 2NT. If I bid
1 and partner raises, I pass.
Q. What do you think of 10-point hands?
A. I wish that my opponents always had exactly 10 points. They always overbid.
Q. What about Jacoby 2NT?
A. Play it if you want. In the big club system, some of the 11-14
suit point Jacoby hands are an immediate jump to game. 2/1 used
properly seems to accomplish the same objectives. It allows a
natural 2NT, and you can find a 4-4 heart fit after a 1 start.
Q. How accurate is the Law of Total Tricks?
A. Here is a puzzle.
When you look at real world deals, the total tricks is usually within one of the total trumps. The Law of Total Tricks is a drill you should use in a competitive auction.
Q. How accurate is your suit count?
A. Suit count is another good habit you should use. I created two hands to investigate the accuracy of suit count.
A. B.
The first is worth 12 suit points at spades, and the second is worth
16 suit points at spades. I wanted to know the chances of slam
opposite a 1 opening and opposite a 1 opening. My simulations
always use some multiple of 48 deals, and I normalize to 48. The
results of four separate simulations:
After 1 After 1 A B A B No slam 27 34 27 0 50-50 12 7 5 10 Slam 9 7 16 38
I assumed reasonable breaks, so the success at slam will be less
than shown. The conclusion is that A is better than B when partner
opens 1 , and B is much better when partner opens 1 .
Q. Can I choose to bid beautifully with support and less than 14 suit points?
A. Yes. See the previous answer. Any time there is some other
contract to investigate, i.e. slam on hand A, you bid beautifully.
The investigation may also be a choice of games, e.g. 3NT, 4 or
4 . Therefore, do not read a 2/1 response as more than a simple
force to game.
Q. Can I simply jump to game with 14 or 15 suit points if I think suit count overvalues the hand?
A. Yes. A weaker form of hand B might be an example.
Q. Hand A looks like six tricks, and Hand B looks like four tricks.
A. Counting tricks is another drill.
Q.I have seen more than one set of rules for opener's continuations after a 2/1 response.
A. Bid naturally and show your distribution. A rebid of your suit shows six. Opener's rebid of 2NT, raise of partner, reverse, or new suit at the three-level neither shows or denies extras. Try to right side notrump. A splinter does show extras which may be not much more than a fourth trump.
Q. Robinson gives this deal and bidding (# 2 on page 102):
1 2 2 2NT 3 3NT
A. Most of Robinson's example auctions are good and should be studied. His rules for this hand do not seem quite appropriate in a big club setting.
When partner rebids 2 , I think he has a six-card suit.
Therefore:
and then 4 over 3NT. . . With the
A instead of the A I would bid 2NT over 2 . Most of the above auctions ask for a heart lead. It looks okay here, but East would have bid 2NT with a single heart stopper. After all he did bid 2NT with no club stoppers.
Q. You say the first two bids are expected to be real.
A. Yes.
Q. You may miss a slam or go down at 3NT if you respond 2NT instead
of 2 with the East hand. Opener might have:
A. This hand has four trumps, a singleton, and the four essential face cards. In a 48 deal simulation there were no slams opposite Robinson's East hand.
Q. Or you might miss slam if you fail to bid 3 when you have the
A-x.
A. A second simulation showed that rebidding 2NT did not hurt. You
are able to find your slams over both a 2NT and 3 rebid.
Q. What would you rebid with:
1 2 ?
A. This is ugly. Do what you want. If you rebid 2 I will play
you for six spades. If you raise clubs I will play you for three
clubs and no extras.
Q. What about 2/1 after a third or fourth seat opening?
A. We play 2/1 by a passed hand natural, nonforcing, and not invitational. Most of the invitational hands disappeared into a first or second seat weak two-bid. With two possible strains, I would respond with the forcing notrump.
Invert is on by a passed hand. Opener can pass the invert.
Q. What about Drury?
A. If you don't open light you don't need Drury.
Q. The book number for a small slam is 33 points. Where did 32 come from?
A. First you have to define your point rules. I did a study a long time ago. I found that
All of this is consistent with what you find in Appendix 1.
Q. Why 36 for a grand slam with a five-card suit?
A. A grand slam with 35 points was 50-50, and 36 was about 75%.
Q. Talk about the quantitative 4NT rule.
A. The rule is: 4NT is Blackwood only when preceded by a bid at
the 4-level, or after a preemptive opening. It stops leaping
Blackwood. If responder bids 4NT after a 1-of-a-suit, 1NT, or a 2
opening, either immediately or delayed, I expect 18-19 notrump
points. With a minimum, opener passes. With an accept, opener
responds to Blackwood.
Q. Robinson uses Roman Key-Card (RKC).
A. You are not a real person if you do not play RKC. Most, maybe all of his auctions determine that the values are present for slam before RKC. RKC simply dots the "i", and allows him to sell his book.
Q. What about Blackwood when clubs are trump?
A. Useless!
Q. What is the purpose of Blackwood?
A. To determine that two controls are not missing for small slam, or to find all of the controls for grand slam.
Q. No one ever talks about strong jump shift responses to the two-level.
A. Robinson does. I think they are the forgotten tool. "Expert" folklore has put too many restrictions on their use. The immediate jump shift avoids the necessity of later creating a force with new-minor forcing, both-minors forcing, or fourth-suit forcing. Fourth seat is not banned from the auction simply because you have a strong hand, and his bid can mess things up. I think that when you are half way to slam and have a five-card or longer suit, you should consider a strong jump shift.
Q. Your doubles of a minor show 4-4 or better in the majors. Other double systems simply require three cards in each unbid suit. Aren't you passing much more often?
A. Other double systems are more restricted than that. If you incorporate all of those restrictions, you get the surprising result that those doubles have about the same frequency as our doubles.
Q. Why don't you play weak jump overcalls?
A. The theory of weak jump overcalls sounds great. I have never obtained good results, so I play strong jump overcalls. If I want to preempt I jump an extra level.
Q. How strong is strong?
A. My strong jump overcalls are rare. I expect eight-and-a-half to
nine tricks. You can raise with a doubleton and about 6 points.
Bid 3NT over my jump to 3 or 3 with a stopper in opener's suit.
Q. Your card indicates that 2NT is a good limit raise over a takeout double.
A. Yes.
Q. Why don't you play system on over partner's notrump overcall?
A. When I overcall 1NT, I tend not to have a four-card major, so that cue-bid as Stayman is more than sufficient. To belabor the obvious, this means I have support in the minors, and I want you to be able to play in your minor as cheaply as possible. I expect you to bid a five-card suit with any hand less than an invitational bid.
I did a test to investigate the importance of transfers:
1 1NT Pass ?
On 2 deals a transfer might have been better, on 2 deals it might have been worse, and on the other 44 deals it did not matter. Finally, most of the time we wanted to play the suit and not notrump.
Q. Suppose I came to you with a proposal for a new convention. What would you do?
A. Probably ignore you. If you got my attention, I would think about the pluses and minuses of your idea. This would include:
Q. How about two-way splinters? Responder's jumps to the 3-level could be either a mini-splinter or a full splinter. Opener continues aware that responder could have either kind of splinter, and you have more bidding room to investigate slam.
A. We'll think about it.
Q. Your defense against a big club is: Double for majors and notrump for minors.
A. KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. All four suits are natural over a big club or the artificial response.
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