The Tangerine Club
Jan Eric Larsson
To Anu
Palo Alto, California,
April 24th, 1995
Preface
Which of all opening bids is the least efficient and causes most trouble in the subsequent bidding? A strong 1 Club? A Roman 2 Diamonds? A 0-7 points 1 Diamond?
My opinion is clear: the opening bid one of a suit in the standard system is the worst of all bids. Opening one of a suit, I tell my partner that I have somewhere between 11 reasonable points and almost a game on my own hand. In one fell swoop, I have managed to half the total span of possibilities! With partner holding around 12 points, we may have trouble making a part score, or a grand slam may be easy.
Strong 1 Club systems remedy the main disadvantage with the "standard" systems, the wide point range of the one level openings. The opening 1 Club is used to show stronger hands, usually from around 16 points and upwards. This allows the rest of the opening bids to be limited and the subsequent bidding becomes both easier and more precise.
It is my opinion that strong 1 Club systems are superior to standard systems, especially if the opponents let the partnership bid without interference after 1 Club, which they shouldn't but usually do. Even the good Goren has the following to say about Precision and other strong 1 Club systems:
"Except for 1 Club opening, which is conventional, similar to 2 Clubs in standard methods, almost all other Precision bids are also played as part of Standard American. Therefore, it is easy to learn. But the player who adopts the Precision System enjoys the enormous advantage of knowning, often from the very first bid, whether the partnership is in part score, game or slam territory."
Goren, C. H., "Goren's New Bridge Complete",
Doubleday, Garden City, New York, p. 287, 1985.
In addition, the 1 Club bidding may use asking bids and other special slam methods. The potential weakness of strong 1 Club systems is the 1 Club opening itself. There are two slightly different reasons for this. First, opponents using systematic weak overcalls will decrease the bidding precision. Secondly, many opponents use "psychic" overcalls. The latter may not be a particularly good idea, but it will take away lots of reliability in the bidding.
The idea of weak/strong 1 Club systems is to remove the reason for destructive and psychic overcalls of the 1 Club opening. This opening now shows either the strong variant,or a weak hand, typically a balanced or semi-balanced hand around 10 points. If an opponent interferes with a psychic bid, he risks to sabotage the subsequent bidding for his own side.
Tangerine was born out of my distrust for the "standard" system. I had some inspiration from other systems, the Neapolitan Club, the Blue Team Club, Precision, and the Swedish system Hjortron, (Cloudberry). Tangerine was invented at the same time as Cloudberry, and precedes the weak/strong Carrot Club with more than five years. All in all, Tangerine is nothing new, though, only a simple, systematic version of a weak/strong 1 Club and light 4 card suit openings.
I have had great times playing it, though. Together with Sooren Romare, (who hereby is acknowledged as a co-author of the system), we ended up in 6 Hearts doubled and vulnerable, resulting in 11 tricks and 3200 points out, in a pairs competition in Lund, Sweden, but over the years we found literally hundreds of slams that no one else even suspected to be there. In short, Tangerine can improve your bidding a lot, in both pairs and teams competitions, because it is simple, aggressive, and good at finding games and slams.
So read and be inspired. Maybe you can find some idea to borrow and improve, or maybe you will even want to play Tangerine. Now it has been presented in English, and you may do with it whatever you want. Hopefully you find it interesting and inspiring, or at least a nice piece of history. "And that was the main reason why we wrote this book, aside from wanting to become so wealthy that we shall routinely leave motor yachts as tips," to quote Dave Barry from his book about American history, "Dave Barry Slept Here".
Finally, I would like to dedicate this work to Anu Uus, my life companion, wife, and best friend.
Palo Alto, April 24th, 1995
Jan Eric Larsson
About the Author
I was born in Sweden in 1959, and I'm currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow, (i.e., a researcher), in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University in California. During my student and Ph. D. years in Lund, Sweden, I played Bridge in local clubs. For a while, I belonged to the junior elite of southern Sweden, and later I played on an average club level.
Copyright: 1995 by Jan Eric Larsson. All rights reserved
The Table of Contents has not been included.
Tangerine Opening Bids
The Tangerine Club is a Bridge bidding system based on a weak/strong 1 Club opening, followed by simple but efficient asking bids, light opening bids of one of a suit showing 10-14 points and at least 4 cards in the suit, a 1 No Trump opening of 12-14 HCPs and a balanced hand without five card majors, a natural 2 Clubs opening showing 10-14 points and at least 5 clubs, and weak two openings of 5-9 points and at least 5 cards in the suit. Tangerine is based on the following principles:
1. It is a tactical advantage to open as often as possible. In Tangerine, the one-level opening bids, (except 1 Club), show 10-14 points and a 4+ card suit. The 10 points limit for opening comes from the fact that at 10 points, you have a hand of at least average strength. In addition, the weak two openings are very aggressive. All these "light" opening bids gives a tactical advantage on almost every board played. Few systems in the world are as aggressive asTangerine.
2. Tangerine uses HCPs and distributional points. Of course, you may your own favorite point count method to evaluate your hands.
3. The use of a strong 1 Club opening combines two advantages. It enables the rest of the opening bids to contain a narrower point-range, making most auctions easy to control, and it allows for "Italian-style" asking bids, which are easy to use but quite efficient in finding, (and avoiding!), slams.
4. A strong 1 Club opening may be a tactical weakness, at least when it is only moderately strong, as in Tangerine. Opponents are often eager to use "psychics," which tend to make the bidding more random than usual. In order to avoid this, Tangerine has an ambiguous 1 Club opening, showing either 8-9 points and a balanced or semi-balanced hand, or 15+ with any shape. If the opponents try any psychics, they risk fooling themselves.
5. Tangerine adheres to standard, natural bidding principles as often as possible. Thus, you can play most of Tangerine using your knowledge and experience from other systems. The bidding after 1 Diamond, 1 Heart, 1 Spade, and 1 No Trump may follow most standard methods.
6. Tangerine never acknowledges the 4-4-4-1 distribution. Instead, such a hand is treated either as a 4-4-3-2 or 5-4-4-0, (usually with the "5" card suit in a minor).
Tangerine Opening Bid
|
1 |
8-9 HCPs |
balanced | ||
|
|
15+ HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
1 |
10-14 HCPs |
4+ Diamonds | ||
|
|
10-11 HCPs |
exactly 3-3-3-4 distribution | ||
|
1 |
10-14 HCPs |
4+ Hearts | ||
|
1 |
10-14 HCPs |
4+ Spades | ||
|
1 NT: |
12-14 HCPs |
balanced, no 5-card Major | ||
|
2 |
10-14 HCPs |
5+ Clubs | ||
|
2 |
5-9 HCPs |
5+ Diamonds | ||
|
2 |
5-9 HCPs |
5+ Hearts | ||
|
2 |
5-9 HCPs |
5+ Spades | ||
|
2 NT: |
0-9 HCPs |
7+ card suit | ||
|
3 any suit: |
|
Preemptive | ||
|
3 NT: |
|
solid 7+ card Minor suit | ||
|
4 any suit: |
|
Preemptive | ||
|
4 NT: |
|
Preemptive with both Minor suits |
In third seat, the opening bid range is 8-14, in fourth seat it is 11-14, and the 1 Club opening is unambiguously strong, (15+). Since a hand that has passed does not have strength enough to try for a game against an 8-14 opening bid, the third seat openings may be psychic, and if the local Bridge laws allow it, this is part of the Tangerine system.
The Opening 1 Club
The responses to 1 Club are either negative, semi-positive, or positive. A positive response is game-forcing against a strong opener, and the response 2 No Trump is forcing against the weak variant.
Responses to 1 Club
|
1 |
0-9 HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
1 |
10-16 HCPs |
5+ Hearts | ||
|
1 |
10-16 HCPs |
5+ Spades | ||
|
1 NT: |
10-16 HCPs |
balanced | ||
|
2 |
10-16 HCPs |
5+ Clubs | ||
|
2 |
10-16 HCPs |
5+ Diamonds | ||
|
2 |
6-9 HCPs |
exactly 6 Hearts | ||
|
2 |
6-9 HCPs |
exactly 6 Spades | ||
|
2 NT: |
17+ HCPs |
any shape |
1 Club and Negative Response
After 1 Club - 1 Diamond, the bidding is natural, but the opener's jump in a suit is a support asking bid. Note that the bids 1 Heart and 1 Spade do not clarify whether opener is weak or strong. They can be made with both variants.
Bidding after 1 Club - 1 Diamond
|
1 NT: |
15-17 HCPs |
balanced | ||
|
2 NT: |
20-21 HCPs |
balanced | ||
|
1 |
8-9 HCPs |
natural, non-forcing | ||
|
15-19 HCPs |
natural, non-forcing | |||
|
2 |
15-19 HCPs |
natural, non-forcing | ||
|
2 |
20+ HCPs |
5+ cards, Support Asking Bid | ||
|
3 |
20+ HCPs |
5+ cards, Support Asking Bid |
After a sequence like 1 Club - 1 Diamond; 1 Spade, the bidding is similar to that which follows the openings 1 Diamond / Heart / Spade, but with different point limits. Responder's weak limit and 1 No Trump shows 5-7, 1-over-1 shows 5-9, and strong limit and 2-over-1 shows 8-9.
1 Club and Positive Responses
After 1 Club and a positive response, the opener shows the strong hand with the relay bid, (the closest bid in suit or No Trump), which is also a top control asking bid, (asks for Aces and Kings). He may also jump in a suit, showing an independent suit, (which does not need any support), and asking for top controls. Other bids show the weak hand, with natural continuations.
Bidding After 1 Club and a Positive Response
| Relay: |
15+ HCPs |
Top Control Asking Bid | ||
| No Trump: |
|
8-9, 15-17, 20-21, etc. | ||
| Raises: |
8-9 HCPs |
Natural | ||
| Suit: |
8-9 HCPs |
Natural | ||
| Suit Jumps: |
15+ HCPs |
Top Control Asking Bid | ||
|
|
Independent Suit |
The relay is a top control asking bid. Responder answers by showing the number of top controls, (Ace 2, King 1), by bidding a certain number of steps,(the first step shows 0-2 top controls, the second 3, etc.). After this answer, a bid in a new suit is a support asking bid with a five card suit, a jump in a new suit is a support asking bid with a six card suit, and a bid in responder's suit a trump asking bid. After a negative response to a support asking bid, a new suit is a support asking bid with a four card suit. After a positive response to a support asking bid or a trump asking bid, a new suit is a control asking bid.
Here are a couple of examples of Tangerine slam bidding after a 1 Club opening. The following hands have only 26 points between them, but with asking bids it is easy to find the small slam:
| North | South | |||||||||||||||||
|
|
In Tangerine, the bidding might go as follows:
| North | South | |
1  |
1 NT | |
| 2 |
2  |
|
3  |
4 |
|
4  |
4 NT | |
| 5 |
5 |
|
| 6 |
South's 1 No Trump shows 10-16 and a balanced hand. North's 2 Clubs asks for top controls, and 2 Spades, (3 steps), shows 4. North sees that the partnership holds 9 of 12 top controls, which may be enough for a small slam. His 3 Hearts asks for heart support and 4 Clubs, (3 steps), shows Txx+ in Hearts. North's 4 Diamonds asks for Diamond control and South's 4 No Trump shows a first control. North's 5 Clubs asks for Club control, and when South shows none with 5 Diamonds, North knows that South has the Ace in Diamonds and Kings in the majors, and bids 6 Hearts.
The next example shows a grand slam on 34 points:
| North | South | |
| KQxx |
Axxx |
|
| Kxx |
Ax |
|
| AKQ |
xxx |
|
| AKx |
xx |
Here, the bidding might go:
| North | South | |
| 1 |
1 |
|
| 1 NT | 2 |
|
| 2 |
3 |
|
| 3 |
4 |
|
| 4 |
4 NT | |
| 5 |
5 |
|
| 6 |
6 |
|
| 7 |
South's 1 Spades shows 10-16 and 5+ Spades, and North's 1 No Trump is the relay, after which South's 2 Hearts shows 4 top controls. Thus, North can see that the partnership holds all 12 top controls. His 2 Spades is a trump asking bid, and South's 3 Clubs, (2 steps), shows Txxxx. North can now see 12 tricks, and a Queen in either Clubs or Hearts or doubletons in both would give a 13th. North first asks for Heart control with 3 Hearts, well aware that South will show his Ace with 4 Clubs. North's 4 Hearts is a repeated control asking bid, and South shows a third control with 4 No Trump. North now asks for Club control with 5 Clubs, and South denies a first or second control. After the repeated asking bid 6 Clubs, South shows a third control, and North can bid the grand slam. Also note that North can keep asking for controls on a very high level. Only bids in Spades and No Trump would be final contracts.
1 Club and Semi-Positive Responses
After 1 Club and the responses 2 Diamonds and 2 Spades, the bidding proceeds as after a weak two opening.
Bidding after Weak 2 Hearts and 2 Spades
|
Raises: |
Final Contract | |
|
Suit: |
5+ cards, forcing | |
|
Jump in a Suit: |
6+ cards, invitation | |
|
2 No Trump: |
Trump support, forcing |
After 1 Club - 2 Hearts / 2 Spades; 2 No Trump, responder bids three of his major with minimum, and anything else with maximum. He may show features, i.e., three card suits with a couple of high cards, or bid 3N with an almost solid 6+ card suit. After this, opener's bid in a new suit is a control asking bid.
1 Club - 2 No Trump - Forcing to Game or Slam
When responder is very strong, he responds to 1 Club with 2 No Trump, which is forcing to game against the weak hand, and (almost) forcing to slam against the strong hand.
Bidding after 1 Club - 2 No Trump
|
3 |
8-9 HCPs |
followed by natural bidding | ||
|
3 |
15+ HCPs |
no strong suit | ||
|
3 |
15+ HCPs |
5+ cards, support asking bid | ||
|
3 NT: |
8-9 HCPs |
completely balanced | ||
|
4 |
15+ HCPs |
5+ cards, support asking bid |
After 1 Club - 2 No Trump; 3 Diamonds, responder's suit is a support asking bid with a five card suit. The sequence 1 Club - 2 No Trump; 3 No Trump shows a completely balanced hand, i.e., a hand with no five card suits and no four card majors. After this, 4 Clubs is a distribution asking bid.
1 Club and Preemptive Responses
With preemptive hands, responder bids according to the opening bids after 1 Clubs. After this, a new suit from opener is a control asking bid, assuming slam interest with responder's long suit as trump.
Interference over 1 Club
The ambiguous 1 Club opening usually means that the opponents have sound hands and suits when they interfere. However, it is possible that an opponent will try a psychic overcall. For this reason, Tangerine always allows a partner to show the suit bid by anopponent, in order to "reveal psychics." The general rule is that a double is a negative double, while a double followed by a cuebid reveal psychics. The system does not demand the partners to know whether the interference was natural or psychic.
After interfering bids up to and including 1 No Trump, both partners simply "ignore" the bid. A double means that responder would have made the opponent's bid, while lower suits are shown a level higher.
Responder's Bid after Interference up to 1 No Trump
|
pass: |
0-9 HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
double: |
10-16 HCPs |
should have bid opponent's suit | ||
|
suit: |
10-16 HCPs |
5+ card suit | ||
|
1 NT: |
10-16 HCPs |
balanced | ||
|
cuebid: |
17+ HCPs |
any shape |
For example, after 1 Club (1 Spade), the bidding goes as follows:
Bidding after 1 Club (1 Spade)
|
pass: |
0-9 HCPs |
|||
|
double: |
10-16 HCPs |
5+ Spades | ||
|
1 NT |
10-16 HCPs |
balanced | ||
|
2 |
10-16 HCPs |
5+ card suit | ||
|
2 |
17+ HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
2 NT: |
17-19 HCPs |
completely balanced |
Thus, after interference up to 1 No Trump, the two level is used for showing 10-16 and 5+ card suits.
If the intervening bid is higher than 1 No Trump, the difference is that the double shows interest for unbid suits or a balanced hand without a stopper. The lower of 2 No Trump and cuebid shows 17+, and the other 17-19 completely balanced.
Responder's Bid after Interference - 2 Clubs - 2 Spades
|
pass: |
0-9 HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
|
10-16 HCPs |
with opponent's suit | ||
|
double: |
10-16 HCPs |
interest for unbid suits | ||
|
double + cuebid |
10-16 HCPs |
"revealing psychics" | ||
|
suit |
10-16 HCPs |
5+ card suit | ||
|
cuebid |
17-19 HCPs |
completely balanced | ||
|
2 No Trump |
17+ HCPs |
any shape |
After an overcall of 2N or higher, the responses are:
Responder's Bid after Interference over 2 Spades
|
pass: |
0-9 HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
|
10-16 HCPs |
with opponent's suit | ||
|
double: |
10-16 HCPs |
interest for unbid suits | ||
|
double + cuebid: |
10-16 HCPs |
"revealing psychics" | ||
|
suit: |
10-16 HCPs |
5+ card suit | ||
|
cuebid: |
17+ HCPs |
completely balanced |
Opener uses doubles and cuebids in the following way:
Opener's Rebid after Interference
|
pass, XX: |
8-9 HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
double: |
15-19 HCPs |
interest for unbid suits | ||
|
double + cuebid: |
15-19 HCPs |
"revealing psychics" | ||
|
suit: |
15-19 HCPs |
support asking bid | ||
|
20+ HCPs |
if responder passed | |||
|
cuebid: |
15+ HCPs |
top control asking bid |
In all forcing situations, opener's relay shows 8-9, the next bid 15+ and no good suit, and lowest notrump, (if not one of the previous bids), 8-9 completely balanced. Other suit bids are support asking bids with a 5+ card suit.
1 Club in Third and Fourth Seat
The 1 Club opening is unambiguously strong in third and fourth seat, which makes the auction more sensitive to psychics, and responder has passed, which limits him to 0-7 points.
Responses to 1 Club in 3rd and 4th Seat
|
1 |
0-4 HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
1 |
5-7 HCPs |
5+ Hearts | ||
|
1 |
5-7 HCPs |
5+ Spades | ||
|
1 NT: |
5-7 HCPs |
balanced | ||
|
2 |
5-7 HCPs |
5+ Clubs | ||
|
2 |
5-7 HCPs |
5+ Diamonds | ||
|
2 |
2-4 HCPs |
exactly 6 Hearts | ||
|
2 |
2-4 HCPs |
exactly 6 Spades |
After these responses, opener's suit is natural and non-forcing, a jump in suit is a support asking bid with a five card suit, a raise is invitational, and a double raise is a trump asking bid.
A Relay Slam System
Tangerine's asking bids are good enough to find most slams, but some type of hands can cause troubles. Here is an example:
| North | South | |
| AQxxx |
Kxx |
|
| KQxx |
Axxx |
|
| x |
Axx |
|
| AJx |
xxx |
With asking bids, the bidding might go:
| North | South | |
| 1 |
1 NT | |
| 2 |
2 NT | |
| 3 |
4 |
|
| 4 |
5 |
|
| 5 |
5 NT | |
| 6 |
South has shown 10-16, balanced, with 5 top controls, and a Txx+ support, (which obviously must be Kxx+), for North's Spades. After control asking bids in Hearts and Diamonds, the bidding ends in a doubtful 6 Spades, which may go down one, while 7 Hearts is fine with normal breaks. In cases like this, it is often better to play with the more evenly distributed suit as trump, and use the other suit for discarding loosers. However, with asking bids, there is no way of finding out about the Heart suit above. In order to solve this kind of problem, Tangerine provides a relay system that you may want to use after 1 Club.
Relays after 1 Club
After the opening 1 Club, a positive response, relay, and top control step response, a new relay asks responder to show his exact distribution, using the following relay principles:
1. Show 4+ card suits and extra lengths in ascending bid order.
2. Show 3 card fragments in descending bid order.
3. The shape relays end when responder's shape is known, and above 4 Clubs.
4. Opener's next relay sets responder's longest suit as trump, (the higher of equal length suits), while the bid above the relay sets the next longest suit, etc. These bids also ask for control relays.
5. Responder denies control of a suit by bidding it, while passing a suit shows control in it, so called denial cuebids.
6. Responder's notrump always replaces the highest suit bid, both during shape and control relays.
The use of this relay system is best explained by an example. Here are the previous trouble hands again:
| North | South | |
| AQxxx |
Kxx |
|
| KQxx |
Axxx |
|
| x |
Axx |
|
| AJx |
xxx |
With the relay system, the bidding might go:
| North | South | |
| 1 |
1 NT | |
| 2 |
2 NT | |
| 3 |
3 |
|
| 3 |
4 |
|
| 4 |
5 |
|
| 7 |
The first four bids are the same as before. North's 3 Clubs is the first shape relay, and South's 3 Hearts shows a 4+ card suit, and denies 4 Diamonds, (since South passed 3 Diamonds). Thus, North now knows that South's distribution is 4-4-3-4, (1 No Trump showed a balanced or 4-4-4-1 hand). The 3 Spades bid is a second shape relay, and South's 4 Diamonds must be a 3 card fragment, (South denied 4 Spades by passing 3 No Trump, and 4 Clubs by passing 4 Clubs, and has already denied 4 Diamonds). Thus, South's distribution must be exactly 3-4-3-3, and the shape relays have ended. North's 4 Hearts, (the lowest bid after 4 Diamonds), sets South longest suit, (Hearts), as trump and asks for denial cuebids, (4 Spades would have set Spades as trump). South bids 5 Clubs to show Spade and Heart control, but no Club controls, (the controls concerned are the same Aces and Kings as where shown in the top control step response). North now knows South's exact hand and can bid the 7 Hearts grand slam.
A couple of extra points about relays:
1. A relay auction may not stop belowthe 5 level. Thus, when there is a possible ambiguity, 4 Hearts / 4 Spades is a relay and not a final contract, (unless the major is already set as trump, of course).
2. If the relayer breaks out early, i.e., does not bid the relay bid, this other bid is either a
nal contract, (if game), or a control asking bid. Thus, as soon as the relayer knows enough about responder's distribution, he may end the relay sequenceand use control asking bids instead.
3. When using relays, the first shape relay will often replace a trump or support asking bid in the relay suit. The lowest notrump bid should be used as an asking bid in the relay suit.
4. The relay system will improve over asking bids only seldom, will sometimes fail where asking bids work, and is more complicated and difficult to use. Thus, it may be skipped in favor of the simpler asking bids system.
The Strong 1 Club
It is possible to skip the weak variant of the 1 Club opening. The reason may be that the ambiguous version is not allowed where you play, that the opponents seldom interfere destructively, or that you just don't like the ambiguous version. When 1 Club is unambiguously strong, the system is called the Cranberry Club.
Responses to Strong 1 Club
The changes needed to use a strong 1 Club are few and simple. Experience has shown that it is probably best to let the positive responses be unlimited, rather than trying to use higher bids to limit responder. The asking bids will usually discover responder's extra strength anyway. Thus, the 17+ variants are omitted. Of course, if opener makes a few asking bids and then settles in game, while responder holds 17+ points, he should continue the bidding and show the extra values.
Responses to Strong 1 Club
|
1 |
0-9 HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
1 |
10+ HCPs |
5+ Hearts | ||
|
1 |
10+ HCPs |
5+ Spades | ||
|
1 NT: |
10+ HCPs |
balanced | ||
|
2 |
10+ HCPs |
5+ Clubs | ||
|
2 |
10+ HCPs |
5+ Diamonds | ||
|
2 |
6-9 HCPs |
exactly 6 Hearts | ||
|
2 |
6-9 HCPs |
exactly 6 Spades |
The bidding after a positive responsechanges very little with the strong 1 Club. The main difference is that opener's suit on lowest level, (except for the relay bid), now is a support asking bid instead of the weak hand. However, it is often better to start the slam investigations with the relay bid anyway.
Bidding after Strong 1 Club and a Positive Response
|
relay: |
top control asking bid | |
|
No Trump: |
15-17, 20-21, 22-23 | |
|
suit: |
support asking bid with 5-card suit | |
|
suit jump: |
top control asking bid or independent suit |
When using the unambiguously strong 1 Club, a passed hand may contain up to 9 points, and the responses to a 1 Club opening in third or fourth seat uses the limits 0-6 for 1 Diamond and 7-9 for the positive responses.
Interference over a Strong 1 Club
After the unambiguously strong 1 Club, opponents may use psychic overcalls, but Tangerine's system of responses are designed to handle this. The direct cuebid is the only bid that has a different meaning:
Responder's Bid after Interference up to 1 No Trump
|
pass: |
0-9 HCPs |
any shape | ||
|
double: |
10+ HCPs |
should have bid opponent's bid | ||
|
suit: |
10+ HCPs |
5+ card suit | ||
|
1 NT: |
10+ HCPs |
balanced, stopper | ||
|
cuebid: |
10+ HCPs |
balanced, no stopper |
After overcalls higher than 1 No Trump, double shows interest for un-bid suits. Opener's rebids are almost unchanged, except that a pass shows a 15-17 balanced hand instead of the 8-9 variant:
Opener's Rebid after Interference
|
pass: |
15-17 HCPs |
balanced | ||
|
double: |
15-19 HCPs |
interest for unbid suits | ||
|
double - cuebid: |
15-19 HCPs |
"revealing psychics" | ||
|
suit: |
15-19 HCPs |
support asking bid | ||
|
20+ HCPs |
if responder passed | |||
|
cuebid: |
15+ HCPs |
top control asking bid |
The Openings 1 Diamond / 1 Heart / 1 Spade
The bidding after the opening of one of a suit follows natural principles, based mainly on the style of the Swedish Modern Standard system. Since the opening bids are limited to a smaller range, a Tangerine auction is often easier to control. With a strong hand, responder may use asking bids. With 5-5, opener bids the higher suit, with 4-4 the order of preference is Hearts, Spades, Diamonds. These "light" opening bids is the most important tactical weapon of Tangerine, and you should always open on 10 points. For example:
|
|
Kxxx |
|
|
Qxx |
|
|
Axxx |
|
|
xx |
is an ideal hand for opening 1 Spade. The bid is both constructive and preemptive.
Responses to 1 Diamond / 1 Heart / 1 Spade
|
single raise: |
9-12 HCPs |
trump support | ||
|
double raise: |
13-14 HCPs |
trump support | ||
|
1-over-1: |
9-14 HCPs |
4+ cards, forcing | ||
|
2-over-1: |
13-14 HCPs |
4+ cards, forcing | ||
|
1 NT: |
9-12 HCPs |
balanced or lower suit | ||
|
2 NT: |
15+ HCPs |
trump asking bid | ||
|
3 NT: |
15-17 HCPs |
balanced, 3 card support | ||
|
jump shift: |
15+ HCPs |
support asking bid |
Higher responses are final contracts. The diamond limit raises are reversed in all auctions, which means that 2 Diamonds shows 13-14 while 3 Diamonds shows 9-12. A third seat opening may be psychic. In this case, responder shows good trump support with 1 No Trump.
Single raises of majors can and should be made with 9-12 points and Jxx or better in trump. In this way, Tangerine will have almost the same constructive advantage as a system using 5+ card major openings, while being more aggressive. The probabilities are for that opener has a 5+ card suit:
Suit Length Probabilities
|
|
3 | 4 | 5+ |
|
1 |
6% | 18% | 76% |
|
1 |
37% | 63% | |
|
1 |
28% | 72% |
As can be seen, 1 Diamond and 1 Spade shows a 5+ card suit almost three out of four times, while 1Heart shows 5+ cards two times out of three. Thus, it makes sense to raise with Jxx or better, unless there is another good, descriptive bid for responder's hand.
Opener's Second Bid
When opener rebids, he shows minimum, (10-11), with bids on the lowest level, and maximum, (12-14), with jumping bids or reverse. Repeating a suit shows 6+ cards, while bidding a new suit shows 54+. After 1 Heart and 1 Spade, a jump in notrump shows 12-14, balanced with a 5 card major, while after 1 Diamond it shows 12-14 and 5-5+ in the minors.
The subsequent auction is natural, with responder's fourth suit as a conventional forcing bid. It asks for additional values, additional length, or a stopper in the fourth suit. A jump in the fourth suit shows a two-suiter, 5-5+, in the bid suits.
2 No Trump Asking Bid
After the opening bids of one of a suit, 2 No Trump shows trump support and forces to game. It is also a trump asking bid. After opener's response, 3 No Trump is a final contract, the relay bid is a top control asking bid, and new suits are control asking bids. Here is an example:
| North | South | |
| Axx |
x |
|
| AKxx |
QJxx |
|
| xxxxx |
AKJxx |
|
| x |
Axxx |
In Tangerine, the bidding might go as follows:
| North | South | |
| 1 |
2 NT | |
| 3 |