A New System

So, in our little town of Oxford, MS, we have a pretty small duplicate bridge club (about 4 tables, 1 day a week). I've enjoyed playing with my regular partner Meaghin (who is also my wife), as she is very patient when it comes to all the bidding system nonsense I spew at her. Recently, I've become director at this club, and in attempts to up the numbers, Meg has volunteered to be a partner to a new and budding bridge player, and so I am now playing with a partner who actually introduced us to this game all of 4 and a half years ago.

We have been playing 2/1 GF in a very loose sense of the word, but he has shown an interest in playing a new system. This system is called The Unbalanced Diamond, the brainchild of Marshall Miles (known for books like How to Win at Duplicate Bridge and Modern Constructive Bidding). In the book, he calls this "The System," so you know it's good.

So the opening bids are a little different from either Standard bidding or Precision.
1C = 15-19 HCP, any shape
1D = 12-14 HCP, unbalanced hand without 5 or more card in a major
1H = 10-15 HCP, 5 or more hearts
1S = 10-14 HCP, 5 or more spades
1NT = 12-14 HCP, balanced (no 5 card major and sometimes 5422 shape)
2C = 20+ HCP, at least one 5+ card major
2D = 20+ HCP, no 5+ card major OR 22-23 HCP, balanced
2M = Weak 2 Bid
2NT = 20-21 HCP, balanced (may have a 5-card major)

This is how I usually write the opening summary when learning a new system. A few notes about this system:
1. The HCP requirement for each bid is flexible. If you have good major suits, then you would upgrade and if you have scattered values without a long major suit, then you would downgrade.
2. The 1C opening is much like Precision but with an upper limit. As those of you who have played Precision know, when you open 1C you are in this range anyway. It's a rare thing to have the bigger hands.
3. The 2C/2D Strong Bids are an interesting twist on Standard. I actually came up with this kind of idea when I played with a local player Sylvia H. I'm glad to see that someone far better than myself mastered the concept.
4. The 1D opening is NON-FORCING, even though the opener could conceivably have absolutely no diamonds.
5. Weak NT is the trend, folks; get on board! Important to have a run-out scheme, though.
6. The upper limit for opening 1H and 1S are different. Not sure why yet, as the book hasn't come in the mail yet. All of this info was read on Google book preview (yes, they have bridge books too).

David and I may debut this system next Tuesday, so we'll see how it does against all the Standard bidders. Until then, keep up the good bridge!