[jillybean]

1. Will Multi 2D ever be permitted in ACBL club games events? "Multi" is widely played in the rest of the Bridge World.
How did this treatment become forbidden in the ACBL, and what is needed for it to become General Chart?

2. Will the ACBL ever produce an American version of EBU's Blue Book?

[blackshoe]

1. Doubtful. I don't know. A lot more people to lobby for it.
2. Even more doubtful.

[Shugart23]

blackshoe, on 2025-February-22, 22:48, said:

1. Doubtful. I don't know. A lot more people to lobby for it.
2. Even more doubtful.

Is any multi-bid opening allowed under ACBL rules? I know 2D is not. Oliver Clarke has a multi-2NT bid (which I am told is not allowed in ACBL). Could a 3C bid be 'multi' , defined however one wants even to he extent one of the possibilities is showing a void in Clubs?

This is a theoretical question, btw

[jillybean]

In the ACBL Multi is only legal in matches of 6 boards+, Open+ chart events.

I don't know if 3C multi would be allowed, or if you'd want it.

[mycroft]

...which means that it would be legal in the 2025 version of my University of Waterloo Bridge Club (as it was - and was regularly played, including by me) in the 199x version. And, IIRC from MikeH's posts, it was and is allowed in at least one club in Vancouver on their Shark Tank night, provided the opponents get to say "no, thanks" (which effectively nobody did).

Clubs are absolutely entitled to make their own rules. They are *encouraged* to use one of the ACBL's charts, and the ACBL recommends using the equivalent chart to what the game would be at a Sectional (so, Open for unlimited games, Basic+ or Basic for MP limited or "mostly inexperienced" games, Open+ for occasional, experimental nights or in a "all flight A" game). But they can do what they wish. I don't even think there's a "max out at" level the way there (technically) was with the Superchart back in the day.

(technically): The U(W)BC was officially Superchart, before the defanging of the Mid+Charts with "minimum boardlength" (not that we'd have cared about those), because we weren't officially allowed to be any more liberal. With a "let the novices off the hook if they ask" caveat (which I do not remember ever being asked, and by "novices" we meant "still in Club Series Lessons"). But if nobody called the TD...I remember a player being told (in the bar, after the session) about an auction that started pass-1♦ (NAT, 8-12) and finding out they didn't have slam so stopping in 4NT. Of course, the director for the game had scored up and left the building an hour ago, and anyone who saw a resemblance between the director and that player was *clearly* too drunk to be a reliable witness:-).

[mycroft]

Re: when will it be common? When History Passes (crossing the threads).

When will we get a Blue Book? We (to all intents and purposes) have one; the Bidding Box Regulations, Alert Procedures and Convention Charts. (Yes, I'd love to have Chapter 2 equivalent in a form players were expected to read. Perhaps we could ask the EBU if we could lift it root and branch? But really, it's just "expanding on the Laws so you don't have to".)

When will we get a White Book, is the question I would like an answer to. I'm sure 90% of things are there *somewhere*, but as blackshoe says "how many of them can club directors get their hands on immediately?" and "how many of them can actually be found?" A book where everything is, that is regularly updated, would be a dream. Having club directors actually know it exists and read the thing would *also* be a dream.

[jillybean]

Sorry, my OP was incorrect. It should read, Will Muti ever be permitted in ACBL events (Sectionals+)?
Club games are as you say, free to do what they want.

Re; Blue Book. It is clear that the Bidding Box Regs, Alert Procedures and Convention Cards are not working well.
The EBU method of providing players with one clear and comprehensible publication seems to be a better approach.

I'll check back in 5 years, I fear nothing will have changed.