[kfizzle]

k, (hiya)

i've learned to play bridge as early as 9. but until about a week
ago, i did not know how to bid properly, but otherwise my gameplay is very good.

in fact, i've learned more about bridge in the past week than the 13 years of bridge ive played on and off.

i've learned the sayc bidding system, and now im very good at it.
maybe thinking about taking up 2/1.

but, what my question is? what are all the differences between all the different bidding systems? what are the advantages and disadvantages?

example: sayc system is most emphasized on major suits, mainly because you make more points that way.

my old system: way i learned bridge when i grew up: level 1 bids were 5+ suit with 13-19 pts, level 2 bids were 20+ pts (strong 2's), and 1nt was standard nt 15-17 pts, (yes i knew about weak & strong nts as well but didnt use them)

there wasn't really anything in it that i knew off, like stayman or jacoby transfers or cuebids or anything. if you bid something, you actually had those cards

was there a name for this very basic & OLD bridge system?


ive been thinking about taking up wj 2000/polish club, what the advantages of that over sayc?

is there other systems better than sayc?

~fiz

[the hog]

How long is a piece of string? You have asked questions to which there are no answers as all you will get are opinions.
Personally I feel that Polish Club is an excellent system. Note that Polish club compared to WJ200 is like comparing a formula 1 racing car to a family hack. Should you wish to compare PC to 2/1 or sayc, there have been many discussions over the years in rec.games.bridge. A Google search should give you many leads.
Regardless, it does not matter too much what system you play as long as you have a good understanding with your partner as to what respective bids mean. To play PC or any complicated system with a good understanding would require at least 6-12 months in a regular partnership imho.

[Rhutobello]

Hey kfizzle ;D

Your thoughts are mine even if I am nearly 3 times your age 8)

I think what we was playing was a "simple Goren" (from point and opening description)and that made me happy for many years.Then I stopped playing for a while. Now 25 years later it is "outdated" or I start to feel that I played in a to narrow company before ;D ;D

You are right that BBO with it's game room and Forum is a great place to learn.

I think you have made the right chooise to learn SAYC, who most people play. 2/1 is also a pop system which will give you a bit more controll, on the card, and still many pick up partners ;D

The best system however is to get a regular partner ;D ;D That way you can use what you have learned, and you both understand the meaning of the bet.

Yes there are many exsotic systems out there, but if you shall play online I would go for those two or maybe take a look on acol.

The difference between different biddingsystem can other much better explain, but it show the diversity of Brigde, and that you can achive your goal in many way, but non will give you the exsact answer ;D (but in order to grow to an expert player you have to know about them, or your ops will trick you around ;D)

Cyou on BBO ;D

[Free]

All these systems have their advantages and disadvantages. It's normally choosing how you want to bid your strong hands: all in the 1C-opening, spreaded over 2X bids, spreaded over 1X bids,... And then you have to find a way to describe your normal opening hands. Say you choose to put all strong hands in the 1C opening, what do you bid with 12-15 or some range like this? Do you use your 1X openings like sayc, and also all strong hands in the 1C opening, then you play some sort of polish club. If you put these bids in 1D, 1M and maybe 2C, then you're going precision or moscito or any kind of big club system. It's all a matter of choosing what you like the most.

A few years ago, I started playing with a new partner now and then (these days I play weekly with him, and sometimes online). We started with basic ACOL (!) with other 2-openings (because these really suck). We played that for about a year and even got good results on international tourneys (example: 20est in Carta Mundi (Belgium) with 2 days 56%). But we started to change our system, because the really special hands are sometimes difficult to find out if you can bid 6 or 7. We started playing some sort of polish club, and over the years we have now a system which works fine. We can bid the exotics, and normal hands too. I'm not saying it's the best system in the world, but I know it's great because me and my partner play it the same way. We understand eachother really well, and that's exactly what you need. If you can count on the fact that your partner will understand what you mean, you can do everything!

There are no good or bad systems (actually there are), the system just gets better if both you and your partner play it like it should be played. If there was a system which is the best, everybody would play it, think about that!

[inquiry]

hi Kfizzle,

ive been thinking about taking up wj 2000/polish club, what the advantages of that over sayc?

is there other systems better than sayc?

In my opinion, almost any formal system is "better" than SAYC. SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card) was designed as a lowest common denominator kind of thing that would allow virtually all members of the ACBL play the same bidding system. There were yellow card bridge events where you had to play the agreements specifically stated on this system.

Having slammed SAYC above, I will also say that for online bridge with a pick up partner, knowing SAYC is a huge advantage because the odds are your partners will be at least familiar enough with it to play it with you. If you take up something more exotic, you need to find a partner who plays that system too. It is the lowest common denominator role of SAYC that makes it ideal for casual partnerships on line. For instance, if you ONLY knew polish club, you would eliminate a LARGE percentage of online players as potential partners.

So if you are just getting started with playing online bridge, I would drop the system you have been using and adopt SAYC. Then, overtime, you can add 2/1 GF. If you find a group of players who log about the times you do, and with whom you enjoy interacting at the bridge table, you can play what they play, rather it is ACOL, polish club, precision, a weak NT system or something else. For whatever you play you need partners to play it with. This is why I recommend for you SAYC... almost everyone CAN play it, even if they realise that it is not the BEST solution... it is a solution (Again, any bidding agreement (aka system) is better than no bidding agreement.).

Ben

[mishovnbg]

Hi Kfizzle!
If you like to read here in forum about:

Polish club:

http://forums.bridgebase.com/in...ay;threadid=693

Precision:

http://forums.bridgebase.com/in...ay;threadid=715

Misho