The Weak Notrump

All North American players are taught to play using a strong notrump, but that is not the way of the rest of the world. Even in North America, weak notrump systems, or even Kamikaze notrump systems, are becoming more common. This book discusses the advantages and disadvantages of playing a system with a weaker notrump opening, and shows how the 1NT range impacts the rest of the bidding system. Even those who have no interest in converting to a weak notrump range still need to know how to play against weak notrump systems. For them, the book includes advice on effective competitive methods.

A comprehensive exposition of the Kaplan-Sheinwold (K-S) bidding system, incorporating up-to-date aggressive methods. Advantages of this Aggressive Weak No Trump bidding system include: (1) A greater proportion of limit bids and a higher frequency of bids in general, improving communication between partners. (2) More accurate low-level descriptive bids, making it easier during the auction to envision the probable play of the hand and to find your best contract. (3) Increased use of preempts, making it more difficult for the opponents to find their best possible result in a competitive auction.

Notrump openings, and the constructive auctions that follow them, are two of the most neglected areas in bridge literature. Following on from his popular articles in the ACBL Bulletin, Kleinman discusses the principles behind notrump bids and rebids in a variety of situations, emphasising the ideas and concepts rather than attempting to teach a series of rigid rules. A must for any duplicate player.

An in depth discussion of Weak Notrump auctions in bridge.

The novice and eager-to-learn player will find this book an indispensable guide, and the more seasoned tournament will find this an invaluable source of tips and pointers on bidding and playing. For both, Sheinwold makes tournament play appealing and challenging. It won't be long before his readers score "top on the board" in Duplicate competition.

This book is designed to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the 3 major bidding systems: Standard American, 2/1 and Precision Club as well as the Bergen Raise system. Solutions are offered for each disadvantage. Proposals for additional conventions such as the Weak NT and Jacoby transfers are contained in a model simplified chart of each system. There are also innovative proposals for showing a 5-card major, overcalls and slam bidding. You will also find chapters on the various conventions, irregularities in bidding, probabilities, filling out the convention card, playing in a team event and scoring.

The Precision Diamond system provides a solution to the flaws in the Standard American bidding convention (SAYC). There are 6 notable features of my bidding system. The 1st feature is the ability of the responder to show his 5-card major suit immediately using the Casey-Jacoby Transfer. The 2nd feature is that Precision Diamond permits the opener to show his points within a 2p range from 16-21 points using the Casey Shift and the Strong 2 opening. The 3rd feature is the ability of the overcaller to show his 4-card major suit immediately by assigning 1NT to show 4s. The 4th feature of Precision Diamond is the ability of the Keycard-Asker in a slam contract to ascertain whether the opener has the trump queen using the Casey RKC method. The 5th feature is the ability of the opener to show keycards, including the trump queen, at the 4-level in the case of a minor suit slam attempt using Minorwood. The 6th feature is the ability of the opener to find a slam with a minor suit fit using the Casey Minor Rebid convention.