[blml] convention

[Eric Landau]

At 05:59 PM 12/15/06, Wayne wrote:

>On 16/12/06, Eric Landau <ehaa at starpower.net> wrote:
>
> > 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?

An agreement that a call shows some minimum length in the bid suit must 
"convey a meaning [of] length... there" even in the more restrictive 
reading of the definition.  That would make five-card majors not 
conventional, because playing five-card majors an opening bid in a 
major shows five or more.  But if it promised exactly five, no less and 
no more, it would be.

>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.

I do tend to agree with Wayne that the less restrictive meaning is the 
preferable one.  I merely point out that the current definition could 
be interpreted either way.

Standard cue bids are an odd duck, since they show neither "length" nor 
"strength", but rather control, which is something else 
entirely.  Beginners are taught to cue-bid a suit with either the ace 
("high-card strength") or a void (clearly something else).  If we parse 
the definition carefully, a cue-bid of a void must be a conventional 
call, notwithstanding that accepted common practice does not treat it 
as such.


Eric Landau                     ehaa at starpower.net
1107 Dale Drive                 (301) 608-0347
Silver Spring MD 20910-1607