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The Advanced American Bidding System: (Vol. III of the American Bridge Series)

by Chris Hasney with Jerry Pottier

161 pages; Black coil; catalogue #98-0029; ISBN 1-55212-211-5; US$29.95, C$46.08, EUR30.00, £20.80

Teaches a new bidding system anchored on Standard methods as described in Volume II but going well beyond them. Much of this book has never been seen in the bridge community, even though these methods are easily understood by Advanced players.

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Early praise     Overview of the American Bridge Series     introduction     about the authors     contents     cataloguing information    

Early praise

"The Advanced American Bidding System provides players with many tools for improved bidding and play. The system is based on a cornerstone of being able to rely on your partner and making your bids and play accordingly. What is not bid is as important as what is.

"I am particularly impressed with the preciseness of actions taken when opponents double an opening bid. This enables you and your partner to better recognize the extent to which you can push a contract and when a double is in order. The system also includes many standard conventions, some with Jerry's modifications, which tie in well with the overall package. The use of mini-splinter bids and the handling of inverted minors help in defining what the final contract should be. The precise bidding techniques are effective in keeping out of poor game and slam contracts.

"Advanced American takes time to learn and requires quite a bit of memorizing, but the rewards for a partnership that masters this system will be well worth the time invested."

-- David Johnston
Bronze Life Master, ACBL Accredited Teacher

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Overview of the American Bridge Series

The American Bridge Series is designed as a sequential set of bidding courses, suitable for self-study or classroom-style study under the guidance of a professional bridge teacher. Volumes I through III include declarer play and defense skills as they relate to the bidding skills taught in each text. Volume IV is reserved for true experts; thus, declarer play and defense lessons would be an insult and are not included. The entire series takes about five years of study and practice to complete.

Volume I, The Basic American Bidding System was written for beginners and for social players who need to brush-up on basic bidding skills prior to tackling modern bidding methods. It features 5-card major suit opening bids, strong twos, and some basics of Forcing and Non-Forcing Stayman, Blackwood, Gerber, and few other things designed to form the framework for further study.

Volume II, The Intermediate American Bidding System makes the transition to modern methods including weak two openings. It teaches all of the pieces of "Standard" American in a way that integrates all of the varied forms of same. Don't be thrown by the term "intermediate." Many duplicate players think that they have reached that level when they can no longer play in novice games. Not so. "Intermediate," as defined by the authors, can vary from folks with zero ACBL masterpoints to 2500 masterpoints. It's not the points that count, it's the skill level.

Volume III, The Advanced American Bidding System presumes a complete understanding and skill with all of the material in Volume II. However, some of the Volume II material is repeated for intended redundancy, since the authors suspect that many folks who shouldn't be attempting to study Volume III will do so anyway. After all, "I'm a Life Master, I must be Advanced." The authors suggest that anyone not comfortable playing in Flight A at an ACBL regional or national tournament, or the World Bridge Federation (WBF) or other governing body equivalent thereof avoid purchase and study of Volume III until they have mastered all that is taught in Volume II.

Volume IV, The Expert American Bidding System, (NOT YET RELEASED) presumes two years' experience with the bidding techniques taught in Volume III, and expert declarer play and defense skills. This is not a "Mom and Pop" book. It is for those who wish to successfully compete in such ACBL events as Flight A Grand National Teams, the Blue Ribbon Pairs, the Life Master Pairs, the Spingold, Vanderbilt, and Reisinger teams, etc., and International events like the Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup, The London Times Pairs, the McCallan, etc. It features 4-card majors, the TEAS responses to no trump openings, weak no trumps, and a variety of other bidding methods which will get bidders to the optimum place but will require expert declarer play or defensive skills to maximize results.

All four books emphasize sound, disciplined bidding and an underlying philosophy of "You bid your cards, I'll bid mine, we'll get to the right spot." By the time students complete study and practice of Volume III, they should be able to know what cards partner holds almost to the spot at the conclusion of an auction. In fact, Jerry and one of his partners were once accused of cheating when they got cocky and did this after an auction. The comment was: "How can you know what cards your partner holds?" Jerry's answer: "Isn't that the whole point of the bidding?"

Volume I   Volume II   Volume III   Volume IV (coming soon)

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Introduction

Welcome to Volume III of The American Bridge Series. Volume I was intended to introduce new players to the game of contract bridge. Volume II presented modern bidding methods that come under the general label of Standard American, including most of the bidding conventions or "Gadgets" that have been tacked on. If you have absorbed both of those books and done the homework they assigned, then you are ready to advance to a better (more precise) bidding system.

There are many systems available. Some of the most popular are 2/1 Game Force, Acol, and Big Club (Precision, Italian Club, and the like). Which one should you choose?

While all of the above have their advantages and their proponents, we like The Advanced American Bidding System and its expert-level companion which is taught in Volume IV (The Expert American Bidding System). There are a number of reasons why we think that these approaches are the best.

We don't mean to be insulting anyone. There are some very fine players and teachers who play and teach each of the systems we named above. Nevertheless, you can find numerous instances where these bidding approaches simply can't handle common bidding situations and improvisation becomes necessary. If you don't believe it, consider that a writer of a book on a version of 2/1 Game Force recently recommended "inventing" falsified splinter bids to help set the trump suit. In our view, if you must deliberately falsify a conventional response there is a problem with your bidding system.

Additionally, these approaches have the same basic flaw as "Standard" American. They aren't standard! Go to the partnership desk, or grab a new partner on one of the Internet bridge clubs, and agree on an approach. For example, we often see "2/1 pard?" typed in the chat window by our pick-up Internet bridge partners. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean anything unless it is further clarified by a host of questions like: "Walsh?" "Bergen?" "Mathe?" and the like. And God help you if you agree to play Precision. That approach has more permutations than a flu virus. Even Acol has a bunch of versions. Why? Because folks kept finding flaws and inventing ways to fix them.

Try Advanced American. It has one version -- ours. When you have mastered the material in this book go on to Volume IV (Expert American) if you like to fool around and pick and choose. That one is a 4-card major system designed for longstanding, practiced partnerships. It lets you work with pard to select what you like from a menu of choices. It is definitely not for casual partnerships, so there is no need to standardize it. However, it assumes that the reader is fully comfortable with the material contained in this book. Don't skip this one to go to Volume IV -- it won't work.

Is Advanced American perfect? No. There are 64+ trillion possible hands, and an annoying number of variations on what our opponents might do with their half of them. No system can handle all of these flawlessly. This system is designed to handle the 95% or so of "normal" situations, not the "freaks."

As before, we ask you to keep the system pure. Advanced American is exactly what we present here, and only what we present here. If widespread play reveals a hole in the system, or perhaps just a way to improve things, we can always revise the system and publicize any revisions. Let's not let this go the way of other approaches that have mutated into a veritable "Tower of Babel" situation. If a system works well there is no need to fix it. We trust that Advanced American will stand up.

Read the news release for this title.

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About the Authors

Chris Hasney

Chris Hasney played a bit of bridge in college in the early 1970s but did not develop a keen interest in the game until the mid-1980s when he met Bob Jones at the Thunder Mountain Bridge Club in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Unfortunately, Chris was working full time as a stockbroker for Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. and engaged in hobbies such as community theater which limited his time at the bridge table and made his studies of the game under Bobís tutelage spotty, at best. In addition, Chris contracted Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) in late 1986, and suffered a gradual worsening of that condition. Eventually the effects of the disease became so pronounced that Chris reluctantly left the securities business on long term disability in early 1995.

Chris grabbed bridge as a therapeutic lifeline. It allowed him to remain in the company of other people and to combat the "Brain Fog" which is one of the classic symptoms of advanced CFIDS which is also known by the names Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.). Unfortunately Bob Jones died of a heart attack in 1995, and so Chris began taking bridge lessons from Jerry Pottier and Billy Miller. At the same time, Chris began to transcribe Bob Jones' old lesson plans in an effort to learn a bit more and to save Bob's work for posterity. Volumes I and II of The American Bridge Series sprouted from this project.

Another therapy was the Internet. Despite frequent CFIDS relapses Chris began learning e-mail and HTML and became somewhat adept at basic website design. He also began playing bridge on the Internet via OK Bridge, which he found to fit better with CFIDS since he was not committed to a 3-1/2 hour duplicate session. One of the things he noticed was a huge inconsistency between what he learned from Bob, what he learned from Jerry and Billy, what he was reading in bridge texts, and what was being played as SAYC or "Standard" on OK Bridge. The Intermediate American Bidding System (Volume II of The American Bridge Series) addresses those inconsistencies.

With Jerry as partner at the El Paso Regional and playing The Advanced American Bidding System (Volume III), Chris won the Flight A Unmixed Pairs event, which led to a Blue Ribbon Pairs entry at the San Francisco Nationals. After the afternoon session Chris and Jerry were 17th in section and needed only to play average in the evening session to qualify for the semi-finals. Unfortunately CFIDS brain fog reared its ugly head in the second session, and board after board was tossed away. They missed qualifying by 1/2 point out of 1250 or so. Poor Jerry, he had to sit opposite a partner who couldn't think. It is to Jerry's credit that he maintained his composure and did his dead-level best on every board, despite what was going on. Billy Miller has experienced this as well, playing with Chris in San Diego and Reno regional events. On a good day, Chris can bid and play reasonably well, but you don't want to partner him during a CFIDS relapse.

Chris lives in Sierra Vista, Arizona where he is building a Nutrition For Life International business with a goal of Presidential Platinum. He also does web page design and website hosting for bridge pros, schools, and organizations via The River's Bridge Suites, which he created and manages. He is webmaster of The Contract Bridge World Wide Website and is Coordinating Webmaster for the CFIDS CFS ME FMS GWS Directory project, an attempt to catalog CFIDS, Fibromyalgia, and Gulf War Syndrome support group links worldwide in one website.

Contact Chris Hasney at 520-452-1374 or searcher@theriver.com

 

Jerry Pottier

Jerry Pottier began learning bridge at the age of 32 from Bill August at the Springfield Bridge Club in Massachusetts. Initially mentored by Bill and by Lucile Hastings, Jerry went on to run the club for Bill for two years. Jerry played on the Club's K-S Team and remembers that the most fun he ever had in bridge was defending the Flight B Rye, New York regional knockout title in 1980 with the K-S Team.

Jerry became a Certified Regional Director in 1978 and was trained as a National Director under Maury Braunstein in 1981. For personal reasons Jerry resigned from the ACBL that year but he continued to play bridge and work on bidding theory.

Jerry holds a national and 13 regional wins in such varied events as men's pairs, open pairs, mixed and unmixed pairs, and teams. Many of these were wins were unrecorded, since he had resigned from the ACBL prior to the event and played as a non-member. Thus, although Jerry has won somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,200 masterpoints, most Gold, he has recorded very few of them and never attained a Life Master rating. However, he plays exclusively in Flight A at the few tournaments he attends.

Jerry is quite a bridge theoretician, having designed both the Advanced and Expert American bidding systems (Volumes III and IV of the American Bridge Series) which blend K-S, Standard American, Acol, and new things which Jerry created to glue them all together in a way which makes sense. Some of Jerry's conventional creations which are taught in Volumes III and IV are: TEAS, OhNo, 3-Way Stayman, Advanced Responsive Doubles, Flexible Negative Doubles, Advanced Mathe over a strong 1C opening, 3-card Support Mini-Splinters, and the Pottier convention. He taught some of this material to a team in San Diego, CA which put them into practice in winning a Flight B team event at the Nationals.

In "real" life Jerry is a High Tech Headhunter and volunteers his time as a Deacon in the First Baptist Church in Sierra Vista, where he teaches advanced Bible classes in English and Greek. He is building a Nutrition For Life direct response international network marketing organization to the Presidential Platinum level so that he can achieve a residual income which will allow him and his wife Cher to have more free time and money for travel and support of church activities. Jerry and Cher reside in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Back to Basics
Initial Hand Evaluation
Selection of Opening Bid in a Suit
Responder Theory

Chapter 2: 1 Level Major Suit Opening Bids
Responses and Rebids
When Responder Has a 1-Bid Hand (5-8 Support Points)
General
3-Way Game Tries
The Impossible No Trump Splinter by Opener
When Responder Has a 2-Bid Hand (9-11 in Support)
Temporizing
Immediate Jump Raises
Delayed Jump Raises
The Impossible Mini Splinter by Responder
When Responder Has a 3-Bid Hand (12+ in Support)
The Immediate Jump to Game
The Pottier 3NT Convention
Maxi Splinters
Delayed Splinters
The Advanced Jacoby 2NT Forcing Major Raise

Chapter 3: 1 Level Minor Suit Opening Bids 
Responses and Rebids
General
1D Responses
No Trump Responses to 1 of a Minor
General
Inferences
Inverted Minors 
Background 
Advanced Inverted Minors - General 
Advanced Inverted Minors in Competition 
Whoops 
Rebids 
More Interference 
Detailed Examples 


Chapter 4: No Trump--Opening Bids, Responses, and Rebids 
General 
Ranges 
The 3rd Seat 1NT Opening Bid 
Responses and Rebids After 1NT Opening Bids 
(in first, second, or fourth seat) 
Jacoby and Texas Transfers 
3-Way Stayman 
Rebids by Opener After Responder Signs Off 
Jacoby and 3-Way Stayman Examples 
Smolen 
Slam Try Stayman 
Minor Suit Stayman 
OhNo 
Jumping to the 3 Level 
Responding to Partner's 2NT Opening Bid 
Advanced Puppet Stayman 
When Partner Opens 3NT (Gambling) 
When Opener Bids 2C and Follows with 2NT or 3NT 
Measures Used to Combat Interference 
Ripcord 
Texas Transfers Over Interference 
Modified Lebensohl 
Other Interference 
A Few Examples 

Chapter 5 : Opening Bids at the Two Level and Responses to Blackwood 
The "Two Clubs" Opening Bid 
General 
Advanced Responses and Rebids 
The "Two Diamonds" Opening Bid 
Requirements 
Responses and Rebids 
Interference 
The "Two Hearts" Opening Bid 
Requirements 
Responses and Rebids 
Interference 
The "Two Spades" Opening Bid 
Requirements 
Responses and Rebids 
Blackwood Bids 
General 
CRO Responses 
Interference 

Chapter 6: Overcalls, Preempts, Preemptive Overcalls, 
and Some Specialized Bids 
Suit Overcalls 
Responses to Overcalls 
Competition 
Direct No Trump Overcalls 
Systems on (F.O.C.) 
Bidding Over Enemy No Trump Opening Bids 
"Hamelletti"/"Cappilton"/Helms 
Jump Overcalls 
"Sandwich Seat" Bids 
Two-suited Bids 
The "Top and Another" Cue Bid 
The No Trump Jump as Two Lowest Unbid 
The Western Cue Bid 
Preempts 
Opening the Bidding at the Four Level 
Disciplined NAMYATS 
Advanced Mathe 
When the Enemy Employs 2-Suited Overcalls 
Advanced Unusual Over Unusual 
When the Opponents Interfere by Cue Bidding 
Examples of All This Stuff 

Chapter 7: Doubles--Theirs and Ours 
Handling Enemy Doubles 
After 1H or 1S is Doubled for Takeout 
After 1C or 1D is Doubled for Takeout 
When the Enemy Doubles After Responder Has Bid 
When They Make a Penalty Double 
Our Doubles 
The Takeout Double 
Doubles of Their Artificial Bids 
Flexible Negative Doubles 
Flexible Negative Free Bids 
The Advanced Responsive Double 
Lead Directing Doubles 
A Little Practice 

Chapter 8: Balancing--The Key To Great Bidding 

Chapter 9: Declarer Play and Defense 

Chapter 10: Becoming Proficient 
How to Learn This System 

Appendix A: Advanced American Convention Card 

Appendix B: Pre-Alerts 

Index 

Catalogue Information

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