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If you played in a place, where the authorities allowed you to play brown stickers, which ones would you play ?

phoenix214, on 2014-June-27, 09:41, said:

2NT as a bad three level preempt in either clubs or diamonds

At one point (when it was still Mid-Chart legal) I played:

2♦ minimulti
2♥ 4+4+ majors, 4-10
2♠ bad preempt in a minor
3m sound preempt in a minor.
I think we also played 2NT 4-10, 5+5+m, but that's not unusual.

I know that the only BSC there was 2♠, but there it is. I'd do it again were it feasible (i.e. I could play it "all the time")

Wilkosz is the only BSC that I have played. I like it but I can live without it.

Maybe I would experiment with canape preempts on 3-card suits. Or psycho-suction openings in 1st seat when favorable.

Wilkosz of course, and 2H nv as a weak 2 in H or S. Vul as a standard weak 2.

I do live in a place where we can play brown sticker conventions, but none of my regular partnerships currently use any of them. Over time we have used and dropped a range of unusual two-level openings (including Myxo Twos and 2NT for either majors or minors) as well as 1NT overcall for takeout.

I would like to add Wilkosz to one of the systems though.

hrothgar, on 2014-June-27, 09:47, said:

What are you going to do with 3C and 3D? Playing something similar we have 3C as both minors and 3D as 6/4 diamonds + major

Quote

Playing in such a place we play 2S as a 3 level pre-empt in a minor or a good 3 level pre-empt in a major. Not a huge fan of the bid though. However, 3C as both minors weak 54xx or better when it's good to pre-empt aggressively is a big winner when it comes up.

What we do play is BSC overcalls, which are really good and I am a fan - the biggest being:

(1C) -
2C - Diamonds + Major
2D: Either major (the actual BSC)
2H: Both majors
2S: Pre-empt
2NT: Intermediate jump in diamonds w/stop
3D: Diamonds without a stop.

And so on/

WE've experimented with canape overcalls (3-4 in the suit bid, 5 cards in another), but I honestly have no idea if they are good or not after playing them for 6 months. You win on this auction:

(1C)-1S! (1S: 3-4 Spades and 5 card in a red suit)

and lose on this auction: (1C)-1D! (1D: 3-4 diamonds and 5 cards in a major) when they raise clubs. It works better vs 5 card major style stuff than ACOL systems where it is not very good.

I often play in events where all methods are permitted and what is noticeable is how few people play anything unusual. Possibly because there are so few opportunities elsewhere to practise.
I'd play something odd third in NV such as 2C as 4-4 any two suits, 2H as a weak 2 in either major etc, 2S as a bad pre-empt in any suit (maybe not all at once).

Just for fun, I would like to try something like 2x showing either 6+ in the suit bid or 5/5+ in the suit below and one of the two suits above (for instance, 2♠ showing spades or hearts and a minor)

I play in a country where BSC's are allowed, and I play Wilkosz combined with weak two's in the Majors (5+M). We used to play Multi (not BSC) with 2♥ as 5♥-5X and 5♠ as 5♠-5m. Wilkosz + weak two's is better imo so we switched.

We need our 2♣ for strong hands, but if we'd have the entire 2-level available I'd also play the random 2♣ when NV: 0-5HCP any. I used it in the past with success, but that's probably because nobody knew what to do against it.

BSC's can be useful or fun, but playing BSC's just to play them isn't smart imo. Your opps don't know what you have, but neither does your partner. In my experience, playing BSC's limits your constructive possibilities. For example, Wilkosz isn't as accurate as a 2M opening containing the same information because you need to show 2 suits instead of 1. So you lose the ability to differentiate between min and max. But the important part is that it's still accurate enough. Playing a random 2♣ on the other hand is completely destructive and doesn't really need constructive methods.

So my advice: either limit the possibilities to allow constructive bidding, or play the BSC destructively.

1D overcall as 11-14HCP, same shape as a classical TOX (i.e. 4-4 or 4-3 in majors, 3-6 D, 0-2 C)
So, there is a permutation between the meanings of :
(1C) 1D
(1C) X
(1C) 1NT

in this system
X = 15HCP+ any shape
1NT = 12-14 HCP ; 5+D (no void, other suit 4-,)

jfnrl, on 2014-June-29, 02:48, said:

If you played this with 1D promising 4+ diamonds rather than 3+ it wouldn't be a BSC

phoenix214, on 2014-June-27, 09:41, said:

The following 2-level structure when NV:
2♣=strong or very weak with diamonds
2♦=weak with diamonds or very weak with hearts
2♥=weak with hearts or very weak with spades
2♠=weak with spades

I actually tried this for a few months in Iceland but the interesting stuff didn't come up enough to draw any solid conclusions.

Maybe try 2♦ Wilkosz when vulnerable for fun (we just switched to 3 weak twos - chicken). That one I never tried.

FrancesHinden, on 2014-June-29, 03:08, said:

I need a call (other than pass) holding
AQxx
AJxx
xxx
xx

The system I have described doesn't work if 1D promises 4+ diamonds.

I would have suggested asking the ACBL's Chief Tournament Director, but it seems the ACBL doesn't have a Chief Tournament Director anymore.

hrothgar, on 2014-June-27, 09:47, said:

I thought the BS darling on BBF was 2♥ either major? How about:

2♦ = Wilkoscz
2♥ = weak 2♥ or very weak 2♠
2♠ = weak 2♠
2NT = bad 3m

as a package containing most of the good stuff being suggested?