[han]

hrothgar, on Aug 1 2005, 05:10 PM, said:

After looking at the range of response, i've settled on a simple solution.
The only simple solution is for us to alert everything.
EVERY bid, no matter how innocuous needs an alert.

Back to the topic:

As Richard very well knows, alerting every bid is the same as not alerting any bid. While this might be ok, alerts were introduced for a good reason, and I think that they still serve a purpose. Having to ask for the meaning of every bid just in case it is something unusual doesn't make the game more fun.

In an ideal world, you would alert a bid if you think that the opponents might not know that the bid conveys a special message. In the real world that needs strict laws, the closest we can come to this is to alert bids that differ from some standard system. The only problem is that this standard system has to be well defined, and that all players need to know it.

People who play unusual systems or conventions often feel discriminated against by the alerting procedures. In my opinion there is no reason for this.

[helene_t]

hrothgar, on Aug 2 2005, 12:10 AM, said:

After looking at the range of response, i've settled on a simple solution.
The only simple solution is for us to alert everything.
EVERY bid, no matter how innocuous needs an alert.

Pretty close. That's what I do, unless I'm sure that the opps will understand without alert.

For example, playing precision or acol: alert all 1-openings.

Alert 3+ clubs if playing against players who might not play that. I do not alert 5-card majors when playing against 4-card majorites though and I don't alert weak jumps except for jump shifts.

Alert responses to 1NT, whether natural, stayman, transfer or whatever. (I don't alert a natural 2NT response to 1NT, though).

Playing Acol, alert a non-forcing 2NT response to one of a suit.

Hannie said:

People who play unusual systems or conventions often feel discriminated against by the alerting procedures. In my opinion there is no reason for this.

That's not my experience. The main purpose of the alert call is to impress the opponents by showing them what a wonderfull system you play and how accurately you know it. It's a privilege to be able to alert.

[coyot]

I think that you should alert bids that are conveying special agreements. I don't think you should alert acol 2NT responses to 1 in suit, if they show something like 10-12 balanced.

You should alert 3+club no matter against whom you play, unless you're playing under a jurisdiction that explicitly says this is not to be alerted (ACBL). (But remember that playing on BBO does not mean playing under ACBL. If there is any jurisdiction, it is WBF).

You should alert Stayman under the condition that the jurisdiction does not state otherwise. (Ours does - this is the ONLY convention that is not alerted and therefore 2♣ natural has to be alerted here, not that I've ever seen it )

When alerting your bids, you should NOT worry about "what exactly the local customs are". You should worry about what system you play, what are it's basic rules.
Basic rules of SA based systems are Majors first, NT then, minors last. Therefore the 1NT rebid with possible 4spade holding must be alerted, because it is unexpected. I would alert 1NT in both cases anyway, just to tell opponents that we have a clear agreement, but strictly speaking, 1NT which denies spades is the "natural" bid in American Standard and therefore does not need to be alerted.

[csdenmark]

helene_t, on Aug 2 2005, 07:41 AM, said:

The main purpose of the alert call is to impress the opponents by showing them what a wonderfull system you play and how accurately you know it. It's a privilege to be able to alert.

Very nice Helene - never thought it that way.
I have often wondered why opps. are asking me to stop alerting.

[borio]

I can tell about Bulgaria,especialy our city(Stara Zagora).
We are guided by Valery Yanev's credo,which says;
'alert everything,that could be wrongly understood by the opponents'
Else all open tournament have different rules,but the commonly used
(may be on Dimiter georgiev's influence :-) is:
'alert all the artificial bids untill 3nt '.
But again it depends on the conditions,if there are screens,then everithing is alertable.
I could say as an acting TD that if the regulations are not so tightened,the people enjoy it much more,they are pleased to be respected as honest and ethic players!

[mgoetze]

Quote

After looking at the range of response, i've settled on a simple solution.
The only simple solution is for us to alert everything.
EVERY bid, no matter how innocuous needs an alert.

Better not try it here in Germany, here the are some bids which the rules specifically prohibit you to alert, including not only things like Stayman but also every pass, double or redouble. That's right, if your double of 1♥ shows 9 clubs to the QJ, don't alert it.

Otherwise, German rules generally try to fit the "alert what's not standard" model, though ACOL 2-bids are not so popular at the higher levels of play...

[Fluffy]

At Tenerife the bidding boxes were having 2 Alert cards, one said Alert with a blue color. The other was brown, and said 'special alert'. That can be useful, since people get bored of asking about transfers, and you will drop a specialalert when you don't use transfers at all.