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To assume that everything is fine when you have spade tolerance is incorrect IMO - you could still be missing a better contract elsewhere. I once saw a Gazzilli pair stop in 2♠ when our oppo bid and made 6♥ on the same deal, although I accept that there was some user error involved in that result!
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Sure, but if you open a strong club and partner doesn't have 8 points you are well placed. If you bid Gazzilli and partner doesn't have 8 points then you are very poorly placed (including when you actually hold spades+clubs 11-15). You can debate the best responses for the weak hands (how many hearts does 2♥ show? What does 2NT show? Do you ever preference 2♠ with a singleton?) but you're always losing out somewhere.
It's better to have opener's second bid focus on shape, and have their third call deal with strength. Obviously, the problem with natural methods is that opener may not get a third call, or you may lose out when responder feels they have to stretch to give opener a third call - that's why I selected “other”.
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In related news, the most recent smother play I saw at the table occurred when declarer forgot to ruff something at trick 11, inadvertently endplaying my partner to get the trick back.
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Stupidly talented guy, came 4th out of over 100 in his first tournament and has spent most of his bridge life with an NGS of 65+. Absurd of me to have not written the hand down.
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I was once taking a supervised class, and filling in as a defender. I realised that I was on lead to trick 12 in a smother play position. Somewhat shocked, I took a few seconds to play a card, so the novice declarer put me out of my misery by claiming.
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I've been looking for hands with one card of each rank, IIRC the stats suggest I should have seen some since I started looking but it's not happened yet (or I've missed it when it has).
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A disadvantage of arrow-switching the first round is that, if the E/W pairs forget to skip, they are unlikely to realise until it's too late for the N/S pairs to be able to play the board.
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Interesting one I had a while back -
(1♥) P (1NT) which was alerted.
In the EBU, an alerted 1NT here means, roughly speaking, that it isn't “natural and non-forcing with a maximum of 10 points”. So an alerted 1NT could have been forcing, semi-forcing, or something weird and wonderful.
In practice, the alert woke responder up to the fact that they were playing Kaplan Inversion.
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I really don't see this as a problem. When the 2♥ bid isn't alerted you are entitled to assume it is natural and forcing so asking any questions is unnecessary. This isn't a position where you (should) have to protect yourself by asking.
Mike Bell
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It's better to have opener's second bid focus on shape, and have their third call deal with strength. Obviously, the problem with natural methods is that opener may not get a third call, or you may lose out when responder feels they have to stretch to give opener a third call - that's why I selected “other”.
Mike Bell
Mike Bell
Other
Standard
Stick hot pins in my eyeballs
Gazzilli
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One possibility is that people tend to alert artificial bids more enthusiastically than natural ones.
Mike Bell
Mike Bell
(1♥) P (1NT) which was alerted.
In the EBU, an alerted 1NT here means, roughly speaking, that it isn't “natural and non-forcing with a maximum of 10 points”. So an alerted 1NT could have been forcing, semi-forcing, or something weird and wonderful.
In practice, the alert woke responder up to the fact that they were playing Kaplan Inversion.
Mike Bell
Mike Bell