Newest MOSCITO verions

MOSCITO is a completely artificial system, but it tends to show suits whenever it can. It's imo more "natural" than precision, because after every limited opening a 4+ card suit is known (precision 1♦ is usually 2+♦, but in some variations it can be even shorter). Australia's Paul Marston is the main ambassador of the system, his current CC can be found here

The latest changes are the following:
- 2/1 responses have always been a problem. He went from NF to GF and now he uses transfers (from 1NT and up). These are handy particular in constructive auctions where you want to show a side suit before supporting, or when you want a natural auction. It also gives the possibility of 2 kinds of 2-level raises: transfer to the Major is 9-11 and constructive, 2M is 6-9. Relays are great for slam investigation, but for games they don't have an edge. You can't find stoppers for 3NT, so sometimes you get to wrong games. This is imo a big improvement, because it still keeps the possibility to signoff (although I think he uses them only with good hands).
- He now uses the step-relay over 1♦ and 1♥ openings as 2-way: either GF relay or a normal 1NT response. He uses a natural relay scheme, which allows him to play this way. With an artificial relay scheme (like I play) it's nearly impossible to handle. What can responder do after 1♦-1♥-2♦ (showing a single suited hand with 6+♥) when you know 2♥ is a relay? With natural responses it's easy most of the time. The relay structure has lost some efficiency imo, but the tradeoff is probably worth it.
- 1♣-1♦ as any GF (except 5440's) and 1♣-1♠ as double negative, other responses are semi-positive. I always liked this structure, because you get lots of interference over 1♣ openings. When responder shows a negative, RHO can ruin the auction and cripple our abilities to fight partscore battles. When you know that opposite a 15+HCP 1♣ opening, responder has a semi-positive hand most of the time, and rarely a double negative, then it pays off to get those semi-positives in right away (I think it's GF 30%, SP 60%, DN 10% or similar). There's hardly a tradeoff, it's a pure improvement: the relays for GF auctions go 1 step up, but those for semi-positives go down at least 1 step. So percentagewise the relay structure improves.
- 4M-6m hands are now always opened in the minor. Before, you had a choice of opening the Major, usually it depended on the suit quality of the Major. I still like the MAFIA approach, but handling competition is probably one of the reasons why he changed. Missing a nice 6-3 minor fit to play in a 4-3M fit isn't always the best choice.

Fantunes

I guess everyone has heard about the Italian pair Fantoni-Nunes, aka "Fantunes". They play a special system which has a lot of theoretical strengths. We all know the best way to bid with strong hands is to stay low, and preferable bid natural before opponents mess up our auction (relays are only great if opponents keep quiet).

The base of their system is in the 1-level openings: they all show 14+HCP (unlimited, so forcing for 1 round) and are natural in a 5M4♦ system. The 1♣ opening shows balanced hands (no 5M) or hands with ♣. So all strong hands start natural and very low (and use low relays to show their extra strength)! This also means they don't need an artificial opening for any strong hand (except the balanced ones).
The 2-level openings are used for hands with 10-13HCP, basicly the normal minimal distributional openings. They are all unbalanced, so they have some playing strength. They usually enter the bidding on the par score contract, so the opponents have to guess what to do, which they usually don't do quite well.
1NT openings show 12-14HCP with most hands which just look like a NT distribution. It includes 5422's, 6m322's, and these days even 4441's. This way their 2-level openings have a 5+ card suit and almost always have a singleton or void.

The system works great (I sometimes play a version from a few years ago online), but the 2-openings tend to randomize the result from time to time. Luckily in the long run, they earn a lot more imps than they lose!
- Here's an example where opponents guessed wrong: I held ♠Q72-♥AKJ54-♦Q942-♣5 and opened a systemic 2♥. LHO had 14HCP with a 4333 and decided to double, partner passed and RHO bid 3♣. Partner's pass wasn't necessarily weak, so I doubled (takeout) and that was the end of the auction. It was obvious that partner only had 1 or 2♥ so we started with a ruff, and eventually they went -4 on a partscore deal!
- Problems arise when you have a misfit: you're higher than normal and can't do much to get to the right strain since many bids are forcing, invitational, or even have a special meaning... Sometimes you have to play in a 5-1 fit, or a level higher than the others. The key principle which seems to work is that opponents have to guess, even after 2X-p-p-? they don't know what partner holds. It's one hell of a preempt although it's constructive.

They also use another kind of slambidding. The first time I read about it, I thought it was near impossible to draw the right conclusions. After playing some hands however, I've found out that it's almost as accurate as a relay system! A combination of frivulous 3NT, last train, Turbo 4NT, and 5NT denying the trump Q, together with 1st and 2nd round controls does wonders. It's basicly some sort of cuebidding where one of the players first tells if he has serious slam interest, later on will one of the players show an odd or an even number of keycards (just to make sure you don't end up in slam with 2 keycards missing), and even later on you can figure out about the trump Q in various ways. Let me demonstrate:
I held ♠AQ94-♥AKJ-♦T7632-♣9.
The bidding went (opponents quiet):
1♦ - 2♣*
2♠ - 3♠
3NT - 4♦
4NT - 5♦
6♠
Almost nobody found the slam. Partner's hand was ♠KT32-♥Q3-♦AKQ4-♣J76.

2♣ showed GF with balanced/♦ support/♣; 3NT denied slam interest; 4NT showed a control ♣, a control ♥ and an even number of keycards. Now partner didn't have ♣A but still was looking for slam, so he was clearly asking for ♠Q, so I bid the small slam since I knew we had to lose a ♣.

We've noticed that ♣-slams are the hardest to find, since the Turbo is just one step under 5♣. ♦-slams are quite hard sometimes, but most of the time it's still easy. Major slams are very easy!

If anyone has their latest notes, let me know. ;-)

Canapé, pro en cons

As you can see, MOSCITO uses 'possible canapé', which means all 5M-4m and 4M-5m hands are opened the same.

When partner is strong (invite or better), and opponents are quiet, it's easy to find out if opener has a 4 or 5 card M: he just relays, and if opener responds with 2♣ or higher, he has at least 5M.
When partner is weak, he just don't ask and lets opponents in the dark. He supports 2M on a 3 card and 3M on a 4 card. This has the advantage that opponents can't use the LOTT, because they don't know if we're playing in a 7 or 8 card fit. Only opener knows this. Fact is that opener has around 60% chance of having a 5+ card M, so for us it's quite safe.
If partner bids 1NT, opener knows his partner doesn't have a 3 card support for his Major, and he can easily rebid 2m with 4M-5m. These hands can be quite hard in natural systems!
'Possible canapé' sometimes causes trouble in competitive bidding, when partner has a 3 card M with invitational strength, and he wants to find a 5-3 fit. If opponents intervene high enough, then relays are off, and it's trying to find the best way of showing your hand.

In 3rd and 4th seat, we play 1♦/♥/♠ as 2-suited where canapé is ensured, except when the second suit is ♣. This is a lot easier in competitive bidding, since opener can just bid his 2nd suit and there's no ambiguity. With longer ♣ we bid NT, when we bid ♣ the opening suit is longer.

Canapé definetly has advantages over the normal way of bidding suits. First of all, it's harder to defend against. You know there's (or might be) a 5 card suit somewhere but you don't know which, and you may want to play in opener's 4 card suit which is quite hard if you don't have the right tools.

An example hand from competition: JTxx-xxx-x-AKQJx. According to the system, this is a 1♥ opening showing 4+♠. 2♠ shows a 3+ card support. The bidding went:
1♥* - Dbl - 2♠* - pass
pass - Dbl - pass - 3♦
pass - 3NT - pass - pass
?
If you pass, partner will lead ♠ for sure, so you Double and hope for a ♣ lead. Can opponents still run somewhere? Probably 5♦, but they're not sure if that's a better action. On this hand, they even had 6♦!