[net.rec.bridge] Bidding systems.

bmh@unc.UUCP (08/12/83)

I started playing bridge seriously a few months ago and am now
looking for a *good* bidding system.  I would be interested in
hearing from people about their favorite bidding systems, whether
it's well known or home-grown.  So far I have only been able to
find (1) books on introductory bridge (describing 5 card major bidding)
and (2) a reference on the Precision bidding system entitled "Precision
and Superprecision Bidding" by Giorgio Belloadonna and Benito Garozzo.
This book describes in detail their version of C. C. Wei's Precision
system and also their 'high-level' Super-Precision system.  The
Precision system appears to be the sort of way one should go in order
to maximize bidding information communicated between partners.
However, I see little hope that I can easily pick up the Precision
bidding system.  At least as described by Belloadonna and Garozzo,
it seems that you must memorize what amounts to something like an
n-ary tree with n averaging around 8 (i.e. for each bid you are choosing
from an average of around 8 choices).  Perhaps there is a better
book describing the system more generally.  It would be much easier
to remember general conventions, like a bid of a new suit after a
suit has been settled on => a cue bid, etc.
  At any rate what I would like to hear about is systems that
communicate large amounts of information between partners but which
I can learn in a several weeks of practice/play.  (maybe I can learn
Precision or some subset in this amount of time).
  So if you have good references to bridge bidding theory (including
your own great systems) please mail me.  If there is a large response
I will summarize to the net.

					Brad Hemminger
					duke!unc!bmh