Re: What's wrong with the Roth point count?

On Sun, 4 May 2008 05:40:58 -0700 (PDT), henrysun909@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

>On May 4, 5:32 am, henrysun...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
>
>stupid computer.....
>
> teach beginners to add HCP + QT +LP for a total point count and if
>it ccomes to 15 they have an opener. It works for every hand I can
>imagine. Is my imagination missing something?
>
>**************
>
>That depends.  Do you think this hand is an opening bid?
>
>Axx
>Axx
>Axx
>xxxx
>
I'll enter this hand in a simulator and decide if opening 1C would
result in a poor contract. On average partner will have 9 HCP and thus
the pair will have 21 HCP. Why not bid?

>Even in a precision context, Belladonna and Garozzo passed it in first
>seat in a bidding competition.
>
>How about this?
>
>AKT9xxx
>Qxx
>xx
>x
>
>9 HCPs + 2 quick tricks + 3 length points (? 1 for the 6th card and 2
>for the 7th card?) = only 14 total points.
>
>Stig, I don't know if you subscribe to the Bridge World or any other
>magazine, but before you continue looking like an ass with respect to
>hand evaluation and quick tricks, at least read re****ts of what
>experts are doing instead of criticizing books designed to simplify
>things for beginners. At the very least, pick up the last couple years
>Bermuda Bowl or Olympiad re****ts and start analyzing whether your '15
>hcps+QT+length points = opening bid' formula accurately reflects what
>the top international experts are doing (of course, I assume they are
>doing something right.)  Forget about the special systems like the one
>played by Fantoni and Nunes, where 2-level opening bids show 10-13
>hcps and 1-level opening bids show 14+, are unlimited, and hence are
>forcing for one round.

>My students will never play in the Bermuda Bowl nor will I, so it matters
none how world class players bid.
My students are only going to play rubber bridge in the near future
and they need a bidding method that yields makable contracts at least
75% of the time, or else they get discouraged if they  fail too often.


>I guarantee you that the re****ts will show that these experts are
>opening at least 30% more hands than your 15 points formula would
>allow.
>
>If you want to be safe and conservative and only open such hands, and
>if that is what you teach your students, well that's your business.
>Teaching beginners to be safe and conservative is probably a
>reasonable pedagogical standard.
>
>But flaunting a more conservative standard in the light of current
>expert practice isn't good pedagogy or bad.  It just makes you look
>like an ass.
>
>Henrysun909