pbleighton

Help me lose my fear. I play mostly matchpoints, though I play a little IMPs here on BBO. I notice that the very strong players at my club double for penalties noticeably more frequently than average players like me, particularly part scores, and they are generally right to do so. I was taught not to double for penalties unless I was reasonably sure of setting the opponents at least two tricks, and this is what I do. One of the best players in my club (4,000 masterpoints and plays like it) says that she doubles "anything that moves". I understand the basic difference between strategies in matchpoints and IMPs. What I am struggling with is the information I give away by doubling, and how conservative that should make me. I'd appreciate some guidance on this, eiother directly or through a link. Thanks, Peter

Luis writes: "Because if the 1c opener will describe and responder will ask then the 1x bid is superfluous, either one hand asks and the other describes or the other way around, switching in the middle of the auction is inefficient and reverts to what relayers find bad in natural methods. Besides that 2NT seems to be too high to start investigations since opener can be 4441, 5440 and his strength is unlimited." 1) Opener can't be 5440 - with 5440 he would show his 5 card suit. 2) I am not currently playing a relay system, though we do have some asking bids. Does your response assume some sort of relay system (Symmetric, etc.) after a positive response to 1C? If it does, how would you evaluate the "jump in NT" solution in the context of largely natural bidding after a positive response to 1C? I'm interested in relay systems, but I don't think I'm quite ready for them yet. Maybe in 2004....

Luis writes: "This seems to be a very poor approach, where are all your asking bids? Preempting your pd when your side is in a forcing game situation at the 1 level is surely a very bad idea. That's why you play precision, to have more room than the standard bidders, they are the ones jumping to 2NT, you don't have to do that...." Yes, you are at 2NT, but your partner knows your precise distribution. A worthwhile tradeoff?

A very experienced Precision player at my club suggested jumping in NT - i.e 1C-1X--2NT to show these hands. Over a negative reponse, I don't know. Bidding over a negative response seems to be often murky, with a lot of interference by opps.

I didn't think so. Creeative ROFL+... haven't seen it before. ;D

Ben writes: "Now that you have the ability with myhands or the bbo movie to check online what good players do against preempts, whenever someone preempts against you, or you preempt, take a peek at what the good players do with various hands.... " Good suggestion. Serious question: how do I know who the "good players" are? Can I trust the self-ratings?

I suggested 3NT because of the heart stopper, the bad spade suit, and the shape. I was also making an assumption that partner would have more than a dead minimum opener to double in this situation. What were others assuming about partner's strength?

"I do over call 4 cards suits at the 1 level and don't tell anyone, but at matchpoint, even 3 card suits extremely occassionally" Generally, what is alertable on overcalls. I assume the NT for takeout is. What about very weak 4 card overcalls, and the power double?

While I was finding the Neill site, I downloaded a very aggressive overcall structure: http://www.gg.caltech.edu/~jeff/system/foutnote.txt What do you think of it?

The link for Robson/Segal is: http://www.geocities.com/daniel_neill_2000/sys/ in the More Stuff section

Perhaps I'm feeling overly frisky today, but I'd bid 3NT. Heart stopper, 9 hcp, and partner should have some cards for his double.

I'm afraid I'll have to take a rain check: SA, 2/1, and a constantly evolving flavor of Precision is about as much as I can handle in my first year - but I'll probably be pestering you some time in the future :D

Luis- 1) At my club old ladies drink coffee. 2) I agree that the GCC is dreadful - especially given that the majority of experienced club players in the U.S. (at least in the Northeast) play 2/1 with a dozen conventions - nothing wrong with it but not even close to "natural" bidding. I guess the ACBL's motto is "Goren is dead, but never mind the rotting corpse - long live Goren!" This is my attitude now - I shudder to think what it will be when I've been obsessing about bidding for as long as Richard has! :D Peter

Luis - 1) "I think that all the modern versions of precision use some form of asking bid after a positive response." We do have such a response, but it wouldn't apply here. This was a simplified example - we use transfer positives, with the acceptance of the transfer being a control-ask (A=2,K=1), with subsequent asking bids available - tabs and cabs). However, it is used only by the opener in his first rebid, and when no further distributional information is required. Are you referring to another type of asking bid, when distributional information is still required - that sounds like a relay system to my inexperienced ears. 2) I like your suggestion of the NT response - but then what do you do if partner assumes 2 card support, has 6, and rebids his suit - does another bid of NT communicate 4441 shape? 3) I doubt Muirderberg is GCC legal, which if true disqualifies it for me. Not to worry - these hands aren't too common - but they bug me anyway.

Playing non-relay Precision, opps silent, you hold AJxx-x-AQ10x-AQxx, and open 1C. You partner has Qxx-A10xxx-xxx-Kx, and responds 1H (5+ hearts, 8+ hcp, forcing to game). You bid 1S - normally 5 cards. 1) How does the bidding proceed, without special agreements? 2) Suggestions for special agreements on 4441s? 3) Precision Today mentions (without endorsing) using 2D to show strong 4441s, with 2H becoming the short diamond bid. It is nice, but doesn't seem worth giving up a weak two in hearts. What do you think of this bid?

At matchpoints, it's a reasonable gamble, tough I think I would have stopped at 6, because I think a lot of people will stop at 6. At IMPs, pass.

4 hearts. A decent chance. Should prevent partner from going forward with spades (he's likely to have 6 or 7).

Paul writes: "The other difference against a weak NT is that game is still a viable option, so your defence must have more constructive follow ups than are needed against a strong NT." Would you give me an example of what has been in your experience a more constructive approach? Not just the bids, but the strength requirements vs a strong NT.

1) In Precision, the point count range is usually defined as 11-15. Is this more likely to mean "I open almost all 12s, and very good 11s, and a very occasional 10" - more or less the Rule Of 20, or does it mean one point down - I open almost all 11s, etc? I realize people do all sorts of things, but what do you think is more common for Precision players? 2) My partner and I open almost all 11s, but do open some 10s as well. Should we alert this as 11-15 or 10-15?

Luis - 1) Your relay auction is, as always, impressive. 2) General question - appoximately what percentage of the time, opening 1C in Moscito, do you experience: a) No interference B) Interference from dbl to 1S c) Interference from 1NT to 2H d) Interference 2S and up? Interference defined as the highest bid by the opps.

1S 2D (that's not a 5 card heart suit) 3C 3H 4C (slow boat to...a bad place??) 4S cue - hope P figures out it's short 6C 7C(feeling VERY lucky) At the table, I wouldn't bid 7C.

Simple Simon Says: 1) Qxxxx, xx, AQxxx, x LHO opens a preemptive 4c, pd bids 4s and RHO bids 5c, your bid ? Partner bid 4S on his own, and should be able to make it without much help (last night, OTOH, I.... never mind B)). I have 3 nice cards and a stiff. Bid 6S, and hope. 2) AT98xx, Jxx, xx, Ax Pd opens 1h, RHO bids 2c, you bid 2s, LHO jumps to 5c and pd bids 5d, pass by RHO, your bid? Oh dear. Ben is right - I have already overbid. Take a preference to 5H. 3) I agree with opening 1NT. Pass - In spite of the 13 hcp and 5 card suit, the hand won't play like a max.

Thank you Luis and Roland for your comments. You both recommend using 2D as NMF. I gather that there are different approaches to it. Does it always guarantee that the responder's major bid at the one level is at least 5 cards? What relay sequence do you recommend?

I play 11-14 NT with one partner. We play opener's rebid shows 15-17. Questions: 1) With the NT rebid being strong, would you recommend that the sequence 1m-1M-1NT-2OtherMinor be: a) Forcing and natural, showing ?+ points B) Not forcing, showing a weak 2 suiter, as in Standard American methods c) Some type of NMF or Checkback (specify preference and details) 2) We play that a second rebid by opener (i.e. 1H-1S-2C-2S-2NT) doesn't show 15-17, and is probably a minimum opener. Is this appropriate?

"For anyone with literary ambitions, its is extremely interesting to note the impact that mythology and fantasy have on computer systems. There is a strong overlap between Science Fiction / Fantasy fans and computer science professionals. Accordingly, many concepts/conceits from one environment leak over into the other [the classic examples are the words "Wizard" and "Daemon"] To return to our original example, many primitive societies had a notion of a "true name" which was given to individuals at birth. A magician who knew an individuals true name was thought to have great power over that person. Accordingly, most people also established secondary or even teriary names be which they were normally addressed. Its interesting to note that we seem to be returning to this type of model. [There is a good write up of all this available in the Golden Bough by Frazer.]" As an English major (formerly with literary ambitions), it is gratifying to see that literary and cultural criticism has seeped down to the techie level. How things have changed ;D Go T.S. Eliot!