Short Club OR Better Minor -- What's the difference and how do I know what I play?

To sum up IF you open the bidding 1♦ and you promise FOUR ♦ then you play the "Short Club" and must alert each and every time you open the bidding.

You do NOT play "Better Minor" if you promise four ♦. You can't. End of story.

I do think it's cute when my novices fill in the Convention Card and do the following:

That's actually impossible. You can't guarantee four ♦ when you open the bidding if you also guarantee three ♣ and five in a major. The numbers just don't add up.

If you play "Better Minor" your Convention Card will be filled out like this:

If you play "Short Club" your Convention Card will be filled out like this:

Let's go through this in more detail...

Better Minor

Better Minor is normal Standard American playing five card majors. It is what most people are taught from the very beginning.

If you have the values to open the bidding but do not have a five card major you still have to open the bidding but now you must open 1 of a minor.

Since you could have a hand with two four card majors that you cannot open 1 of the major you would therefore only have five minor suit cards. You will now open your LONGEST minor. But if those five minor suit cards are split evenly (three in one suit and two in the other) you could easily have only a THREE card minor when you open the bidding 1 of a minor.

So therefore with 4=4=3=2 shape you would open 1♦.

With 4=4=2=3 shape you would open 1♣.

Note that in both cases you only have a three card minor when you open the bidding.

If both minors are of equal length you do the following:
You open 1♣ with three ♣ and three ♦
You open 1♦ with four ♦ and four ♣
You open 1♦ with five ♦ and five ♣
You open 1♦ with six ♦ and six ♣

So you will only ever open 1♦ with a three card suit IFF you have two four card majors.

For more information on that see this post:
Opening 1♦

So when a player opens 1♦ they do NOT guarantee having four ♦. However because of the fact they will only ever open 1♦ with a specific 4=4=3=2 shape they DO have four ♦ 97% of the time. If you find out that Opener does NOT have a four card major then you know for a fact (100%) they have FOUR ♦ in their hand.

You do NOT have to alert any minor suit opening bid if you play "Better Minor".

Short Club

The Short Club can also be played as part of a normal Standard American system. It is not much differnt.

If you have the values to open the bidding but do not have a five card major you still have to open the bidding but now you must open 1 of a minor.

If you want to absolutely guarantee Partner four ♦ when you open the bidding you now need five of a major to open 1 of that major and four ♦ to open 1♦. So if you are 4=4=3=2 shape you MUST open 1♣. Note that with this hand you only have TWO ♣ in your hand.

So now:
You open 1♣ with two ♣ and three ♦

But you still obey these rules:
You open 1♣ with three ♣ and three ♦
You open 1♦ with four ♦ and four ♣
You open 1♦ with five ♦ and five ♣
You open 1♦ with six ♦ and six ♣

So you will only ever open 1♣ with a two card suit IFF you have two four card majors and a three card ♦ suit.

You do MUST alert the opening bid of 1♣ if you play "Short Club". According to the ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) your Partner must state "Could be short as two" EACH and EVERY time you open the bidding 1♣. Similarly if Partner opens the bidding 1♣ YOU must now say "Could be short as two". Right now most people are online. Online you SELF ALERT. So EACH and EVERY time you open the bidding 1♣ you MUST type in "Could be short as two" in the Message box when you make your 1♣ opening bid.

How do I know what I play?

Here is your hand:

♠Q853
♥KJ64
♦A85
♣A5

What will you open the bidding?

If you will open the bidding 1♦ then you are playing "Better Minor". No alerts are necessary.

If you will open the bidding 1♣ because you do not have four ♦ in the hand then you are playing "Short Club". You or your Partner MUST ALERT the Opponents each and every time one of you opens the bidding 1♣.

Is it worth it to play Short Club?

I would say "No!"

Especially now when you have to do all that typing. It's just not worth the effort. 97% of the time your Partner will have a four card ♦ suit playing Better Minor. Assume they do and bid accordingly.

However some people really like the Short Club for whatever reason. It's not a convention I would say stop playing if you like it -- I'm pretty easy going that way. You have to do the typing -- not me.