An Unassuming Club
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An Unassuming Club

by Donald Varvel, Mountain View, CA, USA

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General

An Unassuming Club is a system in the Vienna/Polish Club family, in which 1C shows any of a variety of hands and 1H/S shows at least 5 cards. Early versions of Polish Club, and Vienna, and (I think) Breakthrough, limited the 1C opening to less than GF strength and used 2C (Polish and Breakthrough) or 1NT (Vienna) for the really big hands, while using 1C for hands hands in the 19-23-point range and some weaker ones (usually real clubs and/or a balanced range or two). More recent versions of Polish club, and Power System and a few others, use a natural, limited 2C opening and open all the strong hands 1C. AUC is in the latter family, but with a weak notrump.

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Opening bid structure

1C:
Any of the following:
  • 4=4=1=4, opening strength and up (about 11+ HCP)
  • 5+ clubs and at least one 4-card major, opening strength and up.
  • 15+ points balanced, less than four diamonds (may be 4=4=3=2)
  • 6+ clubs, worth a jump rebid (about 15+ points)
  • Any 18+ HCP balanced or 19+ unbalanced

1D:
4+ diamonds, if balanced 15-17 HCP, otherwise 11+, may have longer clubs (4-5 or 5-6). Less than 19 points.

1H/S:
5+ cards, minimum opening to 18 points.

1NT:
12-14 balanced, hardly ever a 5-card major or 6-card minor. 11-14 if that's your preference.

2C:
6+ clubs, 10-15 points, no 4+-card major.

2D/H/S:
Weak 2.

2NT:
5-11 pts, at least 5-5 in the minors.

Reasons: I don't like nonforcing bids in short suits when I hold a strong hand. Guaranteeing 4 diamonds is useful but guaranteeing 5 seems a bit much. The Precision-style 2C opening is difficult for even great players to handle, as can be seen from several hands from world championship play. Complicated hands should be opened at the 1-level if possible. This system is designed around the ACBL GCC, so the choice in 2-level openings is severely limited.

In fact, this is a playable system with 5-card majors limited to at most 18 points, a 4-card 1D opening limited to at most 18 points, a 2C opening that's infrequent but wonderful when it does come up, and a 1C opening that is complicated but manageable.

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Bidding over the 1C opening

1D:
Negative. 0-5 points almost any distribution, 6-9 points with no 4+-card major. (May be a bad 6 points even with a 4-card major.)

1H/S:
4+ cards, 6+ points seldom shaded, may have a longer minor even if strong.

1NT:
10-15 points balanced, no 4+-card major.

2C:
4+ clubs, 10+ points, if balanced not minimum, if 4 clubs then strong clubs, no 4+-card major.

2D:
5+ diamonds, 10+ points, if balanced not minimum.

2H/S:
5-8 points, good 6-card suit.

2NT:
16+ points balanced, no 4+-card major.

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The main differences from similar systems in the later auction

The main differences from similar systems in the later auction:

1C-1S; 2D shows a minimum opener with 5+ clubs and 4 hearts. 2H here instead shows a stronger hand. Some such trick is necessary to get the 4-card majors out of 2C. 1C-1D; 1H is an artificial strong bid, as in Relay Precision. Instead, 1S shows an 11=18-pt hand with clubs and spades (possibly 4=4=1=4), and 2C shows 5+ clubs and 4 hearts. A 1NT rebid is 15-17, and bids from 2D up are specialized strong rebids.

The auction 1C-1D; 1NT showing a balanced hand is avoided in Vienna and Polish and Roman, because their balanced hand here is 12-14 or 12-16; instead, with their minimum balanced hand they rebid 1H/S, possibly a 3-card suit. (Roman rebids 1NT with 15-16, but the principle stands.) Since our minimum balanced hand is 15-17, the 1NT rebid is more attractive and the 1H/S rebid (possibly playing in a questionable 4-3 or even 3-3 fit) is less attractive; the opponents probably can't make anything. Playing a bad contract at the 1-level may be OK when it's the opponents' hand, but not when it's our hand.

Anyway, that's the basic structure. Obviously there's a lot more to it.

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Editor's note:

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