Bridge Winners Profile for Michael Botwin
Basic Information
- Member Since
- Nov. 29, 2015
- Last Seen
- July 17
- Member Type
- Bridge Player
- about me
Becoming more active again in bridge after years of playing very little. Gold Life Master splitting his time between NYC area and Las Vegas. Not a total mad scientist, but I do prefer (in order) strong club systems, K/S or other weak NT approaches, and then (reluctantly) "2/1" (technically a treatment rather than a system IMHO). If you're a serious yet festive strong clubber or otherwise think we might be compatible at the table, shoot me a PM.
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\nCurrently fooling around with Ken Rexford's canape system.
Bridge Information
- BBO Username
- SteelWheel
- ACBL Ranking
- Gold Life Master
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- Should ACBL allow this opening in Novice games
- There is a story (supposedly true, but possibly the stuff of myth) that many years ago, MIT couldn't field a team for some inter-collegiate competition. The story goes that the team had some basic card sense, and could play or defend a hand in a somewhat competent manner, but ...
- Strong Club System With Reasonable MP Utility
- I've been playing Ken Rexford's MICS (Modified Italian Canape System) for awhile now and have had pretty good results with it. The book on the system is available in both dead tree and e-book format. Book itself only addresses the limited opening bids as there are plenty of ...
- ACBL Chief Executive Tenders Resignation
- deleted
- Why play a Big !C or Precision?
- Many of the reasons listed above are possible answers for the same person/pair... IMHO, there is a "sweet spot" when one is learning the game (especially if you learn the game the way I did--no lessons, no formal instruction, just read "5 Weeks to Winning Bridge" and headed to ...
- When to bid a NT-game with 10 opposite a 14-16 NT or 9 opposite a 15-17 NT
- Precision-ers who play 14-16 NTs have to be wary when holding 10-counts opposite a 1NT opener. 2/3 of the time the field has opened a 15-17 NT, and hence has no problem getting to 3NT (or 4 of a major). Some pairs in this bind agree to go with ...
- What would you do about illegal note taking?
- I've never played anywhere outside ACBL-land, but have occasionally played against people from the UK. I'm told that it is common practice there to leave the bid cards until after the opening lead is made (or after Trick 1 is complete? I forget now...). Anyway, this is also ...
- Is opening 2C with this hand an illegal psychic?
- Where has it ever been stated that opening 2♣ = "I can beat the opponents' slam"? I've never heard of this as a criterion for evaluating the "2♣-worthiness" of a hand. If you play some kind of control-showing responses to an opening 2♣ you may hear all ...
- Does this double require an alert
- I run into pairs who play NFB and don't understand the inferences of their own agreements well enough to know that there is now something "funny" about their wide-ranging negative doubles, such that their opponents should be advised. So not so much a willful act of minimal disclosure, and ...
- Would Obvious Shift have helped ?
- As far as the original Granovetter book on this topic goes, clubs is not the obvious shift suit since it is a suit bid by declarer. However, you touch on a good point here about 2♣ being a possible non-suit, putting clubs back in the picture as the obvious ...
- Prealert Needed?
- Whenever I've played Precision, I've always pre-alerted that strong-clubbing is possibly going to be going on--regardless of the response structure being used. I especially make sure to do this when about to play Swiss or knockout teams. In one partnership, I play strong club and canape. This for ...
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