iviehoff, on 2013-May-13, 01:06, said:
pran, on 2013-May-11, 06:16, said:
When STOP (and ALERT) was introduced in Norway one of the original rules was that STOP was mandatory with 1NT opening bids showing less than (I believe) 15 HCP. (The "normal" HCP range for 1 NT opening bids was, and still is 15-17).
The Secretary General of the Norwegian Bridge Federation told me some years later that they had had to drop this STOP rule because players within some Norwegian regions had "invented" a new system where STOP 1NT showed 12-14 HCP and 1NT without STOP showed 15-17 HCP.
As he said: "It was completely impossible to make these guys understand that this was illegal use of STOP!"
The Secretary General of the Norwegian Bridge Federation told me some years later that they had had to drop this STOP rule because players within some Norwegian regions had "invented" a new system where STOP 1NT showed 12-14 HCP and 1NT without STOP showed 15-17 HCP.
As he said: "It was completely impossible to make these guys understand that this was illegal use of STOP!"
It should have been no surprise. What you had there was self-announcement of bid meaning, and that is obviously liable to abuse in at-the-table bridge without screens. Announcement "weak" by the bidder's partner would have been a securer way to achieve the same objective.
This happened when STOP was introduced (some 20 years ago?), before we had any experience with such procedures. Today we require announcement (by opener's partner) on all opening bids in the range 1NT - 2♠.
Problem definitely solved.