JOHNNY SUPREMO TRIES OUT "THE BIGOT CLUB " BIDDING SYSTEM

Who would have thought it, but Johnny, God love him , succumbed to Bigot's request to give his amazing new bidding system a trial run. And to Johnny's great surprise it didn't let him down. He concluded that its tactical aspects " did have some merit " , and the system was certainly capable of generating some excellent results. Bigot of course could not believe what he was hearing !

According to Bigot the Acol system was " useless ", because it often needed " two bids to show a two-suited hand ". He believed that all opening bids should reveal far more information about one's distribution and shape. Killing two birds with one throw so to speak.

Indeed , The Supremo felt obliged to agree. However, his overall verdict was " it has potential ", but it needed " further development and fine tuning ". Then maybe the system might well turn into something quite special.

So here for the benefit of those who like to experiment are the bare bones of his Club system, which relate to a player who is first to bid :

- 1C : EITHER a flat hand (4432, 4333 shape ) with one or two 4 card majors OR a two-suiter in the minors 5-4 or better

- 1D : EITHER 23+ game force OR a two-suiter in the majors 5-4 or better

- 1H : 5+ card heart suit ( may have a 4 card minor )

- 1S : 5+ card spade suit ( may have a 4 card minor )

1NT : a five or six card minor suit with no more than 3 in a one ( or both ) majors : possibly a 5332, 6322 or 6331 shape

2C : 5+ clubs and a 4 card major

2D : 5 + diamonds and a 4 card major

2H : weak 6 card heart suit

2S : weak 6 card spade suit

2nt : Bal 20-22

Responses all had a simple and sound logic to them , but these were as Bigot put it " best left for players to work out for themselves ". For instance, Bigot's 2D reponse over 1NT was a staymanic enquiry asking the opener to show one or both 3 card majors. ( 2H = 3 hearts with two doubletons, 2S = 3 spades with two doubletions, 2NT= 3 in both majors, plus a doubleton, and bids at the three level had to show the singleton suit in a 6331 disrtribution.) However, interference bids needed a whole new set of responses to be worked out to counter the loss of normal responses available.