[blml] Positronic brain

[Steve Willner]

From: Herman De Wael <herman at hdw.be>
> Say they open 5C in first hand, and your partner thinks for 30". UI, 
> yes, but is this not as can be expected? 

Not really.  My partners can usually decide in 10 s or perhaps 15 s at 
the most.  The questions are whether more than one LA exists and if so, 
whether the extra 15-20 s suggests one over another.

A better example would have been when the opponents use a convention we 
have never seen before, but it isn't a jump.  Now partner will need at 
least 5 s (which is an eternity in a normal auction) to work out whether 
we have any relevant agreements.  This pause is expected and will seldom 
say much about partner's hand -- in other words will seldom suggest one 
LA over another -- but in some cases it may do so.  In those rare cases, 
the usual rules apply.

> the simple cases are very common, but you believe them to 
> be so common that you don't see that they are in fact examples of this 
> "rare situation".

The rare situation is for UI that is the same as AI yet it suggests one 
LA over another.  Expected alerts, answers to questions, etc. seldom 
suggest one over another.

> In the original (the dutch 7H from Warsaw) the long hesitation showed 
> a better hand than normal. But the 5S bid also showed a (much) better 
> hand than normal. The first is UI, the second is AI.

Both UI and AI showed better than normal _for the pass over 4S_.  What I 
don't understand is why the long hesitation over 4S shows a better than 
normal hand _for the subsequent 5S then 6H_ (thus suggesting 7H over 
pass).  But this is a bridge judgment, not any question of how to apply 
the Laws.