[enigmisto]

I'm very curious about EHAA, but the one book ever written about it https://www.abebooks...-0939460610/plp does not seem to be in stock anywhere. Does anyone here have a copy they'd like to sell?

[mycroft]

I'm sorry to hear that. My spouse gets my copy (it's in my will), and I'm not giving it up until then.

But the page Eric Landau wrote is a really good introduction. These days, even the book would be hard to understand to a modern audience. From a conversation I had with Eric almost 20 years ago now:

"I used to tell people I could teach them EHAA in 15 minutes. But my wife told me that's not true any more - nobody knows how to play 4 card Majors."

And, now, some of the other things - like semi-forcing NT, 1m-2NT GF, strong jump shifts,...

The two things I would add to the summary (and yes, I know, it's not enough to get you to playing it, but it is close) are:

• when partner opens a 2 bid, *they* are captain.
  
• when partner passes in 1st and 2nd, that is a flashing-lights warning.

It's not a great system - but it is a lot of fun, and it will help you with your judgement - you have to get better, the system is *all* judgement.

[PrecisionL]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EHAA

Gerben's E2HAA: http://www.geocities...2/fantunes.html

Jari Boling's Notes: http://www.infobridg...stemi_ehaap.pdf

Simon's Improvement http://www.acblunit3...n/everyhand.htm

[TylerE]

 mycroft, on 2021-February-25, 10:28, said:

It's not a great system - but it is a lot of fun, and it will help you with your judgement - you have to get better, the system is *all* judgement.

I've often said it's actually the ultimate beginner system.

It's really very simple, 99.9% of the bids are truly natural - and thus you don't need a bunch of the artificial tools 2/1 needs just to handle basic shape auctions, and like you said, it will teach judgement that will always be useful.

[Douglas43]

... Or you could just play Acol with three weak twos

A 12-14 no trump is not quite as exciting as a mini no trump, but it maintains the same ranges familiar to strong no-trump players (you just flip the 1NT opening and rebid). 4 card majors. Strong jump shifts are normal...

[mycroft]

4 weak 2s...

[enigmisto]

Eric Landau's email address given on that FAQ seems to be no longer valid. Does anyone know whether Eric Landau or Randall Baron are still around and willing to disseminate an electronic version of their book?

[enigmisto]

 mycroft, on 2021-February-25, 10:28, said:

"I used to tell people I could teach them EHAA in 15 minutes. But my wife told me that's not true any more - nobody knows how to play 4 card Majors."

This is true. I tried EHAA with a friend, and we quickly realized that the hardest thing about it for us was that we really didn't know how to play 4 card majors. I don't want to do a deep dive into a complex 4 card major system, but if I want to just learn the core principles of 4-card majors enough to be effective at EHAA, what would be a good resource for that?

[hrothgar]

 enigmisto, on 2021-February-25, 14:27, said:

This is true. I tried EHAA with a friend, and we quickly realized that the hardest thing about it for us was that we really didn't know how to play 4 card majors. I don't want to do a deep dive into a complex 4 card major system, but if I want to just learn the core principles of 4-card majors enough to be effective at EHAA, what would be a good resource for that?

There's an enormous number of different 4CM variants out there (many of which are awful)

My recommendation is that Major Suit Raises: The Scanian Way is a good starting point.

[mycroft]

I'm reasonably certain you could play EHAA with 5cM, but the preemptive nature of the (sound) 1M opener is in keeping with the system.

I've actually looked at trying a version using a Polish or polish-lite (clubs or 18+) 1C opener. Especially now that the restrictions on weak 2s are much relaxed.

I also don't know how to get in contact with Eric Landau, sorry; wish I did.

[Kungsgeten]

 enigmisto, on 2021-February-25, 14:27, said:

if I want to just learn the core principles of 4-card majors enough to be effective at EHAA, what would be a good resource for that?

There are some variants on what you open when holding the 4432 and 4441 patterns. There's also differences depending on your NT strength. To me EHAA seems more similar to Acol / British style where a weak NT is typically used. In the nordic countries standard systems a strong NT is used.

Four card suits bottom up: With two/three four card suits you open the lowest. This means that 1♠ will be five+ cards or 4333. The Danish standard system has changed this so that 1♠ promises 5 and 1♣ might be 3. Yet another tweak on the Danish system is that 1♥ shows 5 or 4-4 in the majors, so with 3-4-3-3 you open 1♣.

Swedish "modern standard": With two/three four cards the priority is hearts, clubs, spades, diamonds. This means that 1♦ will be five+ cards or 4333. This is a bit more aggressive than bottom up. I don't know of any English books (but my guess is that "Major Suit Raises: The Scanian Way" has its roots here). The bridge software Jack has this system as an option though, as does FunBridge (or if it was Synrey, can't remember).

Major first: The most aggressive style where you with two/three four card suits open in the priority hearts, spades, better minor. An effect of this is that 1m-1X; 1M shows an unbalanced hand (I tend to bid this way even when playing the Swedish way though).


Otherwise I would say it isn't that big of a change compared to playing five card majors. Sometimes you don't know if responder has made a preference on two or three card support, which might matter. Also you might need some way after 1M-2M to check if responder really have four card support (if your system allows raising on three). After 1M-1NT; 2NT you can use 3M in order to show that you had a five card suit. I like playing 2/1 as GF, but the standard is playing it as INV+ (which I think is necessary if playing weak NT).

[Douglas43]

Here is a quick summary of the form of Acol that I play it my regular partner. If you want a simple way to try 4cM without a lot of research, this should work for you:

1NT 12-14 (may be good 11). Stayman and transfers. Stayman used on any shape-suitable hand from 0 hcp upwards. System off when doubled (we use exit transfers and there are other options like wriggle but 1NT is not doubled that often).
1 plum- 1 grape -1NT 15-17. We use 2C checkback but it's optional.
1 plum - 1 grape - 2NT 18-19
1 plum - 1 grape 3NT solid suit

2C strong

2D/H/S we use weak but multi 2D and Muiderberg fit well

2NT 20-22 (or can be the minors if you use a multi)

1 suit - 1NT 6-9 nf
1 suit - 2NT is Jacoby (including over minors), or by a passed hand it shows a sound raise to three
1 suit - double jump is splinter (including over minors)
1 suit - 3NT is 16-18 no fit
Jump shifts are strong

Limit raises based on losing trick count

Two over one shows 10 + hcp but you can get away with 9 and a good suit,
1 apple - 2 pears - 2NT is 15-19 natural, FG

Choice of suits with two or more 4 card suits:
With both majors, bid 1H
Otherwise with two suits you can either follow principle of preparedness or just get the major in.
With 4441s, red singleton open middle suit
4441s black singleton we usually open 1D, so that sequences like 1H -2C - 2D promise five hearts. But occasionally that gets a silly result.

Support doubles do not work well with this structure. We use 1D - 1S [2C] Dble to show better than minimum hand but no easy bid


Have fun

[Vampyr]

 TylerE, on 2021-February-25, 11:30, said:

I've often said it's actually the ultimate beginner system.

It's really very simple, 99.9% of the bids are truly natural

Yes; I was surprised to see this thread in the “non-natural systems” forum,

[pigpenz]

used to play it with 4 card majors back in late 70's and 80's.
we played with 10-13 NT and forcing and non forcing stayman and the
usual 5 card weak twos.

[akwoo]

 Douglas43, on 2021-February-26, 03:01, said:

Support doubles do not work well with this structure. We use 1D - 1S [2C] Dble to show better than minimum hand but no easy bid

This is a misconception that somehow has been popularised by Acol players.

Okay - I play 5 card major weak NTs (ala K-S), but one can certainly play support doubles. With a better than minimum hand but no easy bid over 1D-(P)-1S-(2C), one passes, and the pass PROMISES a better than minimum hand. With a minimum unbalanced hand and less than 3 spades, one rebids 2D even on a 5 card suit (without interference this of course almost promises 6), and of course a minimum balanced hand would have opened 1N.

[mycroft]

And that's the tradeoff. I do that too, and it means that we have to pass some hands that everybody else in the room (the Acol players, the strong NTers) are opening. And that makes it hard when partner has a minimum opener, too (whether it's one they can open or not). Especially if you're going to open aggressively in third seat - it's a lot harder to survive when off-shape 12s and quacky 13s are "needing to show a good hand".

Acolites (5cM or 4) don't have this problem. However they have a lot of non-forcing calls that I have no idea how they resolve, and they have to do things like reserve the double for "strong NT-ish". Swings and roundabouts.

However, the relationship to EHAA of Acol is even less than its relationship to Standard American (apart from the 4cM, which is a different style from Acol, too (EHAA's belief is that a 4cM opening is good because it preempts the auction; and EHAA's 1 openers are sound - frequently sounder than K/S's 1m openings). A 10-12 NT has more in common with 15-17 than 12-14.

[pescetom]

 mycroft, on 2021-March-02, 08:53, said:

However, the relationship to EHAA of Acol is even less than its relationship to Standard American (apart from the 4cM, which is a different style from Acol, too (EHAA's belief is that a 4cM opening is good because it preempts the auction; and EHAA's 1 openers are sound - frequently sounder than K/S's 1m openings). A 10-12 NT has more in common with 15-17 than 12-14.

Preemptive 4cM openings and 10-12 (or 15-17) NT with 1m-2NT effectively forcing sounds a lot more like 1980s Italian lungo-corto than Acol. The bible of that system is "La logica del bridge naturale" by the recently departed Franco di Stefano.

[helene_t]

Gwnn and I play highly modifed EHAA at the moment (with coded minors and Polish responses to 1♣ and 5-card majors and variable NT, so actually it's more like Dutch Doubleton with a natural 2♣ opening )