[Flame]

I started learninng romex from a fat book i have, its nice to learn something with details.
Its very different then normal system modern systems, wasting space on strong hands.
How bad/good do you think it is ?

[TylerE]

Well, how many top pairs play it in major competition? (Zero, that I'm aware of.) The opening structure strikes me as very theoretically very poor. Polish Club solves the same problems Rozencrantz had with SA better, while still remaining largely a natural system.

[awm]

Romex is a good system for bidding strong hands. If you think the main problem with SA bidding is that it's hard to bid accurately when opener has 19+ hcp, then Romex might be your solution.

In the modern game though, other concerns seem to take precedence. In the modern style:

(1) People like to open lighter and lighter. Romex was conceived as a fairly sound-opening system and causes some problems if you start to open light (in particular 1x-1y-1NT has too wide a range).

(2) People like to preempt a lot, opening a variety of weak and/or intermediate hands at the two level. Romex loses some of these with the 2♦ strong opening.

(3) People like to open 1NT a lot (regardless of range). Playing a very strong and forcing 1NT opening means you can't do this so much.

[ArtK78]

Romex has a lot of very interesting methods, not the least of which is a constructive bidding structure based on modified losing trick count in addition to high card points. It makes you think about hand evaluation in a different manner than most systems.

I played the original version with some success many years ago, and I have a couple of friends who continue to play Romex with some success.

The overall structure may have been conceived as a sound opening type system, but it can be adapted to any style that you choose to play.

The fact that the 1NT opening shows about 18-21 HCP and an unbalanced hand makes the system very anti-field, if you care about such matters. All normal strong 1NT openings have to be opened with one of a suit. That is not necessarily a disadvantage.

[blackshoe]

Romex is a lot better system than many people give it credit for.

I don't know which "big Romex book" you have - the latest one is Bid to Win, Play for Pleasure, published, I believe, in 1985 or so. Since then, three smaller books (Godfrey's Bridge Challenge, Godfrey's Stairway to the Stars, and Godfrey's Angels have been published, trying to introduce Romex "without frills" (GBC) and some additional interesting bits of the system. GSS introduces the Romex "two card" system, and the Romex Forcing Club. RFC is a what it sounds like - a FC system with roots in Romex, Precision, and Blue Team Club. The last book is a collection of mostly minor changes to the system. In the "two card" variant, Romex Forcing Club is played at favorable when playing IMPs, and not vulnerable when playing Matchpoints. At other vulnerabilities, the proponents play Romex.

It's been a while since I looked, but as I recall Romex teams (and perhaps pairs) have done fairly well in National and International competitions.