[Echognome]

In a week or so I will play in my first ACBL tournament for some time. I played in one fairly shortly after I started playing duplicate, but was playing a simple system. My regular partner from England is here and we read through the GCC chart and I believe this is all now legal. If people that play regularly and/or TD could let me know if anything is in fact illegal, it would be much appreciated. Also, if we need to provide a defense for anything, that would be great to know as well. By the way, if you want to give opinions on the system itself, you are of course welcome, but bear in mind that part of our reasoning for playing this is that it seemed to be the smallest deviation from our normal system that would be GCC legal. Thanks for your help.

1♣: 15-17 Any shape
Responses - Pretty much as to a precision 1♣ opening with natural responses.

1♦: 18+ Any shape
Control showing responses, except 2♥ and 2♠ which show two-suited positives.

1♥/1♠: 10-14 (rule of 19) 5 card majors. Can be 4 only if 4441 shape.
2/1 GF style responses

1NT: 11-14
Normal stayman, transfers, MSS, etc

2♣/2♦: 10-14 (rule of 19) 5+ card suit and guaranteed to be unbalanced.
Next suit relay (for 2nd suit/shape), 2NT slam try (GF agreeing suit)

2♥/2♠: Normal weak 2 with 2NT being an Ogust inquiry

2NT: balanced 20,21

[hrothgar]

Everything looks fine...

I was playing Magic Diamond with control showing responses over 1♦ for well over a year with no problems from the Directors...

[awm]

This is all general chart; in fact I played against some folks using a similar system (under the name "Bay Area Diamond") in the North American Pairs (flight a few years back. No defenses are needed, but you should probably pre-alert that you play a strong diamond system (it's not something familiar to the majority of acbl players).

You will, however, encounter a number of complaints from opponents even though your methods are general chart; I know I've had my share of ugly incidents when playing my own strong diamond methods. Directors have always backed it up as being GCC though.

[luke warm]

hi matt

maybe someone can check this, but i'm not sure your responses to 2c/2d are gcc legal... i know i play the same, but with 1d/h/s being unbalanced and the next suit a weak relay for 2nd suit, and that's not gcc legal.. maybe the fact that you do it at the 2 level makes it different

[scoob]

I think you're ok...

Quote

3. A sequence of relay bids is defined as a system if, after an opening of
one of a suit, it is started prior to opener’s rebid.

except under GCC you are not allowed to have an opening bid promise an unknown second suit.

my reg p & i ran into this the first year we played our ♦ system, where we wanted our 2♥/♠ bids to be natural + a minor. we were forced to change it to natural + an outside singleton or void. now, more often than not that contains a minor suit, but not always.

[Echognome]

Thanks all for your replies. Our 2♣/2♦ openers only guarantee a singleton or void, not a second suit.

Adam, I believe it is similar to the Bay Area Diamond system. I played against a pair that played it a few years back and it gave me some of the initial ideas for my current strong diamond system (which is a bit different), but that system is not GCC legal. Other than the opening bids, I don't really know much about the Bay Area Diamond however, so I won't call it that.

I'm glad to hear that we do not have to provide any defenses and have no problem pre-alerting.

[keylime]

You can play any artificial responses over strong openings and opening bids of 2C and higher.

[mikestar]

Some problem shapes: 5-4-2-2, 6-3-2-2, and 7-2-2-2 where the long suit is a minor. If 2m guarantees a stiff or void, you can't open these 2m. Your can open the first two parterns 1NT is you desire with no issues, but 7-2-2-2 is not GCC legal for a natural NT opening (just as NT with a stiff is not).