[jtfanclub]

mgoetze, on Aug 11 2006, 10:53 AM, said:

Nope, that's not canapé. Canapé refers to systems where you systematically open your second-longest suit, e.g. Blue Team Club (which also happens to be a strong club system, but this is not necessary.) Precision, incidentally, is a specific type of srong club system with 5 card majors, but there are lots of strong club systems out there which aren't precision (even though they may include 5 card majors...)

You're right.

Speaking of which, in the latest European Championships:

"Natural", 5 card majors (2/1 GF, Standard American, etc) = 33
Strong Club systems (mainly precision variants) = 25
Nebulous Club (Polish, Carrot, etc) = 16
"Natural", 4 card majors = 11
Nasz = 5 (Forcing Club, strong 2♣ or 2♦)
"Natural", 5+ Spades and 4+ Hearts = 4
Magic Diamond = 1


Out of the 95 teams, almost exactly half of them played played a natural club, and half played a Strong or Nebulous Club system. 'Standard American' seems to have lost its dominance at the upper levels in Europe.

Quote

I'm sorry but this is not true. "Natural" just doesn't catch all of it. I will challenge you Jtfanclub: You send me your two pages of Precision system note and I will give you an ambiguous uncontested auction.

I can send you a one page of Precision system notes in which, with any two hands, I can devise an auction in which each bid is clearly defined and will lead to a reasonable contract (defined as unlikely to get a bad result or a common place to end up using other systems). I can't say it'll always lead to a good (or even average) result, or that it can't be greatly improved by adding more possible calls, but there's always at least one clear bid for every hand at any point in the auction.

But for ambigiuous contested auctions sure. 1♣-4♦ has no meaning even in the complicated version. If somebody asked me what it meant, I'd probably say 'partner pulled the wrong card'.