about club opening

Hi, I would like some guidance on how to rule on club openings that are very different.  For example, there are players at our club who claim to play a "stong club" opening but not playing "precision"; they claim to play ACOL with a Strong C Opening!  Their opening of 1 C is showing 16+ HCP but could have 0 Club or many clubs.

Green systems say that one must not open a suit with less than 2 in the said suit.  But if one plays Precision,  I cannot find any rule about the amount of clubs that one can have and how to announce it.   If one does play the full Precision system, I can see that there is probably no importance in the amount of club and the players partner must announce "16+ HCP Precision".  But what about this twisted system that some players are trying to use...which, by the way, has "bamboozled" lots of players at one session...where this was tried.

How should that be announced and what is the amount of Clubs required or not?

Thank you for enlighting me.

Helene Labreche

Started by HELENE LABRECHE on 15 Aug 2016 at 09:41AM

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  1. NICK WHITTEN17 Aug 2016 at 08:58AM

    As I understand the rule opponents need to know:

    [a]  Forcing or not
    and
    [b]  Points
    and
    [c]  Minimum number of clubs

    for [a] it is customary to say "strong" if Blue (Precision style (or any system where the opening is forcing)), nothing if  green (non-forcing) or "unusual" if red in which case opponents may ask for further clarification

    For [b] one would normally assume a range of a non-forcing 1C to be 11-20 or similar unless otherwise stated

    For [c] one would be expected to assume the club length would be 0+ if forcing but some inexperienced tournament players might not assume that (and some pairs might play some crackpot system where there is a higher minimum club length but it is still forcing)

    Pairs who play unusual (as precieved by many in their club) system have a responsibility to devise a way of announcing their method without causing any bamboozlement with assistance, if necessary, from experienced players/directors at their club

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