Hi Dick,
Good to see you playing OCP and discussing tweaks with partner.
IMO, you perfectly bid the sequence according to OCP doctrine. In regards to partner showing
first, I think everyone would do the same. With 8+ HCP and 5-card
& 6-card
, the only time I would show the 5-card Major first is when the Minor is significantly weaker. I believe that is Oliver's doctrine, too.
Anyway, Brian created a nice gadget for showing two-suited Responder hands with 8+ HCP. 1
-2
[alert] showing 8+HCP and promising two-suits. Of course, to incorporate this in your system, you need to modify your 4441 8-11 HCP Responder responses. I believe Brian suggested making 1
-2
showing 4441 8-11 HCP and showing a singleton in one of the Major-suits. Similar to 1
-2NT [generic singleton in the Minors]. You would also have to adjust your subsequent Eta responses to allow the additional first step "oops! you Eta Asked in my singleton suit."
Brian can elaborate better (and correct me as needed). I think Oliver has no problem with OCP partnerships playing in this matter; but I seriously doubt if it will ever become part of OCP standard. Although it is a tweak I use, and I believe Brian continues to endorse it, adding it as standard OCP just adds another level of complexity to a standard system that is already quite complex [and we are talking the Simple System
].
John
Maybe the information in the alternative treatments forum is not up to date. I'll go take a look...
One quick check later...The information in the alternative treatments forum is correct,
provided you notice the amendment in red to my original posting, and read down to the bottom of the thread to see what we ended up with.
The two and three suited positives which Georgi and I devised, and Michael and I now play, are as follows
1
![Clubs !C](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_clubs.gif)
- 2
![Hearts !H](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_hearts.gif)
= 8+ HCP with any 5+/5+ two-suited hand
except for both minors. In other words, the 2
![Hearts !H](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_hearts.gif)
bid must promise at least one 5+ card major.
1
![Clubs !C](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_clubs.gif)
- 2
![Spades !S](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_spades.gif)
=
ANY 4441 shape with either 8-11 or (rarely, obviously!) 16+ HCP.
1
![Clubs !C](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_clubs.gif)
- 2NT = 8+ HCP with 5+/5+
in the minors. We found that we had to take this out of the 2
![Hearts !H](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_hearts.gif)
bid to get the responses to work properly.
1
![Clubs !C](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_clubs.gif)
- 3 of a suit = the standard suit below the singleton 4441 of OCP,
but these bids are limited to 12-15 HCP. It's obviously very rare for responder to have 16+ 4441 shape opposite a 1
![Clubs !C](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_clubs.gif)
opener, but we found we could handle that very easily within the 2
![Spades !S](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_spades.gif)
response, so we moved those hands into that. After 1
![Clubs !C](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_clubs.gif)
-2
![Spades !S](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_spades.gif)
Opener just assumes that Responder has the 8-11 hand initially, as will be the case on the overwhelming majority of occasions. For those very rare occasions when responder does have 16+, they just continue on after opener (presumably!) signs off in game.
If anyone wants the Adobe PDF of this scheme, with all the continuation bids, send me an e-mail (or PM me your e-mail address on here) and I'll send it to you.