m
HoC is absolutely essential to the system, Jim. The reason is that, if you look at the responses to the trump asking bids when responder is NOT 4441 (so exclude Eta), they fairly clearly assume that asker (or responder, if it's gamma) has at least 5 cards in the suit. You can tell this from the level of the responses which agree trumps. Unless you
really like playing Moysian fits, HoC is the way to go if you need to look for 4-4 fits. So the answer to question 2 is that yes, it could, but in order to do so you need to come up with an alternative way for opener to bid a balanced hand when responder is also balanced, or when opener is 4432 or even 4441 (though opener must have a powerhouse, 24+, if 4441) with the shortage in the suit of responder's positive. I put a lot of thought into trying to give opener a penalty double when opps interfere, and it's
not easy.
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Got it, thanks. Just thought I would ask. A lot of opponents think they can freely enter the Strong Club auctions at the lower level without penalty. There must be some dual option bid. Have you considered this sequence:
pass is gamma
double shows balanced hand and is either penalty or HoC (responder now knows you are balanced and decides on HoC or penalty).
2NT is suit below
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The problem with that idea is that opener is unlimited, and you're making the weaker hand decide on whether to look for 4-4 fits or play for penalties. How does responder know whether opener has a minimum 16 HCP balanced or is very much stronger? Responder can't know whether to assess the possible penalty against a game our way or a slam our way. Don't let me discourage you from thinking of ideas, Jim, but there's been an awful lot have been tried over the years, and nobody has yet come up with a foolproof way of handling pre-emption - nobody would do it if they had!