[blml] adjudication

[Robert Geller]

richard willey writes:
>A 7-5-3-1 point scale is very different than a 4-3-2-1 scale.  The
>entire reason in adopting a different point scale is that it produces
>very different results than the traditional Work point count.  Almost
>by definition, the act of approximating a 7-5-3-1 scale using a
>4-3-2-1 scale is going to increase variance.

In a 7-5-3-1 point count there is a total of 64 points in all four hands.
If you multiply by 40/64 to convert to case of a total of 40 total points
(like the 4321 count) you get 4.4 - 3.1 - 1.9 - 0.6 (keeping only the first
decimal).  If you ignore the extra 0.1 for the king and the the 0,1 deduction
for the queen, it's easy to describe this (apprximately) to the opps as
we tack on about a half point for an ace and subtract about a half point
for a jack.   

Another early point count was the "Four Aces" point count of Howard 
Schenken and Oswald Jacoby, which was 6-4-2-1 (actually it
was really 3-2-1-0.5 as first published), which converts to
4.6 - 3.1 - 1.5 - 0.8.    IMO this is more accurate than either  Vienna or Work.
Again, for practical purposes you can tell the oppts we add about 0.5 for
an ace and subtract about 0.5 for a queen.   

One point that has been ignored on this thread is the importance of middle
cards.    For example, A432  A432  K32  K2 is probably not a 1NT opener
(upgrade to 15-17) even if you use the Schenken point count, but 
A1098  A1098  KT09  K10, IMO, is defintely worth a 1NT open.  The second
hand will probably be an average of one trick or more stronger than the 
first one.  I don't know of any formal system that is simple enough to
actually be used at the table to quantify middle cards, but obviously
all good players do take middle cards into account to some degree when
they decide whether or not to open 1NT.   I don't know any easy way
to describe this to oppts simplay, but if they are reasonable players
they are already doing this themselves anyway.   .   

-Bob

-----------------------------------------------------
Robert (Bob) Geller,     Tokyo, Japan        geller at nifty.com