Hello Brain,
I looked up the Asking Bid Guidelines for activating Beta's and found this statement for counting singletons:
"Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we do not count a singleton King as 1 Control unless Partner has shown strength there (eg: an earlier trump ask in that suit) or we know they are strong balanced (and so are likely to have one of the adjoining honours). "
My question is...……………..
Does this statement "or we know they are strong balanced (and so are likely to have on of the adjoining honours" cover your example hand since responder used a "Forcing 1NT" to start the sequence.
Thanks.
No, absolutely not. The forcing 1NT is a totally artificial bid and (particularly if it's used to switch on the asking bids) absolutely does
not indicate a balanced hand. Let's take an example.
If I have
![Spades !S](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_spades.gif)
QJxxx
![Hearts !H](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_hearts.gif)
KQxxxx
![Diamonds !D](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_diamonds.gif)
void
![Clubs !C](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_clubs.gif)
AQ
that's hardly balanced, yet if partner surprises the hell out of me by opening 1
![Spades !S](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_spades.gif)
then I'm bidding 1NT and then using gamma in
![Spades !S](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_spades.gif)
over the rebid, both to check for
![Spades !S](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_spades.gif)
AK and to switch on the asking bids, with absolutely no other options for bidding the hand.
If you follow the guidelines in the notes, then you absolutely would
not count a stiff king in the
1M-1NTF
(rebid)-(gamma ask)
(relay beta)-<??>
sequence. You have no grounds for thinking that responder has length in the suit or an adjacent card.
Georgi and I discussed this, and we decided that, if responder was strong enough to switch on the asking bids, the odds were that a stiff King
would be worth something, and we were happier with having an accurate count of Aces and Kings held by Teller, and Asker could worry about a King being singleton if it mattered.
So far, I cannot recall this tweak to the system having caused us a problem due to a singleton King, and Georgi and I usually get through close to 100 boards per weekend.
It's another thing to remember. The usual advice still applies - before you think of tweaking the system, make sure that you've a sound knowledge of the
unmodified system. Georgi and I are a couple of incurable system tweakers, and a lot of the ideas we come up with don't last the course, but this modification is one that I think we're sticking with!
AfterthoughtI shouldn't post replies before I'm properly awake! What I wrote above about there being no alternative way to bid the hand would have been correct until relatively recently, but of course the example responding hand I gave does have a second possibility, which is 4
![Diamonds !D](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_diamonds.gif)
Exclusion Beta in response to the 1
![Spades !S](http://ocp.pigpen.org.uk/smf/Smileys/default/icon_spades.gif)
opener.