Preface
The Canary Club system was devised by Paul Heitner and John Lowenthal sometime in the late 50's or early 60's. There is a high level description of the system in The Encyclopedia of Bridge.
The system is really Roman Club
with a strong 1
opening
rather than the Roman weak 1
opening. One of the drawbacks to the Roman Club
was the necessity to create the suggestion of strength by bidding two suits
rather than bidding and rebidding one suit. In addition, there was no way to
show a one suiter
with the opening bid - one always had to bid a shorter suit first. As a consequence,
there frequently were opening bids in 3 card suits.
Canary avoids that problem altogether. In fact, there is no bid in the system of a suit less than 4 cards in length unless the bid is pre-defined as artificial. There is no illusion of naturalness as there is in Roman Club or in so-called natural systems.
A second feature of Roman Club
was the use of a step response to 1
/1
/1
as an artificial
negative. This is part of the description of the Canary Club
which appears in The Encyclopedia of Bridge too. It has also been a basis
of the Canary Club as described
in earlier versions of this document.
As of version 3, we will substitute 1N as the first relay response. This serves two purposes:
- This puts us more in line with what the ACBL considers legal. The 1N response to 1 being treated as forcing is unique to this system, I believe, but probably causes no “legal” problems.
- Theoretically, it probably is superior as well since it causes the hand which is more likely to be balanced to be declarer.
There is a problem introduced with this change. Auctions such as 1 - 1 - 1N (which showed
a suit with a suit at least as long as the
suit) and 1 - 1 - 1N (which showed a
suit with a suit at
least as long as the
suit) served as a way for the opener to show that he didn't have “true”
reversing values in the old method. There no longer is a means to show the distinction
between reversing values and weaker hands. Experience will show whether this
is a problem or not.
Basis of the System
| CANApé |
| RelaY |
| Club |
<html><a name=openingbids></a></html>
Opening Bids
| Opening bids | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | 17+ HCP, all hand patterns except 23-24 balanced; (mostly) natural responses |
| 1/1/1 | 11 - 16 HCP unbalanced or semi-balanced hand. Suit of at least 4 cards. Natural in the canapé sense |
| 1N | 13 - 16 HCP 4333, 4432, 5332, 4441 (if singleton is A or K). Could have a 5 card major if the suit has only one high honor |
| 2 | 11 - 16 HCP 6 card suit, no secondary major |
| 2 | 11 - 16 HCP 3-suited hand (4441/5440) 544 hands with a major suit void are opened 1 / rather than 2 |
| 2/2 | 11 - 16 HCP 5+ of bid major with 4+. The hand has 5 or 6 (Roman) losers. |
| 2N | 23 - 24 HCP balanced (note: we do not open the slam-buster 2N bid very often!  ) |
| 3 | 11 - 16 HCP 5+ cards in each minor. Hand has 4 to 6 (Roman) losers. |
| Hand Type | Opening Bid | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balanced | |||
| 13 - 16 HCP | 1N | Could have a 5 card major if it has only one high honor. A hand pattern of 4441 is also allowed if the singleton is an A or K. | |
| 17 - 20 HCP | 1 | Rebid 1N if 1 response | |
| 21 - 22 HCP | 1 | Rebid 2N if 1 response | |
| 23 - 24 HCP | 2N | ||
| 25+ | 1 | Rebid 2. if a 1 response. Responder will usually rebid 2 to find out whether opener has a hand or a strong balanced hand. Opener rebids 2N with the balanced hand. | |
| Hopes of 9 tricks using a long suit | 1 | 3N if 1 response | |
| One suiters | |||
| 11 - 16 HCP | 1/1/1/2 | ||
| 17+ | 1 | ||
| Two suiters | |||
| 11 - 16 HCP | 1/1/1 | normal Canapé | |
| 11 - 16 HCP | 3 | minors | |
| 11 - 16 HCP | 2/2 | major and secondary s | |
| 14 - 16 HCP | 2 | s and secondary s | |
| 17+ HCP | 1 | ||
| Three suiters | |||
| 11 - 16 HCP | 2 | singleton in any suit, Can be 544 with void in a minor (and 5 cards in the other minor). No Major suit void, please! | |
| 17+HCP | 1 | ||
Principles of Canapé
With 2 - suited hands, the shorter of 2 suits is bid first. If the suits
are of equal length, the lower ranking is bid first (hands with secondary
s are an exception to this rule). There are two “types” of canapé, ascending
and descending. When the lower ranking suit is bid first, then the sequence
is called an ascending canapé when the higher is bid first it is
descending. In an ascending canapé sequence, the second suit is at
least 5 cards long and is at least as long as the first. In a descending
canapé, the second suit is always longer than the first.
Roman loser count
Roman loser count (see Courtney Losers) is used for the purpose of evaluating an opening hand. This is the Courtney loser count as modified by Giorgio Belladonna and Walter Avarelli.
- No one suit can have more than 3 losers
- Each missing Ace, King or Queen is a loser
- A King with no honor higher than 10 is a ¼ loser
- A Queen with no honor higher than 10 is a ½ loser
Cue bidding
Throughout the description
of this system, when describing cue bidding or the showing of controls, a
control will mean a K or A or singleton or void indiscriminately. At the five
level, cue bids will show Aces (in new suits). Cue bids will show high card
controls (not singletons or voids) in partner's known 5+ card suit.
Other points
With a 2 suited hand of 4s
and a major, the
suit should be suppressed with a weak ()
suit and a weak hand.
The loser count for the opening 2
or 2 should be 5
or 6.
* Removed strength requirements for an opening bid — John Kinn 2017/05/18 15:33