[glen]

hrothgar, on Aug 8 2007, 08:28 PM, said:

Evil mixture of sushi, tequila, and sake.

That's some mixture! Aside from 1♣ excellent defense.

[helene_t]

Oops, I said that diamonds by us is always natural after they open 1♦. That is obviously not the case in the passout seat:
(1♦)-p-(p)-2♦*
is whatever 2♦ would mean over a natural 1♦. Also, if you bid something else than 2♦ in the passout seat, diamonds by us is always a cuebid. The reasoning is that opener's partner tends to have some diamonds for his pass, that the one of us in direct seat could have overcalled a natural 2♦, and that the one of us who's in the passout seat would tend to pass with diamonds length.

Btw, weak jump overcalls must be diciplined against 1M and 2♣ but undiciplined against 1♦ (and against 1♣, of course). If opps play 4-card majors, use undiciplined preempts against those as well, but diciplined preempts against 1♦ if it tends to deny a 4-card major as in the Auken/vonArnim system.

Against the 3-suited 2♦, natural jump overcalls in the majors don't make much sense I think. Maybe they should be used for two-suited hands with diamonds + the bid suit.

[Gerben42]

Quote

At the 1-level i prefer "CRASH":
x=Colour, blacks or reds
1♦=RAnk, majors or minors
1NT=SHape, pointed or rounded

This method and other either-or methods work only if you understand them. If you don't, stay away! Since I ♥ these kinds of methods in many situations, I talk from experience trying to play them with partners who were not ready, or being copied by whole pairs who were not ready.

[P_Marlowe]

sceptic, on Aug 8 2007, 10:44 AM, said:

Hi all

I really need to learn how to defend against precision type systems

any advice where to start please

Hi,

Assuming precision type means strong club:
Use the same convention you play against strong 1NT.
In case X has a conventional meaning, use the 1NT
overcall to show this option.

This approach works reasonable well.

#1 a large part of the hand, which go through
1C are bal. (slighlty less than 50%)
=> Quite often you face a strong NT
#2 You kill the 1 level, very important aspect
for a defence angainst 1C openers
#3 You avoid X, which provides an additional
step
#4 the add. memory load is not to huge
#5 one level overcalls get stronger and more constructive

With kind regards
Marlowe

PS: Against Polish Club you can use a similar approach, just
use the defence you play against weak NT.

[han]

hrothgar, on Aug 8 2007, 02:27 PM, said:

Apollo81 has raised a good point: You can’t really evaluate whether a set of methods is “good” until you agree upon your goals.

Yes you can. The best way to evaluate a method is to play a lot of bridge and see how you do with the given method. This theoretical "my goals are different from yours" talk may be useful to come up with a method that seems good, but in the end it is irrelevant.

Bridge is not about philosophy, it is about winning.

[han]

Oh, and I echo the not-so contradictory opinions of others: overcall aggressively but not randomly. Overcalls at the 1-level should be in the hope that partner can raise so should be honest.

[skjaeran]

Gerben42, on Aug 9 2007, 09:28 AM, said:

Quote

At the 1-level i prefer "CRASH":
x=Colour, blacks or reds
1♦=RAnk, majors or minors
1NT=SHape, pointed or rounded

This method and other either-or methods work only if you understand them. If you don't, stay away!

I definitely agree on that. And I do know how to apply these methods. I'm not 100% sure if that's true for my regular partner now since we so seldom run into bigclubbers these days and have little practise. But him being a sensible guy and generally a good bidder, I'd expect little trouble, if any at all.

[lowerline]

skaeran, on Aug 8 2007, 12:59 PM, said:

I prefer to bid as often as possible over a big club.

At the 1-level i prefer "CRASH":
x=Colour, blacks or reds
1♦=RAnk, majors or minors
1NT=SHape, pointed or rounded

1M=natural, good hand, might be our hand


At the 2-level I use "Amundsen":
2♣=♦ OR majors
2♦=♥ OR 4♠-6+m
2♥=4♥-6+m
2♠=natural

After 2-way bids, we use the multi principle; partner bids as high as he can and is ready for correction.
Passing first and entering later (natural overcall or t/o double) shows a strong hand.

I believe that Modified Crash (the British variant) is slightly better:

dbl = good overcall in ♥
1♦ = good overcall in ♠
1♥ = Colour
1♠ = RAnk
1NT = SHape

After (1♣)-p-(1♦) you can revert to:

dbl = Colour or RAnk (make a choice or combine them)
1M = good overcall (natural)
1NT = SHape

[helene_t]

Hey you guys are discussing those unnecesary gadgets that the tech college students play when the conditions of contest is a beer for the most crazy auction (as in my "Idiotic defense against strong club" thread).

Wayne said that he "really needs" a defense, and asked where to start.

Defense against 1♣ is easy, it's the nebolous diamond and the two-openings that cause problems. See the thread about whether a jump overcall over an intermediate 2♣ is weak or strong. While the wast majority would assume "weak" with a random partner, there was no absolute concensus. And in Coventry, Wackojack and I had a disaster due to doubt as to whether 2♦ over their 1♦ is natural.