Never miss a game again – Zar Points Bidding Source: BridgeGuys Read [ilink url=»http://csbnews.org/category/zar-points-2/?lang=en»]Previous Parts[/ilink]
The Restrictions
What restrictions? Good question.
Many Bridge Federations, though, impose restrictions on your bidding, some of them to a point where you don’t know what kind of a game you are playing anymore … (hey, it’s all ‘games’ 🙂
I don’t want to get into discussions about the restrictions ACBL is imposing, but would rather consider a more moderate «average» set of restrictions like the ones the French Bridge Federation – «Fédération Française de Bridge» imposes on the bridge events under its rules:
«An opening of one of a suit can be made ONLY under the rule of 18 (HCP+a+b), 16 in third seat».
That’s like Marty Bergen’s Rule of 20, only kept to 18 in 1st and 2nd seat, and lowred to 16 in 3rd seat.
Let’s see what happens with our «sub-light» openings with 7, 6, 5, 4 HCP respectively.
The 7 HCP hand -> 7 HCP + 6 + 5 = 18
The 6 HCP hand – > 6 HCP + 6 + 6 = 18
The 5 HCP hand – > 5 HCP + 7 + 6 = 18
The 4 HCP hand – > 4 HCP + 7 + 6 = 17
So – all these openings are just fine and dandy, much to the surprise of some people. I hope you are not one of them anymore.
6) The Preempts
Now that we know that Level-1 «normal» opening can happen with as low as 4 HCP, you probably think that pre-empts can go to as low as a 1-2 HCP !
Sorry to disappoint you – you are not even close …
The «general» rules of the «standard» bidding you know about, basically states that for «normal» opening you have to have about 12 HCP while for a weak-2 opening you need 8 HCP and a relatively good 6-card suit.
So, for a weak-2 pre-empt you need 2/3 of the minimum for normal Level-1 bid.
Things with Zar Points bidding are more conservative – you need between 22 and 25 Zar Points and a descent 6-card suit.
The main message you communicate there is «I don’t have the 26 points for a normal opening, but I have a decent 6-card suit and between 22 and 25 Zar Points.»
Here is a typical hand you would open 2 with, basically in any system: 
K x x 
K Q J x x x 
x x x 
x
Let’s see what happens in Zar Points. You get 9 + 2 = 11 for the HCP and Controls, and 9 + 5 for the 6-3-3-1 distribution for a total of 25 Zar Points – not enough for opening at Level-1.
How about the preempts at level 3 and 4 …again the main message is «I don’t have 26 points, but I do have a decent 7 or 8-card suit respectively, so you evaluate your hand respectively».
But why does the limit of a «normal» opening go as low as 4 HCP, while the preempts virtually do not drop below 7 HCP? The answer is simple – playing power and limitations of the hand.
With the preempts you virtually declare uni-suit with not much potential for variations and re-evaluation of the hand – you basically say «That’s all I have».
With the normal opening sky is the limit.