[blml] convention

[Wayne Burrows]

On 16/12/06, Eric Landau <ehaa at starpower.net> wrote:
> At 02:43 PM 12/15/06, Wayne wrote:
>
> >On 16/12/06, Sven Pran <svenpran at online.no> wrote:
> > > > On Behalf Of John Probst
> > > > 4N P 5H.  4N is direct Ace ask, not Black
> > > >
> > > > Is 5H a conventional call? "...length or values...". The HA is
> > values.
> > >
> > > Yes:
> > >
> > > Convention: 1. A call that, by partnership agreement, conveys a meaning
> > > other than willingness to play in the denomination named (or in the
> > last
> > > denomination named), or high-card strength or length (three cards
> > or more)
> > > there. However, an agreement as to overall strength does not make a
> > call a
> > > convention.
> > >
> > > The 5H bid conveys a meaning other than willingness to play in Hearts.
> >
> >It shows high-card strength in hearts it is not conventional.
> >
> >It only has to be one of the possibilities to be not conventional -
> >willingness to play OR high-card strength OR length.
>
> ISTM that a call that "conveys a meaning [of] high-card strength" is
> one that means "I have high-card strength".  That is different from one
> that means "I have specifically the ace".  The definition of
> "convention" may have been written with the intent of treating
> "high-card strength or length" as applying to showing specific high
> cards or lengths as well as to merely showing "some strength" or "some
> length", as Wayne suggests, but that's far from clear from the wording.
>

An interesting argument Eric.

We can apply the same reasoning to "length" or "willingness to play".

"I have specifically the ace" is a subset of "I have high-card strength".

"I have a five-card major" is a subset of "I have length"

"My longest suit is spades and I am willing to play there"  is a
subset of "I am willing to play in spades".

Are five-card majors conventional?

I think "high card strength" includes cue-bids that show a high-card
(specific or not) in the suit bid.  A response to a specific ace-ask
is just a species of cue-bid.

Wayne