plug for Kit Woolsey's software

[y66]

This is a shameless plug for Kit Woolsey's Cavendish 2000 software.

 

Was reviewing a few hands yesterday for the second time. For intermediate level players, including yours truly, I can't think of anything out there that provides more value for the time and money spent (except, of course, some of the problems on this forum).

 

The guy can teach.

 

Board 4 from Day 1, Session 1 is worth the price alone.

[ArcLight]

I have done both of Woolsey's Cavendish 1&2, and plan on doing them again, along with Larry Cohens 3 Life Master Pairs programs. When I first did them I liked some hands but not others. I didn't think they were great, just decent. I think Mike Lawrences Counting at Bridge 1&2 are superior. My recolection is the Woolsey hands were Ok, but not great. Perhaps I will like them more the second time around, now that I am (hopefully) better and more experienced.

 

Mike Lawrences Defense is also a great program.

 

 

As for hand 4 - it is neat if you have that kind of agreement, but I think you will get burned many times if you can't tell if pards signal is Count or Suit preference. I don't think this is such a useful lesson for non experienced pairs. It's neat to see this, for illustrative purposes, but in practice there will be plenty of partnership harming disasters.

If you don't use Count, then the suit preference can be fine in this case.

 

One last point - pard can signal for the higher suit by playing the higher card. But since he must follow suit, the lower card doesnt automatically mean, the lower suit, it just means the absense of a signal. In this case you can work it out that its for the lower suit.

 

I do not think this is a "safe" lesson on signaling for most partnerships. But it is interesting to read. I did like the part on the carding and deception.

 

 

The lessons are worth doing, but "partner should be able to figure this out" can lead partnerships that are not good and experienced to get into fights - which is quite bad.