Acol - Variants

Variants

Acol is an unregulated system. There is no Acol governing body and no single publication containing the "official" Acol (unlike, for example, Standard American Yellow Card). It can be compared to a living language since it is liable to change at the whim of users. The main versions of Acol in use today are:

• Acol: unregulated Acol, from the simple to the complex, remains in common use throughout the UK. At any one time the version in most common use will be known as "Standard Acol" although this term will mean different things to different players and is becoming increasingly confused with Standard English Acol.
• Standard English Acol (originally called simply "Standard English"). Developed by Sandra Landy under the auspices of the English Bridge Union (EBU), this variant was designed to facilitate the learning of bridge and to provide standardised guidance to novices, intermediate players and their teachers. This variant uses the weak 1NT opening (12-14 points). Simple conventions such as Stayman, Blackwood and Transfers are included at various stages in the learning process. It has been widely promulgated by the EBU and by EBUTA in particular, but the exact form is used mainly by those who have learned their bridge recently and those who taught them.
• Benjaminised (Benji) Acol: recognising that strong 2 opening bids are rarely used, the 2♥ and 2♠ openings are used to show weak hands containing long suits (under 10 HCP and a 6-card suit). Very strong hands (8 playing tricks) are shown by an opening bid of 2♣ which forces a 2♦ response allowing suits to be shown. The strongest hands (e.g., 23+ points or a game force hand) are shown by an opening bid of 2♦.
• Reverse Benji: identical to Benji except that the 2♣ and 2♦ bids are switched in meaning. A 2♣ opening bid is now the strongest bid as in basic Acol.
• Acol with Three Weak Twos: this variant is similar to Reverse Benji Acol except that the strong 2♦ bid is abandoned in favour of a third weak two (in diamonds). Thus 2♣ is the only strong bid in this system. Abandoning the extra grade of strong bid means that 'Acol two' style hands cause some problems, either having to be opened at the one level or forced into the 2♣ bid.
• Acol with Multi 2♦: this variant of Acol makes use of the Multi 2 diamonds convention. The 2♣ bid is used as in standard Acol (23+ points). Various uses are made of the 2♥ and 2♠ bids, with traditional strong twos or Lucas twos being some popular methods.