Flame Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Bridge is not a game of rules. That's why it's such a great game. Try bidding unbalanced hands without using zar or HCP or LTC for 1 session. It will be hard at first. Keep trying it, it will get better and more accurate. On almost all unbalanced hands that i play, i never count HCP (unless it is relevant when i become declarer). I wish i could get into your head once to see how you do it.You dont count points and losers, you dont count the cards(atleast not the way i do).Its sounds great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ochinko Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Bridge is not a game of rules. That's why it's such a great game. Try bidding unbalanced hands without using zar or HCP or LTC for 1 session. It will be hard at first. Keep trying it, it will get better and more accurate. On almost all unbalanced hands that i play, i never count HCP (unless it is relevant when i become declarer).Funny, for me bridge is a game of rules. Every new rule that I learn helps me to eliminate a blind spot. It's not important that I remember the exact rule, just to be aware of yet another aspect of the game. Rules aren't carved in stone but only those who know them have the right to break them ;) Perhaps it's a matter of what part of the brain a player predominantly uses during the bidding - the creative or the rational one. I do agree with you and all the others that the ultimate goal is to think in patterns, not numbers. But even a rule that produces a number (like Zar) can help you achieve a better understanding of what makes a hand strong because the ingredients of the formula show you what's important in a hand. And I find it to be a nice formula. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothy Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Bridge is not a game of rules. That's why it's such a great game. (left Justin in coz i like the letter 'l' - and coz he was right :) )Funny, for me bridge is a game of rules. Rules aren't carved in stone but only those who know them have the right to break them :) I do agree with you and all the others that the ultimate goal is to think in patterns, not numbers. ... And I find it to be a nice formula. i wasnt sure whether to agree or disagree with you, Ochinko: Therefore i have replied in order to remove the tortuous mental embarrassment of having a Platonic dialogue with myself in front of the computer. From my experience in and understanding of bridge, albeit one much shorter than some of the longer-living members of this vibrant community :o i believe that the bridge theoreticians are trying to develop systems which are about telegraphing to your partner your hand pattern, or the smallest subset possible of distributions you can have. The Holy Grail of bidding, especially it seems with the spate of modern bidding systems that are pupating, is to develop a system where you can tell your partner your shape, whether it be a 5-5-2-1, a 4-4-4-1, a 6-2-2-3, with the minimum number of bids. Once your partner has pin-pointed your shape, it is so much easier for him to assess the quality of his hand - with, it seems, your HCP playing the 'poor cousin': they know he lives in the same town, but the family decides to ignore him. So with this in mind, many try to inseminate their systems with an appreciation and an evaluation of ones high card strength! At some point or other one of these 2 has to be sacrificed, as i believe no system can be developed that will allow you to finitely include bids to show both. Statistically impossible: it is like buying Roseanne a size 8 dress and telling her to wear it to the ball. :P We all seem to learn through HCP evaluation, and perhaps tend towards the pattern-showing systems as we evolve. I have a lot to learn in bidding, and want to; it just seems to me that more and more one comes to realise that there arrives a point where ultimately one has to rely on ones judgement, ones instinct , ones trust of partner and distrust of opps, and as Roland said ( the man who last night tried to convince me that Shakespeare was Danish hee hee), ones common sense. Alas, there is no replacement for experience/intuition: you cant buy it and you cant teach it. Those that have a 'feel' for the hands and sense that cards are working or not are the ones who seem to get to the right contracts. All this within a finely-tuned system where a balance has been reached and the system is constructed with elastic steadfast rules and, ultimately, as many bids as possible have a meaning to their partners to distinguish one hand shape and one point range from another.... Alex PS If anybody finds the Holy Grail, would ya please inform me. Last i heard it was rumoured to be near a goat stud-farm in the hills of Anatolia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walddk Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 ... and as Roland said ( the man who last night tried to convince me that Shakespeare was Danish hee hee), ones common sense. Alas, there is no replacement for experience/intuition: you cant buy it and you cant teach it. Alex Quote 1. I actually said he was half Danish. Why else would he write Hamlet and let it take place at Elsinore (Helsingør in Danish)? Quote 2. Well said young man! Roland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slothy Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Quote 1. Well said young man! Quote 2. I actually said he was half Danish. Why else would he write Hamlet and let it take place at Elsinore (Helsingør in Danish)? Roland Quote 1: From the Guru himself: i feel that the Holy Grail has been put gift-wrapped and hand-delivered in a stage-coach hee he Quote 2: oh yes, and his grandfather was Egyptian (Anthony and Cleopatra), his sister-in-law a Greek (Coriolanus), his next-door-neighbour-but-one spoke Latin (Julius Caesar), his wife was Jewish (Merchant Of Venice), his daughter married an Italian (Romeo and Juliet) and ...his brother was a fairy (Midsummers Night Dream). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walddk Posted February 16, 2005 Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Quote 2: oh yes, and his grandfather was Egyptian (Anthony and Cleopatra), his sister-in-law a Greek (Coriolanus), his next-door-neighbour-but-one spoke Latin (Julius Caesar), his wife was Jewish (Merchant Of Venice), his daughter married an Italian (Romeo and Juliet) and ...his brother was a fairy (Midsummers Night Dream). .... and his bridge partner was Lord Yarborough, you know the man who constantly picked up 9736428753432 .... and made a fortune. By the way, I am not sure this qualifies for a Zar-count evaluation :) Roland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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