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Max Hardy's Two Over One


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Thanks. I am aware of the efforts behind the The Bidding Dictionary. In fact, the diskette exists. I know because I worked on revisions to the dictionary and gave them to Alan back in 2004 or so. And I still have a copy of the book on disk here, as all of our correspondence was electronic.

 

I want everyone to know my work was on typographic errors and not bridge theory.

 

I do not have the bridge expertise to put together a 2/1 Bidding Dictionary, but I would offer up my organizational and proofreading skills to anyone who undertakes such a project. The only caveat is that I would insist on a paper version of the product, even if a subset of a web-based database. I love my books.

 

In the meantime, I have the Lawrence books, the Hardy books, and of course the Bergen books here to re-digest. Lord, we sure don't all seem to agree on a whole lot about 2/1, do we?

 

 

Cheers,

Carl

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Nobody mentioned Bridge World Standard (2001) which I had assumed was "Standard"

but is actually a Lawrence-oriented 2/1 GF system. I wonder if this is worth

investigating in detail. Also, does anyone know when the next BWS is scheduled to be

released?

 

 

y66 (Whoever you are) - thanks for the link to the Tallahassee System notes. I had this

a few years ago and was probably not disciplined enough to read it. I had forgotten

about it. It looks worth an ink cartridge so I can take it with me on vacation. I'm not a

laptop reader sort of person.

 

I've been playing Constructive Raises since I started with 2/1. Today's task is to

discover why :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
So, it's been 20 years since Max completed his third (and by some accounts, final) treatise on the Two Over One system, inaugurated by Richard Walsh. For those of you who play the 'hard rules" version (100% Game Force to 3NT/4x) I am curious as to how much benefit you got out of the book, how faithful you adhere to his methods, and if you've found anything published since that helps you out at an advanced level.

 

With my own 2/1 system currently pieced together from various books, articles here and there and a few tips from different directions, it's time to sit down and put together a detailed system notebook. I figured I start with this book. I also have the Mike Lawrence "soft rules" workbook, and after a cursory review, I think I might want to stick with the stricter version. But I am open to suggestions and/or persuasion.

 

 

Any really good books or other resources out there I am unaware of?

 

 

 

Carl

softcode

The Yellow book is useable, especially if you already know 2/1.

One thing that I like personally, but that never caught on, was Hardy's structure for Major suit raises.

To get the most out of the Yellow Book, you should invest in the Orange book, if still available. I think it is called "2/1 Workbook".

It is a workbook of problems and examples with references back to the Yellow Book text.

It clears up a LOT of ambiguities in the way the Yellow Book is presented.

 

I also think that the Green and Purple books (21st century) are a BIG improvement over the Yellow book. The Orange book is still valuable though.

 

As far as Precision goes, it too has undergone quite a bit of change since the early years.

The NT range now is more often 14-16 than 13-15. The 2C opener with only 5 clubs is falling into disfavour. And the 'impossible negatives' I think have been superceded.

A decent treatment that is pretty modern is the Blue Book by Manley and Berkowitz.

An influential book with lots of different Precision ideas, is Rigal's "Precision in the 90's".

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The trouble with precision is everybody has a different version of it. We'd need something like an update of CCWei's original works for some sort of "standard precision" to become popular.

 

Right now I'd say Rigal is what comes closer to being that.

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  • 6 years later...

Rigal's Precision book is good because he discusses in many cases why he chose a particular method, and he offers alternatives. That said, in my one Precision partnership these days, we're using Berkowitz-Manley. :ph34r:

 

There are a couple of books by Dr. Neil H. Timm, Ph.D (everywhere I see his name, the doctorate is prominently mentioned B-) ): 2/1 Game Force, A Modern Approach and Precision Simplified For 2/1 Game Force Players

 

Timm is Professor Emeritus of Statistics from the University of Pittsburgh, and his writing shows his background. That said, he does have some good information in the 2/1 book, at least. I just got the Precision book, haven't read it yet.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

Hardy's red book was a disaster. The one I am thinking of using is the yellow book. As near as I can tell there's still issues with his competitive bidding, but the fundamental ideas in the front half seem sensible.

 

I totally disagree. Hardy's red book is perfectly acceptable as a skeleton system. Just add your own favorite conventions. Don't use Hardy for contested auctions. Use Robson/Segal for contested auctions.

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