[blml] adjudication

[Wayne Burrows]

On 29/06/07, Nigel <Guthrie at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> [Eric Landau]
> And we can, and routinely do, improve on that by denoting marginal
> inclusions with '+' and '-' signs.  So when we (speaking for the
> first kind of player) see a 1NT range of "15-17", we expect fewer
> than 1/4 of (otherwise qualified) 14-counts to be opened with 1NT.
> When we see "14-17", we expect more than 3/4 of 14-counts to be
> opened 1NT.  "14+-17" denotes something in between.  That is far more
> useful and informative than writing "14-17" for all three cases.
>
> [nige1]
> Great! Another straw man :)
>
> Most players agree that is a fair attempt at honest disclosure to
> declare a *14-17 HCP* as *14+-17 HCP* if you open few 14 HCP hands.
>
> I heartily approve of the practice, and fully accept that it is much
> more useful and helpful than any unqualified range.
>
> I slightly prefer the notation *(14)15-17 HCP* proposed, I think, by
> Tim West-Meads.
>
> I still feel it is wrong to declare that range as 15-17 HCP :)
>

I use the notation (11)12-14.  However there are still traps with this
approach.  Traps of the sort that Nigel is trying to avoid.  That is
one partnerships percentage of 11 counts will be different from
another's that use the same notation.

There is always going to be a problem on the boundary since there are
millions of bridge hands and we will not all judge the same way at the
boundary.  I said in another post that I play 10-13 1NT not vul in 1st
and 2nd seat.  Once or maybe twice I have opened a 9-count.  Do I need
to ammend my system card to (9)10-13?  What if I won't do it again?
What if I don't know whether I will do it again?

I think the best and simplest approach is for players to honestly put
a range that corresponds to a range in which they open all or nearly
all hands 12-14 means that nearly all 12, 13 and 14 hcp hands will be
opened and include as a side note (possibly in parentheses) any other
values where a significant proportion of hands are opened.  So
(11)12-14 means many 11 hcp hands and all 12, 13 and 14 hcp hands.
And on top of this we educate bridge players to expect variations on
and near the boundaries and therfore they might need to ask and of
course teh other side will need to explain.

Wayne