INTRODUCTION TO

INTRODUCTION

It is made quite clear on official convention cards that both persons in a partnership must have identical cards to show to the opponents. This is sensible, and honourable. It would sow considerable confusion if one opponent thought you were playing one system, and the other another. Nevertheless, the design of the convention cards sometimes makes it difficult to express the full extent of the tactical variations, to any basic system, that modern tournament players may adopt.

Historically Basic Acol varied its opening bid of One No Trump according to Vulnerability. Then there were players who used what became known as the Three-quarters No Trump. This was weak all the time except when Vulnerable against Non-vulnerable. Once one changes one’s NT strength many other differences follow when 1NT is not opened. At the two level also there is a case to be made that Acol Twos work better in first, second, and fourth position, but Weak Twos in third position [See S J Simon’s “Design for Bidding”].

When opening the bidding in third or fourth position, most players too, implicitly take into consideration that partner must have passed. Various liberties are sometimes taken, or condoned, particularly in third position. In turn, the passed partner may or may not alter the standard responses to make allowance. These modifications may be systemic, or heuristic, by partnership agreement. They rarely appear as explicit items on the convention cards.

The purpose of this book is to present a system, or style, when you are considering opening the bidding in third position, that explicitly takes into account the fact that partner has not bid, therefore is assumed to hold at most 11 hcp, or a very poor 12. If it appeals to you and your partner you will need a separate convention card just for third-position opening bids. I hope that having digested the ensuing treatise you will not consider that too great a price to pay.