[Cascade]

I played a MOSCITO style system on Saturday - transfer openings but no relays.

One feature of the system that I had never played before was passing many (11)12-13 HCP Balanced hands. There was some discretion to open with a four-card major but an automatic PASS with no four-card major.

1♣ Strong 18+ Balanced or around 16+ unbalanced

1♦ 4+ hearts could have a longer minor - not a 2♥ opening around 10-15

1♥ 4+ spades could have a longer minor - not a 2♠ opening around 10-15

1♠ 5+ diamonds no four-card major around 10-15

1NT 14-17 Balanced or nearly balanced

2♣ 5+ clubs no four-card major around 10-15

2♦ Weak only multi - either major

2♥ around 10-15 5 hearts and 4+ minor

2♠ around 10-15 5 spade and 4+ minor

Lots of fun to play.

[Free]

Passing 12-13HCP hands systemically is HUM if I remember correctly.

[gwnn]

10-15 with 5M and 4m sounds unplayable for me but what do I know, there is more than 1 system out there that uses them. I would be quite anxious when it goes 2M-pass and I would have wanted to bid 1M-2M, 3m with my nice 5-5.

[NickRW]

Free, on Oct 12 2009, 02:26 PM, said:

Passing 12-13HCP hands systemically is HUM if I remember correctly.

Is it? I thought so long as pass was non forcing and consistent with, at minimum a zero hcp hand, you could get away with passing pretty much anything. Exact wordings of what is and isn't allowed differs from one area to another though.

Nick

[hrothgar]

NickRW, on Oct 12 2009, 06:00 PM, said:

Free, on Oct 12 2009, 02:26 PM, said:

Passing 12-13HCP hands systemically is HUM if I remember correctly.

Is it? I thought so long as pass was non forcing and consistent with, at minimum a zero hcp hand, you could get away with passing pretty much anything. Exact wordings of what is and isn't allowed differs from one area to another though.

Nick

Roth-Stone is not a HUM

[jdonn]

Without getting into details, it seems to me that if you open very light with certain shapes and very heavy with other shapes you give yourself huge problems about what to do in 3rd and 4th seats if all pass to you.

I'm also long on record that, both theoretically and by my personal experience, a 4 point notrump range is too wide.

On a positive note, I do like in strong club systems when the balanced minimum for 1♣ is a bit higher than the unbalanced minimum, since the playing strength is approximately the same.

[awm]

I'm curious as to why you're playing transfer openings without the relays. There are some disadvantages to transfer openings; they give the opponents more space (the one-level cue) and because they are also more or less forcing (sure you can pass, but it's less likely to be a reasonable strain than passing a natural call) you also give opponents the ability to pass and come in later. My impression was that the main reason for transfer openings in Moscito was to create space for the relay and make the known hand dummy when you have a relay sequence. If you're not playing relays these advantages go away.

It seems like the four-point notrump range issue could be resolved by just making 1NT=14-16 and letting the strong club start at 17 if balanced (still stronger than the unbalanced hands). The 2M openings are potentially swingy but not necessarily bad; for example they are more precisely defined than Fantoni-Nunes' two bids, and they are similar to popular two-suited openings except for being about an ace stronger.

There is a potential problem that you could pass out two 12-13 hcp balanced hands opposite each other, but this is probably rare if you frequently open such hands that contain a four-card major (i.e. the passout only happens if neither hand has a four-card major, and then you might run into trouble in your notrump contract, plus opponents might save you by opening light in 3rd/4th since they both seemingly have major suit length).

[Free]

NickRW, on Oct 12 2009, 04:00 PM, said:

Free, on Oct 12 2009, 02:26 PM, said:

Passing 12-13HCP hands systemically is HUM if I remember correctly.

Is it? I thought so long as pass was non forcing and consistent with, at minimum a zero hcp hand, you could get away with passing pretty much anything. Exact wordings of what is and isn't allowed differs from one area to another though.

Nick

I checked it.

WBF states the following:

Quote

2.2 HUM Systems

For the purpose of this Policy, a Highly Unusual Method (HUM) means any System that ex­hib­its one or more of the following features, as a matter of partnership agreement:

  1. A Pass in the opening position shows at least the values generally accepted for an opening bid of one, even if there are alternative weak possibilities
  2. By partnership agreement an opening bid at the one level may be weaker than pass.
  3. By partnership agreement an opening bid at the one level may be made with values a king or more below average strength.
  4. By partnership agreement an opening bid at the one level shows either length or shortage in a specified suit
  5. By partnership agreement an opening bid at the one level shows either length in one specified suit or length in another.

According to these rules, it's not a HUM (unless you want to be very specific and state that 12-13HCP balanced is stronger than 10+HCP unbalanced for your limited openings).

In the Belgian rules (which are usually consistent with WBF), there's a little difference, maybe a translation error. The first rule is translated as follows:

Quote

  1. A Pass in the opening position can be done with values generally accepted for an opening bid of one (rule of 18).

According to this rule, strictly speaking every system which doesn't open a 10-count 4432 should be considered a HUM. However this cannot be the true meaning of this rule. Nevertheless, if you consider the true meaning of this rule, the system described above would be still considered a HUM in Belgium since everyone opens balanced hands with 12-13HCP.

It seems that it's not a HUM according to the WBF rules, and that the Belgian rules probably contain a translation error. Anyway, you're right.

[jdonn]

Free we had this discussion on the laws forums not too long ago. It was pretty much agreed that the correct interpretation is, it's HUM if you pass hands of a certain strength and shape, but open hands of less strength with the same shape.

So in this case it would be HUM to pass 12-13 balanced and open 10-11 balanced, but that's not what he is doing. So he is fine. It would be ridiculous to say it's HUM to pass some balanced 11 counts and open some 5-5 10 counts, that is simply normal bridge.