tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-242643622010-04-30T22:13:40.960-07:00This blog provides supplementary thoughts and ideas to the www.bridgematters.com site. If you haven't seen the main site, there is a lot there including the Martel and Rodwell interviews, photos, and articles. This blog is focused on advancing bridge theory by discussing the application of new ideas. All original content is copyright 2009 Glen Ashton.Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.comBlogger279125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-86367071148473714672010-04-30T22:02:00.000-07:002010-04-30T22:13:40.978-07:00

This last Wednesday we received this email from "The Blogger Team, Google":You are receiving this e-mail because one or more of your blogs at Blogger.com are set up to publish via FTP. Earlier this year we announced a planned shut-down of FTP support on Blogger Buzz (the official Blogger blog), and that deadline of May 1st is quickly approaching. This is the second and final email reminder ...

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-72452264882957196702010-04-29T05:12:00.000-07:002010-04-29T05:17:17.084-07:00

Two new posts on BridgeBest.com:http://bridgebest.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&p=13#p13andhttp://bridgebest.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&p=14#p14The new site was up for most of the day yesterday, but sorry when it does have problems, as there's a problem we are still hunting down. Tomorrow, the last day of the Google deadline, there will be a post here explaining why the blog had to move. Btw an easy way

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-74296269597431044612010-04-27T06:12:00.000-07:002010-04-27T06:16:54.575-07:00

This blog post is up at its new home at:http://bridgebest.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&p=10#p10If BridgeBest.com returns an error (since I use cheap hosting), please retry in a couple of minutes. BridgeMatters.com (but not the blog) will remain on the more expensive hosting to ensure that the items offered on the site remain online at most times.

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-85230695792394691372010-04-17T06:06:00.000-07:002010-04-24T16:05:30.172-07:00

This post has been moved to:http://bridgebest.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&p=3#p3as part of moving the blog to its new home on bridgebest.com

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-78668591666805873932010-04-02T11:14:00.000-07:002010-04-02T12:16:15.430-07:00

The April issues of both The Bridge World and the ACBL Bridge Bulletin arrived in the mail this week, and in typical fashion for me, I headed right to the bidding articles. Quebec City's Dimiter Zlatanov continues his intriguing set of articles on bidding concerns - in The Bridge World April issue he looks at bid assignments when the person bidding has shown a suit, and is now showing a fit for

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-83943483964829797282010-03-27T09:22:00.000-07:002010-03-28T11:24:35.742-07:00

Yesterday, I bought Ken Rexford's new book, Modified Italian Canapé System, at the web site http://www.ebooksbridge.com/. I think Master Point Press (Linda & Ray Lee, and others, see Linda's blog at http://linda.bridgeblogging.com/) has a real winner with their ebooks approach: I was able to buy the book for just over $8 and get it delivered immediately - great prices, free "shipping", instant

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-78101775630924636712010-03-17T08:50:00.000-07:002010-03-17T08:54:36.175-07:00

A question that gets regurgitated on the net from time to time is whether to play a big club system with five card majors or four card majors. The right answer is likely a compromise: 1S 5+, 1H 4+.One of the worst big club/five card major sequences is 1H-2H uncontested so far: 2H announces at least a 5-3 heart fit, which implies the opponents have a fit too, and since both 1H and 2H are limited,

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-45886452836042297102010-03-12T07:16:00.000-08:002010-03-12T07:27:17.088-08:00

Even though many of us play cards for the intellectual competition, another important aspect is social. At the farmhouse of Karen's family, once the deserts (always more than one) were done, the plates were all cleared off, the table cloth put away, then a deck of cards were placed in the middle of the table. Playing cards was one of the bonds between the computer geek I am, and the farmer that

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-25897746753058315582010-02-13T10:21:00.000-08:002010-02-13T10:36:13.504-08:00

The capability or decision to open 11 point balanced hands was key in the semi-final of the NEC Cup on Friday in Japan, between the Italian Lavazza team and the Netherlands.The match was tied when board 15 arrived, near the end of the first of two segments.......The Dutch South passed, West opened the 11 point balanced hand, and then there was a quiet auction to 3NT, making....In the open room

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-12491399156891151442010-02-10T10:23:00.000-08:002010-02-10T10:37:35.484-08:00

This is Part IX of the Bread N' Butter series: a look at Meckwell bidding in the last world championship when one of them had 10 to 17 balanced, either in opening position, or directly over an opponent's opening. We will consider balanced as any 4-3-3-3/4-4-3-2/5-3-3-2, plus any hand that Meckwell treated as balanced.The last of the round robin matches for USA2 was against Russia, with both cold

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-51054298282256685352010-02-05T10:47:00.001-08:002010-02-05T22:23:49.918-08:00

This is Part VIII of the Bread N' Butter series: a look at Meckwell bidding in the last world championship when one of them had 10 to 17 balanced, either in opening position, or directly over an opponent's opening. We will consider balanced as any 4-3-3-3/4-4-3-2/5-3-3-2, plus any hand that Meckwell treated as balanced.One of the nice features of the Just Sayin' blog (see Memphis Mojo link to the

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-80821731435853633782010-01-29T06:33:00.001-08:002010-01-29T15:57:58.368-08:00

This is Part VII of the Bread N' Butter series: a look at Meckwell bidding in the last world championship when one of them had 10 to 17 balanced, either in opening position, or directly over an opponent's opening. We will consider balanced as any 4-3-3-3/4-4-3-2/5-3-3-2, plus any hand that Meckwell treated as balanced.The big match of day 5 for USA2 was against Italy. There was a balanced hand on

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-76934749349079509832010-01-27T06:19:00.000-08:002010-01-27T06:30:32.269-08:00

This is Part VI of the Bread N' Butter series: a look at Meckwell bidding in the last world championship when one of them had 10 to 17 balanced, either in opening position, or directly over an opponent's opening. We will consider balanced as any 4-3-3-3/4-4-3-2/5-3-3-2, plus any hand that Meckwell treated as balanced.Meckwell had no rest on day 4 as the last match of the day was against China,

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-76214738015938482772010-01-25T06:05:00.001-08:002010-01-25T14:46:13.494-08:00

This is Part V of the Bread N' Butter series: a look at Meckwell bidding in the last world championship when one of them had 10 to 17 balanced, either in opening position, or directly over an opponent's opening. We will consider balanced as any 4-3-3-3/4-4-3-2/5-3-3-2, plus any hand that Meckwell treated as balanced.Part IV of this series was posted on September 21st, and since then we've looked

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-50003260503916831522010-01-22T16:52:00.000-08:002010-01-22T16:57:51.282-08:00

The mainstay of bridge bidding system design has been the mapping of certain sets of balanced and unbalanced hand types on to the 1C and 1D openings. Aside from variations of standard approaches, popular methods have included:KS - 1m: natural unbalanced or 15-19 balanced with minorPrecision - 1C: unbalanced or balanced 16+, 1D: natural unbalanced 11-15Modified Precision - 1C: unbalanced 16+ or

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-88825507672682794312010-01-20T06:56:00.000-08:002010-01-20T08:10:34.532-08:00

If you were teaching someone modern (five card majors) natural methods, what do you tell them to open this hand with?S AQ54H AQ3D J76C 432How do you explain opening the worst suit playing natural methods? Do you explain it as the process of elimination?- You don't have a five card major- You're not strong enough for 1NT- You don't have four diamonds- Voila! You have a "natural" one club

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-72218519034740131052010-01-19T17:33:00.000-08:002010-01-19T17:56:09.231-08:00

The problem of what to open with 17-19 balanced was solved by Ron Klinger in The Power System: Five Bids To Winning Bridge. However the price of his 17-20 1NT opening was the loss of using 1NT to open the far more frequent 15-17, 14-16, or 12-14 balanced hands, and that has proven too high a cost for everybody.Aside from that and some not-allowed-everywhere ideas, like the strong one heart

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-68266765533738888852010-01-18T06:56:00.000-08:002010-01-18T07:10:05.974-08:00

In a system framework, consider openings that show an unbalanced hand with no five card or longer major. For these openings try ranking the following five criteria:1) Showing a specific 4 card major with the opening bid2) Having room to investigate for major suit fits3) Preempting the opponents4) Showing the longest minor with the opening bid5) Immediately showing extra values or limiting

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-4418028711359900002010-01-15T06:41:00.000-08:002010-01-15T06:45:26.393-08:00

If you had to open either 1C or 1D with all your weak notrumps, which one should it be?Opening 1C gives plenty of room to unwind, play transfers where allowed, and investigate for 4-4 and 5-3 major fits below 1NT. However the 1C opening gives that same room to the opponents, where they can naturally bid all four suits, such as:Double: takeout and/or value showing, and now 1D by advancer can be

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-39423762122857622812010-01-14T06:41:00.000-08:002010-01-14T06:57:57.496-08:00

Yesterday, one of Canada's top players, Allan Graves, commented on a posting from November - since that's an older posting and a long one, where readers could miss the "1 comment" marker at the end of two miles of system frameworks, I've reposted it here:I recommend the unbalanced major point of view and simply use 1C as weak NT or clubs with transfer responses, 1D as natural usually unbalanced

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-26118940052929118492010-01-02T09:17:00.000-08:002010-01-02T09:57:03.794-08:00

Happy New Decade everybody - this year will be the tenth anniversary of BridgeMatters, though this blog itself is just a few years old. For a New Year's resolution, this year will see many mini-posts appearing on the blog, following the Twitter approach (not yet that many bridge folk tweeting) of short bursts of ideas, news, and updates. Now there will still be long posts for slow blog loading

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-16149556986495376532009-12-18T06:12:00.000-08:002009-12-19T07:47:36.006-08:00

Success factors/priorities for a system:- Separation of balanced (bal) and unbalanced (unbal) hand types below 18- Opening showing 4Ss unbal- Openings showing 5+Ss or 5+Hs- Openings showing a minor suit unbal, can be combined with a big hand typeThis requires two opening suit bids at the one level to be freed up, one to show 4Ss unbal, and the other the balanced hand outside of the 1NT

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-1639268123808792992009-12-05T08:51:00.000-08:002009-12-19T07:42:40.528-08:00

Bridge pro Curtis Cheek, recovering from a life threatening bout with H1N1 just after this summer's world championships, was quoted in this week's San Diego bulletins (Wednesday 2nd): Cheek was in the hospital for about one month. After they withdrew the drugs that kept him in a coma, it took another week for him to come out of it. He was in a dream-like state and thought he was in Washington DC.

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-18533332227900245052009-11-28T11:06:00.000-08:002009-12-19T07:48:09.904-08:00

Ulf Nilsson writing in the November issue of The Bridge World (instead of his bridge blog http://viewsfromthebridgetable.blogspot.com/ ) makes the strong case for treating 5-3-3-2s with a five card major as balanced as the primary feature, and not the major suit. That means incorporating these hand types into the openings for the balanced hands in the appropriate range, something that the ETM

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24264362.post-54519263348410682692009-11-22T07:03:00.000-08:002009-12-19T07:48:28.925-08:00

As I mentioned in the last post, using the robots might be the fastest method of testing a new bidding structure or complete system. Last month I played thousands of hands where I opened 1NT, and the playtesting of the robots notrump structure had a couple of revelations.I've been a big believer in responder showing the singleton/void to the notrump opener, but it surprised me the ratio of how

Glen Ashtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01705543534132372375noreply@blogger.com2