Occasional comments at the table about the usefulness of conventions prompted the inner geek to record hands over the 9 months. Perhaps the results are of interest?
I play 2/1 with a strong NT with my regular partners. We don’t use Gazzilli or XYZ. On 1081 hands we opened the bidding. Here’s the breakdown by opening bid; 1M 324, 1m 479, 1N 140, 2N 15, Weak 2 61, 3x/4x 37, 2C 25.
For the 324 1M openers, here’s how often conventions came up:
51: 2/1 (3c M support or other GF)
23: Bergen (4c M support, not GF)
10: Picture Bids
10: Jacoby 2N (4c M support GF)
8: Game Try (long and short)
4: 4SF
3: Splinter
I’m not promoting conventions or saying that this is the right suite. I like Bergen because 54 fits play much better than 53 fits, but I know it’s criticised for landing 20/20 hands in 3M. Having spent some time learning about Picture Bids, it was gratifying to see them come up as often as Jacoby 2N (which we all learn once we’ve weaned off the breast it seems).
For the 479 1m openers:
38: Inverted minors
24: Support x/xx
15: 4SF
7: Checkback
7: 2/1 (only over 1D)
Support x/xx strike me as great as long as partner has a 5c M, but can cause trouble when she/he is searching for a bid when holding only 4. Of course, I arrange these situations so that it is always my partner who plays the Moysians. Nonetheless, support x/xx were useful for us intermediates.
For the 140 1N openers:
22: Stayman
20: Major suit transfer (2-level)
6: Lebensohl
4: Texas
4: Minor Suit transfer
3: Smolen
1: Super-accept
My partners and I limit super-accepts to 4c support and max, which I personally think is too restrictive. Oliver includes a range of super-accepts in OCP (I think) and I’ve seen many variations on vugraph. It’s probably a topic to explore, so the statistic here could be misleading.
Because we use a strong NT, we didn't get overcalled very often, so the very useful Lebensohl is under-rated by these stats. If I could persuade my partners to play mini-NT green v red, I imagine Lebensohl would be much more important.
An aside: I like 2-way minor suit transfers [1N – 2S = clubs, 1N – 2N = diamonds] because opener can super-accept when holding Axx, Kxx or Qxx in the minor with the intervening bid [1N – 2S – 2N or 1N – 2N – 3C]. The statistics probably are right in this case, because I think 2-way minor suit transfers should not be used routinely when holding a 6c m. In fact, there are three particular cases when they pay off:
1) Very weak hands, where 3m will be less disastrous than 1N. (Hands like: xx xx Kxxxxx xxx or x xx xxx Qxxxxxx or xx xx Qxxxxx Qxx)
2) Weak invitational. These hands are not the usual 8/9 HCP invite hands after a strong NT opening. Instead, if opener has got the missing top honour, the minor suit will provide 6 tricks. It is surprising how often 9 tricks can be won when responder has only 5 or 6 HCP. Hands like: xx xxx KQxxxx xx or x xxx xxx AQxxxx
3) Slam Interest. These hands are strong enough to make 3N, but if opener has support for the minor, a slam is likely. Again, like the invitational hands, slam can be made on less than the “usual” strength – 14 HCP opposite 15-17. Hands like: x Axx Kx AQxxxxxx or Kx Axx xx KQxxxx
Whatever opener bids after 1), responder signs off in 3m. If opener super-accepts after 2) or 3), responder bids game or slam (respectively), otherwise passes 3m or bids 3N (respectively). Normal invite hands (8/9) and normal GF hands (10-13) should forget minor suit transfers and just simply aim for 3N.
OK, sorry for that mad digression: back to the stats and just to finish the opening hands. RKC was used 18 times in these 1081 offensive hands, the Queen Ask 3 times, Exclusion twice. After the 61 Weak 2 openings, Ogust/Feature Ask was used twice, a fast raise 37 times.
On 1099 hands they opened the bidding (they were playing strong NT): 1m/1M 825, 1N 149, Weak 2 68, 2N 31, 3x/4x 26
For the 825 1m/1M openers, we used;
43: Two-suited overcall
35: Weak Jump overcall
29: 1N overcall
I’ve not included simple overcalls, because they come up loads and are not really a convention.
For the 68 Weak 2 openers, we used;
21: Lebensohl
5: 2N overcall
1: Michaels
Lebensohl has caused my partners all sorts of brain-aches, but I love it (but then I really liked the transfer Lebensohl Oliver uses) and it’s pretty simple – and came up often.
For the 149 1N openers, we used Cappelletti 28 times to show suits and doubled 7 times to show balanced strength. Our opponents always used a strong NT. Against weak or mini-NT some overcall from us would have been far more frequent.
That’s a lot of words for possibly not much useful material, but at least it means I’ve finished this little project.
