wes

Thank you everybody. One person even sent a private email recommending some good books. One was by Dorothy Hayden Truscott. Well I read both her excellent books when she was just Dorothy Hayden over 30 years ago--that's how old I am. I have received Downey/Pomer's book on SA-YC. I plan to keep learning on ACBL's training software which I believe one would call Modern SA with 5 card majors and weak two openings, plus some standard conventions like Stayman and Gerber. I have Bridge Baron version 14 which supports SA 5 card maj, sayc, and other bidding systems. I can practice bidding and play of SA-5 card on that before moving to an on-line club and a regional face-to-face club. After some time I may try to move into sayc according to Downey/Pomer. So that's my plan. Thanks everybody for your insight. Wes Fager

I gave up bridge years ago when I left the Army. I'm now taking ACBL-sponsored Fred Gitleman's training software which seems to me to be Standard American with 5 card majors and strong 2 club openings plus some conventions. It would be nice to have some further training software to practice bidding and then move to an on-line bridge game like Bridgebase or OKbridge. The problem is that everybody seems to be saying that SA-YC is the system to know if you want to be able to walk in and find a compatible partner anywhere in any game. So, am I learning the wrong thing? Can I easily find partners somewhere who will bid what I'm learning? ACBL says thens of thousands have downloaded Gitleman's software so somebody else must be using his rendition. It appears that Audrey Grant teaches a simialr system to Gitleman as does Pavlichak. I looked over OKbridge SA-YC. It seems to be much more complicated than Gitleman's. I'd like to start with easier stuff, but I don't want to spend time on something no one is using either. I've ordered Downey/Pomer's book on SA-YC. Please advise me where to start. Thank you, Confused in Hardyville