Assumption is the Mother of all...

[OliverC]

Metin (Arda85) and I had an interesting session this morning with Metin trying his hand at the Complex Sys (with a good degree of success). One hand well pointed up the inadvisability of  interfering against multi-style openings until your Opps have clarified their hand somewhat.

At game all I opened 2NT on the following motley collection:

  AJ1042
  J10843
  Q
  KQ

My LHO clearly assumed I had the Minors or Clubs and overcalled 2 . Metin doubled and I was perfectly happy to pass that for penalties. Metin was in the very happy position of knowing that I must have the Majors, because he was sat with

  K3
  9
  AK106
  AJ10972

Poor Declarer was sat with AKQ52 and the Spade Queen and Dummy just had Jxxx. When the dust settled we let Declarer off with -4 for 1100 (could have got one more with perfect defence). One pair found and made the vastly inferior Spade slam but nobody found the much better Club slam and +1100 was pretty good.

This kind of situation is similar to Brozel/DONT Doubles over 1NT and defending against a Multi. You really are generally better off letting Opps define their hand-type before you jump in with both feet. Sometimes if you're 4th-in hand, you don't have that option, but when you're 2nd-in-hand over the Multi-style opening, you usually can count on a 2nd chance.


We had one nice bidding hand for the system, which was rewarded with a top. Metin responded flawlessly on this:

NS Vulnerable, Dealer West

North
  J8
  AK104
  AK
  108643

South
  AK1074
  63
  AK
  AKQ5

Bidding (nothing from Opps)
North          South
1               1NT⁽¹⁾
2 ⁽²⁾          2 ⁽³⁾
3 ⁽⁴⁾          4 ⁽⁵⁾
4 ⁽⁶⁾          4 ⁽⁷⁾
5 ^{( 8 )}        7 ⁽⁹⁾

(1) 14+ any shape
(2) 5+ Clubs
(3) Range Beta
(4) Max, 6 Controls
(5) Gamma in Clubs
(6) No Top Honour
(7) Epsilon in Spades (To guard against xxx)
( 8 ) 3rd round control of Spades
(9) Knew North couldn't have the Queen with AKAK in the Reds, so wasn't remotely tempted to try for 7NT.

The Clubs were 3-1 but the Spades were 3-3 so no problems. Amazingly, nobody else found 7 and the Grand was worth 15 IMPs. Overall, Metin showed a very good grasp of the system, so please give him a game if you get the chance.