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The "Captain" Bidding System

A system under development for a somewhat challenging card game

BELOW IS a draft bidding system I have developed from first principles. Comments from bridge players at club or higher level are very welcome. If you wish to print this out I suggest you set your printer to "landscape".

David Farmer 10 May 2002

Foundations/Principles...

1. A distinguishing characteristic of bridge is the play convention of "the dummy going down" allowing declarer to use every asset of the combined hands. This implicitly drives the development of bidding systems towards identifying these assets precisely enough to allow the partnership to find the "right bid" with the least uncertainty.
2. The bridge scoring system provides the goal framework or "objective function" for the development of a bidding system - the aim is to maximize the aggregate scores over a range of random bridge deals against the expected range of opponent bidding systems. This implies there could be some difference depending on whether the system is being used in pairs or teams event and on which bidding system the opponents are using.
3. Another foundation is the expectation of competitive bidding, with the bidding system needing to cope with interference with its constructive bidding, and also having both goals of interference with their constructive bidding and of achieving appropriate penalty scores.
4. The right final bid does not necessarily mean a makeable bid. It might mean the right sacrifice (a bid with a negative score less than the opponents would have made) or a gamble bid to cut off a "likely" but uncertain positive score for the opponents.
5. At any point in the bidding there are a range of possible bids (35 possible at the outset) to represent the range of possible hands. The challenge is to provide partner the most useful definition of a hand's assets while not venturing into areas with adverse score consequences.
6. Traditional bidding systems have been natural - with the first bid indicating aspects of both strength and shape (and generally including possible trump suit identification). At the risk of memory strain and of forcing the partnership bid level at least one bid higher, artificial systems that sacrifice the initial identification of a possible trump suit allow potentially more useful definition to be conveyed with the initial bids.
7. A related benefit of an artificial bidding system is that it allows concentrated use of the lowest bids and can support dominance of bidding space with weak opening bids.
8. A useful basic distinction can be made between balanced and unbalanced hands. The principle is that if the partnership has one balanced and one unbalanced hand then the unbalanced hand will generally determine the trump suit if any and will be in the best position to decide the final bidding level for the partnership. Knowledge of the basic shape of the partnership hands will also often be instrumental in determining the decision to defend or compete in a competitive bidding situation.
9. The bidding system aims to identify as soon as possible [1] low point balanced hands [2] game hands including those where distribution compensates for <26HCP, and [3] low point distributional hands and then exit appropriately.
10. Two balanced hands need to perform an up-the-line shuffle seeking an 8 card fit or NT.
11. A balanced hand and a 2 or 3 suit unbalanced hand need to perform an up-the-line shuffle seeking an 8 card fit.
12. With a balanced hand and a single suit unbalanced hand, the former defines his hand more closely and the latter determines the partnership final bid. Ideally the latter discloses little or nothing about his or her hand, this being information that is likely to be more valuable to the opponents rather than to his or her partner. This is an intended distinguishing point of this system and gives rise to the "Captain" label.
13. With two unbalanced hands, the first task is to establish the best suit with this done iteratively with the definition of unbalanced progressively becoming more extreme. More extreme means the longer, stronger suit, with majors preferred in the case of equal length and strength.
14. A weak opening bid is utilized to dominate the bidding space and quickly determine whether part-score or game-going without giving away information useful to the competitors bidding or defence.

Definitions

1. High card points (HCP) are counted as A=4, K=3, Q=2, J=1
2. Total points (TP) include high card points and distribution points which are either one for each card beyond the fourth in any suit (if no trump suit fit can be assumed), or xx=1, x=3, and void=5 (if a trump suit fit can be assumed - including for instance a balanced hand opposite a 2 or 3 suit unbalanced hand)
3. Playing tricks (PT) are counted as A, Kx, or Qxx=1, AQ=1.5, AQx=2 etc with any card beyond the first three in a suit counting as a playing trick
4. An unbalanced hand is defined to include any hand with a singleton or void. With the exception of the 4-4-4-1 hand all unbalanced hands will have at least a 5 card suit. The reverse does not necessarily apply. In particular the 5-3-3-2 hand will be regarded as balanced or unbalanced based on an assessment of the 5 and 2 card suits. If the 5 card suit is strong (say at least 2 honors) and the 2 card weak this would be regarded as unbalanced. On the other hand if the 2 card is strong and the 5 card weak then the hand would be described as balanced. When in doubt treat a hand with a 5 card major as unbalanced, and one with a 5 card minor as balanced.
5. A "more unbalanced" hand shows the equivalent of an extra card in the suit, so would generally show a strong 6+ card suit.

Opening Bids:

Responses after 1C/1D:

After 1C (8-13HCP) or 1D (14-19HCP) balanced openings:

Responses after 1H/1S/2C:

After 1H (single suit) 1S (2 suit) or 2C (3 suit) unbalanced 8+HCP (10+ if vul) openings::

Responses to 1NT:

After 1NT (20+HCP) balanced opening:

Responses after 2D:

After 2D weak 6+ card major, 5 play tricks (6 if vul) OR 7+ minor, 7 play tricks (8 if vul) OR strong extreme unbalanced (10 play tricks):

Responses after 2H/2S/2NT:

After 2H (H & minor), 2S (S & other), 2NT (both minors) showing 2 5+ suits with 5 playing tricks (6 if vul):

pass over 2H/2S	natural accept
2S over 2H	6+ spades to play
2NT over 2H/2S	game interest, asking for other suit
3C	pass or correct to other suit
other	natural

Responses after 3+ suit:

Still coming...

Responses after 3NT:

Still coming...

Slam bidding:

Still coming...

Their interference:

After we open and they overcall or otherwise interfere with our constructive bidding, the following principles apply:

1. If the partnership bidding has identified an unbalanced hand and the next partnership bid was to be a point clarification, then an immediate pass/+1/double provides the clarification, with other suit bids showing an unbalanced hand (if the hand has not previously bid), and NT bids showing a quick stopper or singleton/void in the opponent's suit
2. If the initial partnership bid identified a balanced hand then any suit bid indicates an unbalanced hand, with jumps as extreme unbalanced, doubles are negative and takeout to 4S
3. A redouble shows useful high card positioning over interferer
4. When the partnership has not yet identified an unbalanced hand a bid of NT over opponent's natural suit(s) shows a stopper in their suit(s) and a balanced hand useful for either defence or our constructive bidding
5. A rebid of opponent's natural overcall is game force, often showing a distributional hand
6. Where our partnership has already identified a "captain" of the bidding (generally the unbalanced hand), the captain will normally decide the partnership's final bid.

Our interference:

Double	A. Take-out to 4S or until partner has shown suit otherwise suggesting penalties Take-out shows either [1] 13TP with 3+ in unbid natural suits or [2] 16TP with free suit rebid over any partner response Responder takes [1] into account in response and is in charge of the partnership bidding B. Reopening in last place with balanced hand and if apparent partnership points suggest competitive auction appropriate, after which partner's bid normally is final
NT overcall	Balanced, stoppers in most suits (including opponent's natural bids), bid-2 play tricks (1 if vul) after which overcaller's partner is in charge of the partnership bidding and overcaller would not bid again
Suit overcall	Unbalanced (single suit), bid-3 play tricks (2 if vul), after which overcaller's partner is in charge of partnership bidding and overcaller would not bid again (exception: showing second 5+ suit or overcaller's partner's new suit is stopper asking for NT)
Bid their natural suit	4-10HCP, 2 5+suits, bid-3 play tricks (2 if vul), after which overcaller's partner will bid one stop higher for overcaller to pass or correct, with responder asking for other suit with second bid one stop higher

Last updated:16/5/07

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