BonzoDogge

Brilliant ! :) Many thanks Rik.

While playing on Jack I noticed the programme re-evaluates hands using " Fit Points " as taught by Berry Westra. Does anybody know exactly how they work ? It'd be nice to know the reasoning behind some of Jack's bidding.

The first thing to do when dummy goes down is to add your high card points to dummy's and establish how many points the opponents have between them. The information isn't always useful, but it takes just seconds to do and should become a habit. Always count your winners/losers, depending on whether or not you're in a no-trump or a trump contract, and plan accordingly. Sometimes that's as far as you have to go, but this step is absolutely necessary. As regards counting suits, I finally settled on the following procedure. When a suit is first played note how many cards you're missing in the suit. Let's say it's six. Missing six cards, 84% of the time the suit is going to split 3-3 or 4-2. Unless the bidding or subsequent plays tell you otherwise, simply assume the suit is splitting either 3-3 or 4-2 and go from there. So if the opening lead is the 10 of spades and you're holding the 9, I'd be thinking " that's probably a doubleton, the suit splitting 4-2 with my RHO holding four." Nothing is certain, but it's a start and helps place the information in context, making it easier to remember. The bidding often gives big clues, such as an opening weak two. If you find yourself missing eight cards in that suit, you can rule out a 4-4 split. 5-3 is possible, but I'd assume 6-2 at the outset and work from that. Note opponents discards like a hawk. Don't worry so much whether it's McKenney, revolving, or whatever, but rather ask yourself what the discard says about length and any possible honour holdings in that suit. For example, missing seven cards in a suit, if somebody makes their first discard in that suit as you play trumps it could be from a five card suit, remembering that missing seven cards 92% of the time they're splitting either 4-3 or 5-2. In short, unless the bidding or play suggest otherwise, assume the two most likely splits in each of the four suits and work from that. For the record : Missing 4 cards : suit will divide 3-1 or 2-2 90% of the time. Missing 5 cards : suit will divide 3-2 or 4-1 95% of the time. Missing 6 cards : suit will divide 4-2 or 3-3 84% of the time. Missing 7 cards : suit will divide 4-3 or 5-2 92% of the time. Missing 8 cards : suit will divide 5-3 or 4-4 79% of the time. Observe that when missing an odd number of cards, you can almost mortgage the house on a "normal" split. Practise by taking a book on bridge and simply trying to work out suit lengths on the info' given as you study the hand. Hope that helps.

Thanks for all your replies - all very interesting.

Hi all. Looking at the hand records for the 1987 Bermuda Bowl final between the USA and Great Britain I noticed that the Flint/Sheehan partnership were playing an artifical system which according to the Wikipedia entry on Flint was called the " Boomerang Club ". Does anyone have any information on this particular bidding system ? Thanks in advance for any help. :) Bonzo D