woods@hao.UUCP (Greg Woods) (03/12/85)
Here is a very brief introduction to the Precision bidding system. If you
are seriously interested in learning Precision, I suggest you get a copy
of Goren's "The Precision System of Contract Bridge Bidding", which is the
Bible on the subject. There *are* other variations, but this one is the basis
for all of them. Trying to play Precision without this book is like trying
to program in C without a copy of K&R.
The Precision system is based on an artificial forcing 1C opening bid for
*all* strong hands (except balanced hands with 22-23 points, which is a very
rare case, is treated separately, and is opened with a normal 2NT bid).
What this means is that *all* other bids show a maximum of 15 HCP's, and
with a poor hand, responder *may* pass. What I like about it is that when my
partner opens the bidding (or even when he passes) I can tell almost
immediately whether we have fewer points than our opponents, we have a probable
game, or a possible slam, just from the first bid. Precision also requires
5-card major suit openings, so fits are found rather rapidly.
Because of the top-end limit on opening bids, you can get away with opening
weaker hands. Often, we get top boards at a duplicate club because the
opponents do not bother to read our convention card and see that we open
11-point hands, and thus miss an easy game of their own. Because I know my
partner has a maximum of 15 points if he opens anything other than 1C, I
can pass with a very poor hand, or bid knowing that he won't get too excited
(most of our responses are non-forcing, except a jump shift or a 1NT response
to a major suit opening, and no matter what, a 1C opener must bid again
even if the response is negative, assuming the opponents are silent).
The main problem with using Precision is that it really requires that you
have a particular partner that you play with a lot, because there are quite a
few conventional responses that are quickly forgotten if you go a few weeks
without playing. Another problem is that all the standard bidding puzzles
and solitaire bridge games are useless because they all assume the Random
American bidding system. As you can guess, I'm a fan of Precision. When used
*correctly*, it is a powerful system that usually leads to the best possible
contract. It is designed for duplicate play, and may lose in a Swiss teams
or rubber match.
Well, that's a start.
--Greg
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"Please don't dominate the rap Jack, if you got nothing new to say..."kfl@cmu-cs-speech2.ARPA (Fu Lee) (03/12/85)
Although I don't play precision, I have read a number of books on the subject. I think Goren's book and C.C. Wei's first book are very good introduction to precision, but basic precision that they precisent is not necessarily more powerful than any scientific approach (against good prepared opponents). I have played against many expert precision players, and all of them have adopted many variations on the basic precision (such as 1D showing as short as 1-card diamond suit ...). For the serious tournament bridge player, I would recommend Ron Anderson's "Matchpoint Precision". Any intermediate player should be able to understand it thoroughly. The two reasons I do not play precision are : (1) To make it a truly better system than Eastern Scientific, it requires a lot of partnership agreements and memorization. (2) Al Roth once said Precision is good, but it takes all the imagination out of bidding. I agree. Kai-Fu Lee kfl@cmu-cs-speech2.arpa
halle@hou2b.UUCP (J.HALLE) (03/13/85)
While Goren's book on Precision is certainly popular and readable, it is by no means the best and is certainly not the Bible. For an introduction, probably the best is C.C. Wei's original books on Precision. (After all, he invented it.) Wei and Ron Anderson have written several books on Precision, all of them very good. There are many others which are also very good by a variety of people. Reese, Jannersteen, and Sonntag (or maybe it was Weichsel) are some I've read. The most comprehensive is by Belladonna and Garozzo, but that one should wait until you're experienced with the system.
plh@ukma.UUCP (Paul L. Hightower) (03/14/85)
> Here is a very brief introduction to the Precision bidding system........ >......... It is designed for duplicate play, and may lose in a Swiss teams >or rubber match. I disagree! Precision is designed for team-of-four play, where slams are more important than part scores. Of course, the limited opening bids can be an advantage at all forms of bridge. Where Precision suffers is with virtually all minor-suited hands, opener and responder, including the 2C opener, a minor suit response to 1C, and a minor suit rebid after 1C-{1D, 1H, 1S} . All such auctions crowd the bidding more than in Standard Confusion...er...American, and Goren's book is virtually worthless in this area. I found Reece's book more useful, especially the Italian-style asking bids. (Precision Bidding and Precision Play, Terence Reece.) Paul Hightower University of Kentucky
pag@hao.UUCP (Peter Gross) (03/16/85)
Kathy Wei's "Precision 1 Club Complete" is an excellent advanced
text on Precision 1 club auctions. Highly recommended.
--
--peter gross
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ARPA: pag%ncar@csnet-relay.arpaed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould) (03/20/85)
> Trying to play Precision without this book is like trying > to program in C without a copy of K&R. Come on now. I've been programming in C for almost 10 years and have never owned, nor even more than glanced at, K&R. :-) Seriously, Goren's book on Precision *is* a fine one, but let's not go too far. (On the other hand, I don't play Precision myself. I don't play duplicate except rarely, and not enough rubber bridge any more to play anything more complicated than KISS.) -- Ed Gould mt Xinu, 739 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94710 USA {ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed +1 415 644 0146