Siege

I like to show whether a hand is balanced or unbalanced at the first opportunity – it clearly benefits the bidding of the latter and simplifies auctions for the former, so I won't bid two suits on a balanced hand (unless raising partner). To try to avoid missing a 4-4 major fit, a minimum responder shows a 4 card major even with 4 or more diamonds. Using this style, you miss the 4-4 spade fit when responder has both majors, and the 1H and 1S responses are much more frequent than 1D – a waste of bidding space. Much better is to have the cheapest responses, 1D and 1H, assigned to hearts and spades, with 1S showing 5+diamonds and denying a 4 card major unless invitational or better opposite a weak NT. "Completing the transfer" to a major suit is used to show a minimum hand, either unbalanced with 3 card support or balanced with 2-3 card support, while a 1NT rebid shows a strong balanced hand.

This is a fairly simple modification to a normal 5 card major structure, whatever the 1NT opening range - the only change necessary is to always open 1C with the strong balanced type. However, as usual, I prefer to make things more complicated...

I believe that showing which of your minors is longer on a balanced hand isn't terribly useful - on a lot of hands, it will help the opponent's defence more than it will our bidding. I prefer to put all of the balanced hands into the 1C opening, which frees up a 1NT rebid after opening 1D - Siege puts it to good use having opened 1D on unbalanced hands with 4 diamonds and longer clubs. Removing these hands from the 1C opening helps greatly, both in contested and uncontested auctions -

• Opener can show the general nature (balanced or unbalanced) of his hand at his second call, without giving up on 4-4 spade fits. Most structures require you to choose which of these objectives to fulfil (i.e. whether to rebid 1S or 1NT after 1C:1H when holding a balanced hand with 4 spades)
  
• When opener has 11-13 balanced and responder has a two-suiter with 5 hearts, responder can offer opener a choice of part-scores without giving up on Checkback.
  
• 17-19 balanced can be shown at the 1 level. This allows responder to bid on few values and leaves more room for investigation.
• Opener can always show a minor two-suiter without distorting the relative lengths of his suits. Similarly, he can show a two-suiter with primary diamonds and secondary hearts.
• The 1S response to 1C can preempt the opponents out of the majors, and showing the 5th diamond immediately can be useful in competition
• There are many sequences where, having opened 1C, a diamond rebid cannot be natural. The most obvious is 1C:1R, 2D. We use 1C:1H, 2D as a reverse into hearts and 1C:1R, 2R as a good-or-bad raise. Similarly, 1C-P-1D-2S; X cannot be pure takeout as opener cannot have the standard shapes for a takeout double (1=3=4=5, 2=2=4=5, 1=2=4=6) so is used to show "values" (typically the 17-19 balanced hand, which would otherwise be difficult to show)
  

posted by MickyB  # 22:13