From: KRAY@ERICH.TRIUMF.CA (RAYWOOD, KELVIN)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Blue Club - Some questions.
Date: 22 Jan 1993 01:44:47 GMT
Organization: TRI-UNIVERSITY MESON FACILITY
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: erich.triumf.ca
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.24

Given the recent discussions on "The Blue Team Club", it seems that
there are several knowledgable BTC people out there. I have some
questions for these net.btc.experts . I will summarise and post
e-mail responses.

The reference I am using is "The Blue Club - Garozzo and Yallouze,
adapted by Terence Reese".

(1) The major problems with the canape bidding seem to occur on minimum
hands with a 5 card suit. On page 54 they give the following hands
and bidding.

South       North             South  North
xx          AT9x              ------------
KJx         xx                  1D    1S
AJTxx       Qx                  2D    3C
Axx         KQTxx               3NT   P 

Would the maestros really rebid 2D in preference to 1NT on the South hand?

This example was is in the section "Sequences That Suggest Game" and
subsection "New Suit at the Three Level" and so I suspect that South's
bidding wasn't particularly well thought out and that the example was
supposed to emphasise North's bidding. Do you agree with me?

(2) When responder bids NT. From p 41
"In the sequence 1H-1NT-2D the respective length of the two suits is not
shown. Responder knows only that opener is searching for a fit." Is this
reasonable? What should responder do with 2-2 in opener's suits in a
minimum hand? He does not know which suit to prefer.

I have suggested to my partner that 'a new suit by opener at the two
level when responder could be weak (responded at the one level) should
always be at least 5 cards'. This presents a problem for minimum 5-4
hands when the higher ranking suit is longer. I have suggested that 2C
by opener after 1M-1NT should be artificial with the meaning 'minimum
unbalanced hand'. It would suggest that the major was 5 cards and opener
possesses a second suit of 4 cards. Of course, if opener has real clubs,
he may only have a four card major in which case he will rebid 2NT.
eg.
West      East            W       E
AQJxx     Txx            -----------
xx        Qx              1S     1NT
KQTx      xxx             2C*    2S          * = 'minimum unbalanced'
xx        AJxxx           P

What do you think of this treatment?

(3) When responder bids at the 2-level. With minimum 5-4 hands, they
suggest bidding the 5 card suit twice before mentioning the 4 card suit.
On p. 41 they give the following example:

South        S     N
AQTxx       ---------
KQxx         1S   2C
Kx           2S   3D
xx           3H

This seems all very well if responder is strong enough to bid a new suit
at the three level but I can imagine hands where responder would be
'stuck' for a good bid after 2S and would probably raise on a doublton
eg.  S-xx  H-AJxx D-xx C-AQxxx, thus missing the 4-4 heart fit, perhaps
even a game (replace Q of clubs with K clubs in this hand).

In relation to this, on p54 in the section/subsection "One Round
Forces/New Suit at the Level of Two", they give the following example:

North
QTx
Axxx        Over 1S respond 2D
AQxx
xx

If this hand were responding to the one above then, apart from the fact
that both hands have QT of spades, you would end up in the 5-3 spade fit
rather than the 4-4 heart fit. It seems like they are suggesting that
responder bids 4 card suits "up the line" and only adopts a canape
sequence when making a responder's reverse.

I have suggested that we should therefore rebid 2H on the south hand
above with the understanding that after a response at the 2 level,
opener shows his suits but not their relative length.
What do you think of this treatment? Is it reasonable/playable?

(4) Finally, on p62 "Dealing With Intervention" they suggust only
playing negative doubles after   1D (1S)
to show a hand with a four card heart suit. If opener had four hearts,
he would usually bid them before the diamonds (even if diamonds are
longer) unless he was going to reverse, in which case he probably bid
his hearts after the intervention anyway. My question is really:
When playing BTC, to what lvel do you play negative doubles and do you
have any special agreements regarding them? What do you think of
'Negative Free Bids' in conjunction with BTC?

Thanks in advance for any comments you have.

Kel Raywood      kray@erich.triumf.ca