[blml] The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep is sick

[Matthias Berghaus]

Herman De Wael schrieb:
>
> And I'm sure there is some pecking order which will tell you which it 
> more likely is.
>   

Herman, I wonder where you are playing. Maybe I should play there too, 
but it sounds too much like paradise.
I do not want to comment on dWs vs. whatever, but I assure you that 
there are many situations where it is 50/50, and you are glad it is not 
33/33/33. I grant you that "no idea" is often abused, but you should 
realize that it happens, and more often than you think.

> Anyway, if it's anything important, he won't use a system that you 
> won't understand, 

Get real. Of course any responsible partner will act as you describe, 
but the vast majority of potential partners do not fall in that 
category. They will bid away with abandon, because everything is clear 
to them, so it is clear to everybody else, isn`t it? Most players have 
no idea how to bid at all, so you (and any sensible player) cultivates 
those partners who do. That does not make the others vanish, and from 
time to time you meet them, or you meet a sensible players who decides 
that a nebulous bid gives him the best chance to land in the right contract.

There are more 50/50ies than you think, and there are more 60/40ies than 
others believe.

> and he'll hope you'll have the pecking order right.
>
> And if you happen to guess correctly - why should the TD believe it 
> was just a 50/50 guess and not some 70/30 one?
>
>   
>>> Except for the very first table you play with him, and except against 
>>> his regular partner's, you know more about your partner's system than 
>>> your opponents do. 
>>>       
Sorry, no. From time to time I have to help out until a certain player 
closes shop and reaches the club. I can you assure you that the players 
I play against have a better idea what my "partner" does than I have. 
Oh, I am learning, no doubt about that, but there is much uncharted 
territory to cover. Some situations are better than 50/50, others are 
worse. Cue-bid: Showing a stop, asking for a stop, showing a fit? No 
idea. ask me after the hand.... My opps could probably tell me, they are 
used to "systems" like that, but they know  I am groping in the dark, 
and they like to see someone guess wrong. What is better, they expect me 
to tell them if I have any inkling of what is going on (by alerting), so 
they even know whether I am on the right track or not. I do not usually 
play with players of the class in question, nor do I play against them, 
so my learning curve is not what I would call steep....