The Flaws In Standard American Bridge

This book is designed to highlight the flaws in Standard American bidding, i.e. the SAYC system. The book discusses the major failures of SAYC, namely the failure of the ACBL to adopt the Bergen point-count system, the failure to simplify reverses, the failure to find a 20-21p bid for all hands, and the failure to adopt the Casey-Jacoby Transfer convention and the Casey Rebid convention. In addition, the book points out numerous minor failures such as the failure to find a means of bidding a direct game, the failure of SAYC to require takeout doubles to have a four-card major, and the failure to adopt Minorwood, a six-keycard kickback convention. The book also points out the ACBL’s failure to clarify certain issues, such as the failure to clarify O’s reply to R’s two-level response, the failure to clarify cuebids, and the failure to clarify Stopper-Ask bids. The book provides a solution for all these problems in a new system called Precision Diamond.

This book is about how to play bridge in a tournament. Unlike club play, the hands are typically prearranged to test your skills. This book gives a comprehensive view of the various types of hands an advanced player might expect to encounter. The various categories of hands presented will teach you when and how to use the end play, when and how to squeeze, how to handle a forcing defense, and how to handle a 4-1 trump split. The book will also teach you how to play a Notrump hand, such as when to hold up, how to finesse, when to spurn the finesse, when to duck at Notrump, when to avoid the danger hand, how to deceive the opponents, how to unblock, and how to handle transportation.

My goal for “The Modified Optimal 2/1-Club System” is to show how to use the Optimal Point Count (OPC) method of hand evaluation developed by Patrick. Darricades in his book “Optimal Hand Evaluation” (2019) to improve the dialogue between two players to achieve an optimal bridge contract. The primary objective is to demonstrate how to apply the new system approach to contract bridge by illustrating a more accurate method of hand evaluation whether you play 2/1, Standard American (SA), Acol or Precision, among others. The Two over One (2/1) Game Force bidding system was an improvement over the SA System that has been in effect and played by bridge players for many years. Many claim that the advantage of the 2/1 system allows the partnership to know that game is possible with only a single bid provided one has 13+ points. As we shall see for suit contracts it is only true if the opening 2/1 bidder has 15 points, not 12/13 points since 25/26 points do not result in game whenever a singleton in one hand finds “wasted honor points” in partner’s hand. Yet, most 2/1 conventions call for 13+ High Card Points (HCP). Another flaw of the 2/1 approach is the fact that opening 1-level suit bids have a wide bidding range (12-21). To eliminate this flaw, the principles of Pinpoint Precision with 1*= 18+ points and new responses associated with a new and improved hand evaluation method. A major flaw of most Strong Club opening bids is that they are based solely on HCPs with opening bids of 1*=16/17+ HCP. To correct these flaws among others, the search for a better hand evaluation method and a better bidding system has been unrelenting. Hand evaluation methods have been popularized by Milton Work, Charles Goren, Marty Bergen, and Petkoy Zar, and others. All falling short when applied to the commonly used “dialogue” bidding systems. The Optimal Point Count (OPC) method of hand evaluation corrects the many flaws of prior hand evaluation methods when applied to any bidding system. In this book many “traditional/standard” bidding practices that do not help to show suit fi t and distribution are to be avoided or re-defined. Splinters and mini splinters which show the location of voids and singletons to help locate wasted honors, the XYZ bidding convention, cue bidding, and new bids for the investigation of game and slam are among the cornerstone conventions reviewed in this book. Newly defined 2 and 3-level bids to show hands with 6/7+card suits are defined to prevent the opponents from finding their optimal contract and to improve upon difficult bidding sequences using traditional bidding strategies. The evaluation of one’s Offense to Defense Ratio (ODR), why many well-known bidding sequences must be avoided, and an analysis of several old “standard” bridge laws/rules are reviewed to show why they need not be used to improve one’s judgement if one employs the OPC method.

Bridge is hip for everyone nowadays! Played in more than 100 countries, Bridge has an enthusiastic following of more than 60 million people. Although many believe that bridge is simply an “old person’s game,” more and more young people are taking it up, and now players in their twenties are beginning to win world championship titles. Completely updated and revised by champion bridge player Ron Klinger, Bridge Basics explains and illustrates the basic rules of bidding, play, and defense in contract bridge. This book will turn you into a competent and confident bridge player in no time.

In 1965, the bridge world was rocked by an accusation of cheating at the world championships in Buenos Aires. The pair involved were Britain's Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro, two of the world's best players. Now, almost fifty years later, the true inside story can be told - the investigation, the accusation, and the very different results of the World Bridge Federation and British Bridge League inquiries.