[gwnn]

In Kit Woolsey's famous book on matchpoints, he wrote a very interesting section entitled 'Paving the way', where he discusses a style where a 4 card major could be opened on 4M5m but sometimes a 3 card minor is opened with 4M3m, sometimes you respond a 4 card diamond suit on 4-4 and sometimes a major on 4-5, etc. I must say it sounded like a real fun idea for MP. Has anyone tried something along these lines? Can you effectively sort out the various hands one could hold?

[whereagles]

I know of a guy, who used to be my country's top MPs player, who played a pet system of 4 card majors with canapes. He did fine with it, even despite partners failing to grasp the system properly.

So yeah, I think it's playable.

[Phil]

Sounds like a great idea if you don't have to disclose your methods.

[matmat]

Phil, on Mar 9 2009, 10:14 AM, said:

Sounds like a great idea if you don't have to disclose your methods.

if you don't know/don't understand your methods, do you still have to disclose them?

[rbforster]

matmat, on Mar 9 2009, 02:44 PM, said:

if you don't know/don't understand your methods, do you still have to disclose them?

...or just that you don't understand them?

[awm]

I've noticed that some flexibility in methods can be quite valuable. A lot of modern systems (especially the relay-based ones) tend to be straightjackets to some degree. Given your pattern and overall strength, there is really only one way to bid a hand regardless of location of values. But especially at matchpoints (where getting partner off to a good lead can be huge, and playing in the right partial can be a big deal) it can make a lot of sense to emphasize good suits over bad suits.

For example, if you have four really strong spades, it can pay to open 1♠ because a 4-3 spade partial is likely to be a good contract, whereas opening a ratty four-card spade suit is not very appealing. If you hear the auction 1♥-1♠, it can help to rebid 1NT with a 15(43) pattern when your hearts are weak, as this will often lead to a better partial than rebidding your longer minor (which often leads to partner correcting back to hearts on a doubleton). Opening 1M vs. 1NT with a 5332 pattern can depend a lot on type and location of values (how much do you want to play 2M in a 5-2? how much better is notrump likely to be from your side than the other?)

I suspect that at IMP scoring this is less of a win, as partials are less important and slam bidding is more important (where there is space to find out exact pattern if you bid in a more regimented way and it can be critical to do so).