[Echognome]

Have played "guess the system" where you and your partner pick a system separately and act as though your partner is aware of what you have chosen and take their bids accordingly. You have to guess what system partner has picked in the fewest hands possible. I have only played that online.

In a real tournament in Ireland, I played with some of the university players and the most exotic thing we played was psychosuction openings and psychosuction responses.

[deannz]

"Your Card'

In pairs events you arrive at the opponents table and ask "what are you playing" and play that.

Then at the end you ask them
"Did we bid this correctly".

D./

[helene_t]

There was a Dutch pair who often played the "your card" system, but also sometimes the IBYP system. The pre-alerts would typically go like this:

A: We play IBYP
B: Who? What is that?
A: I beg your pardon?
B: I asked, what is IBYP?
A: I beg your pardon?

etc. They claimed the record was seven times.

[Vampyr]

deannz, on 2011-June-22, 15:43, said:

"Your Card'

In pairs events you arrive at the opponents table and ask "what are you playing" and play that.

Then at the end you ask them
"Did we bid this correctly".

D./

As it happens, I was just discussing this method yesterday. The problem, of course, is when you meet a pair who are playing the same system as you.

[Hilver]

Revison (modified) by John Montgomery

Jan

[mycroft]

I invented a system which was the GCC equivalent of Clockwork Orange.

We didn't play all of it (especially the relay system after 1A-1B). But we did play some of it, and got a good board after 2C Minor Suit Flannery.

5-Rule Club is fun, especially if you play it with someone who's never played a strong club system before.

• 1C is 16+ any
  
• 1D after 1C is 0-7, only NGF bid
  
• 1NT is 13-15 bal
  
• 1D is 13-15 unbal
  
• 1M, 2m are 8-12, 4+

We added a couple of things, and when we were told "in this club, weak 2s have to show 5 and 5", and it was stupid to play 5-7 weak 2s, we changed 2M to be 13-16, 6+M, which really helped the system (but that's, of course, not the point).

I have played Kontrast (From the Internet Archive, I really need to get my website back up) in serious competition, and it was a lot of fun.

[mycroft]

Heh, from Midnight Special, much as I a) like it, and b) admire Noble, there are a couple of things he has wrong.

1) after "no conventions 1NT", he can't play 1NT-X-pass as "conventional" (I assume that "disdain for 1NTx" means "don't want to play here"), it must be "I think 1NTx is the right place to play".
2) after "no conventions 1NT", he can't play negative doubles (allowed usually by "any meaning for double is allowed").

And for Cyberyeti, for Clockwork Orange, did you have separate systems for Levels 2, 3, and 4?

[olien]

I like the "your card" system, although I think its technically called chameleon

[Elianna]

olien, on 2011-June-23, 21:15, said:

I like the "your card" system, although I think its technically called chameleon

I remember you playing inverted psycho suction. That was amusing.

[mtvesuvius]

helene_t, on 2011-June-21, 17:04, said:

We had some discussion about this a long time ago, possibly before you joined the forum:
http://www.bridgebas...d-major-system/
Unfortunately the thread got hijacked by the usual ACBL legality nonsense but there were some good ideas from AWM and Gerben on how to work out the responses to the multi 1♦ opening.

Thanks for the link Helene, I vaguely remembered reading something like that on here... Even though I joined in late '08, I probably was linked there a couple times... It's an interesting read, and something that I am definitely going to try out sometime -- Seems like a lot of fun.

Echognome, on 2011-June-22, 13:21, said:

Have played "guess the system" where you and your partner pick a system separately and act as though your partner is aware of what you have chosen and take their bids accordingly. You have to guess what system partner has picked in the fewest hands possible. I have only played that online.

In a real tournament in Ireland, I played with some of the university players and the most exotic thing we played was psychosuction openings and psychosuction responses.

Something new for a midnight game... Combined with a version of Bridge Bingo, this would be a lot of fun to do.

deannz, on 2011-June-22, 15:43, said:

"Your Card'

In pairs events you arrive at the opponents table and ask "what are you playing" and play that.

Then at the end you ask them
"Did we bid this correctly".

D./

I've done this in a few regional pair events, and my favorite is when they ask what a bid means and you can answer: "Well, what you YOU think it is?"
If the opponents didn't have a convention card filled out, we played relay precision to punish them. And best of all, you can look at what methods you're playing... In the middle of the auction!

[olien]

Elianna, on 2011-June-23, 21:29, said:

I remember you playing inverted psycho suction. That was amusing.

3NTXX - down 9

thank god we weren't playing money bridge

[rbforster]

Semi forcing pass was somewhat entertaining for a month or so. Iirc,

P 0-7 or 13-15 all non preempts
1C strong 16+
1suit, 2C 8-12 natural; 5+ suits except diamonds 4+
1NT 10-12 including 4414
2DHS weak twos, 5-10ish (so 1M...2M showed a max)
2N weak minors

and after pass, similar with a nebulous 1D that included 8-9 and 13-15 balanced. Suited openers were now 8-15 in 3rd/4th, and a 1NT response by a PH was semi forcing but showed 13-15 balanced.

"You wont miss game passing 15's if your partner opens all his 8's"

[Elianna]

olien, on 2011-June-26, 21:48, said:

3NTXX - down 9

thank god we weren't playing money bridge

It was probably the most amusing hand I played that week. And the look on your face was amusing too. I would have given you back your money for that expression!

[kaltstart]

A few years after I started playing bridge, I stumbled upon an article in the German bridge magazine about the strong pass systems being played in the 70ies. I don´t remember the names, but there was an example bidding sequence of 2 Dutch players using a strong pass system with a 1♠ fert. Being fascinated and lacking additional informations (no good internet access like today), I just invented one system around this fert, which might be nonsense, but it was great fun. I vaguely remember the minor openers which showed the majors, 4+, 7-11 hcp but not the rest.

My partner and I were allowed to play it once in the club and even became first. If, by the way, someone can give me a hint about those Dutch players, I´d be grateful.

[Cyberyeti]

mycroft, on 2011-June-23, 11:12, said:

And for Cyberyeti, for Clockwork Orange, did you have separate systems for Levels 2, 3, and 4?

Was in the old general/restricted days and the card was designed to be general licence legal at the time (although probably immoral and fattening).

Favourite moment - I used to play at a club with no system restraints and some pairs played forcing or medium passes on occasions. The county captain came down for some practice as it was where most of the strong players in Norwich played. Sits down against us, we play some boards and he said "I came down for some serious practice, and find you're playing some experimental licence crap". When we told him it was general licence legal he pretty much literally fell off his chair.

[tolvyrj]

We played years ago a no-name variant:
Pass: any hand 13+ hcp.
1♦ any hand 0-7 hcp. no A+K
1M 8-12 hcp. 0-2 or 5+ cards in the suit
and so on. No round passes in our table.
Single funniest convention i have used was Blakseth 2♠ opening; pre-empt, any one or two suited hand.

[Bende]

A friend of mine had constructed a system with his partner based around a strong (17+) pass and a 1♦ fert (0-7). When they arrived at the tournament they were supposed to play in, the organizers changed the system restrictions so that forcing passes where not allowed. To remedy this, they just moved the 17+ hands into the 1♦ opening which now became weak/strong. They just didn't use the pass for any hands at all. Not the best but quite fun and very aggressive .

[olien]

In a midnight I played the following:

Regardless of vul, we used the following openings:
Pass=any 13+
1♣=catchall 8-12
2m=6+m 8-12
2M=destructive weak 2's

At Green
1♦=4+♥ 8-12
1♥=4+♠ 8-12
1♠=any 0-7
1NT=8-10


At Red vs Red:
1♦=4+♥ 8-12
1♥=any 0-7
1♠=4+♠ 8-12
1NT=10-12


At Red vs Green:
1♦=any 0-7
1M=4+M 8-12
1NT=11-12


Was a bit crazy, but very fun. We never discussed responses, but that opposite partner's opening pass: 1♣ was the negative, and anything else showed 8+ HCP.

The best part was one pair of opponents summoned the director to ask about the legality of our system, and the director laughed and replied "this is the midnights" and walked away.

[wickedbid1]

Bende, on 2011-June-28, 09:52, said:

A friend of mine had constructed a system with his partner based around a strong (17+) pass and a 1♦ fert (0-7). When they arrived at the tournament they were supposed to play in, the organizers changed the system restrictions so that forcing passes where not allowed. To remedy this, they just moved the 17+ hands into the 1♦ opening which now became weak/strong. They just didn't use the pass for any hands at all. Not the best but quite fun and very aggressive .

Vulcan Variable Diamond -- i like that. Pass could be any mixed raise (8-9).

[aguahombre]

"IRV" (Original concept attributed to Irv Kostal).

Not really "funniest", because --if it were legal-- it would be quite workable.

1st and 2nd seat 1-bids and 2C are as if opener's RHO had opened 1♣ (hypothetically out of turn and accepted if in 1st seat).

Pass=could be as much as 12-14 balanced, and not forcing.
1C=any hand which would have made a takeout double of 1♣.
1D thru 1N=overcall of 1C---system on/1NT.
2C=Michaels (split range).

Responder becomes "advancer", with traditional advances to partner's 1C as if it were a takeout double of 1C.

3rd and 4th seat openers are "balancing" bids. 1NT=12-15 and 1C=balancing double of 1C.

Higher openings are whatever they would have been in a normal style; except 2D=4-4-4-1 with clubs as the known suit (11-14 or 23-25).