Re: great idea -- explain own bids

Bob wrote:

> I wrote: "If the complete verbal agreement is "Cappelletti", you are
> not allowed to say Cappelletti. Actually at the table, "Cappelletti"
> is a perfectly acceptable answer if the opps know the meaning of
> Cappelletti. If they don't, then you have to tell them the meaning of
> the bids you are making."
> 
> Ed (blackshoe) replied:
> 
> "Bull****. In the ACBL, at least, and also in other jurisdictions if
> I'm not mistaken, 'explaining' a call by naming a convention is
> *explicitly* illegal. See the ACBL Alert Procedure."

It's not _illegal_.  The ACBL Alert procedure says "Stating the common or
popular name of the convention is not sufficient."  Insufficient implies
that it is perfectly proper - as an introduction to the explanation.  My
wife never uses the convention name, but she's also twice recently
explained Puppet Stayman as "asking for a 3 or 4 card major" when she
meant "4 or 5", and in both cases failed to mention "game forcing".  If
you
name the convention and then describe it, your opponents may suspect such
misinformation (though they might be well advised to not ask just yet in
case both of us have it wrong).