[lmilne]

So, I'm on a team going to this crazy goulash tournament in Russia (http://www.nncup.org/page_04_e.htm).
I can play cards, but I've never played goulash. I get the feeling that 2/1 with relays isn't gonna cut it with 9-card suits and whatnot.

I know there are goulash tournaments on BBO, has anyone come up with a sweet goulash system that we could play over in Moscow?

[hrothgar]

lmilne, on 2013-August-31, 04:26, said:

So, I'm on a team going to this crazy goulash tournament in Russia (http://www.nncup.org/page_04_e.htm).
I can play cards, but I've never played goulash. I get the feeling that 2/1 with relays isn't gonna cut it with 9-card suits and whatnot.

I know there are goulash tournaments on BBO, has anyone come up with a sweet goulash system that we could play over in Moscow?

I doubt that its possible to design a decent system without specific information about the algorithm that is being used for hand generation.

With this said and done, here's a few thoughts:

I suspect that information about shape is going to be much more important than information about range.

Use pass to show any balanced hand regardless of range
Use NT bids as preempts. This bid will show some kind of shapely hand, but deny constructive values
Use suit bids to show specific hands, but show values

I'd want to have stuff like the following available:

3H would show a constructive two suiter (5/5 or better) with Hearts and another suit
3S shows a constructive two suiter with Spades and a minor
3N shows a bad 4 level preempt in either major
4C shows a good hand with clubs and a 4 card major
4D shows a good hand with 6+ diamonds and a 4 card major
4H shows a good hand with hearts
4S shows a good hand with spades
4N shows a good 5 level preempt in either minor
5C shows both minors

[lmilne]

I like the idea of two-suiters... would that imply that we open a normal 3-bid at the 2-level though?
How about 1NT to show a strong balanced hand, something like 16+?

[Fluffy]

strong cub with loads of relays to work out exact partner's distribution and honors, that gotta be best.

[hrothgar]

Fluffy, on 2013-August-31, 06:37, said:

strong cub with loads of relays to work out exact partner's distribution and honors, that gotta be best.

I'm guessing that this is a joke

Just in case its not, I strongly recommend against going the relay route...

1. Investing a lot of time and effort to learn a relay method that's going to be preempted left right and center seems questionable

2. Existing relay methods are optimized to show normal hand patterns. All the frequency assumptions are going to be off in a ghoulash where you're constantly getting 8+ card suits, 6-5 patterns, and the like. You're pretty much going to need to design the system from scratch...

[Free]

Fluffy, on 2013-August-31, 06:37, said:

strong cub with loads of relays to work out exact partner's distribution and honors, that gotta be best.

This topic is about the non-eatable kind of goulash.

[slayerbill]

lmilne, on 2013-August-31, 04:26, said:

So, I'm on a team going to this crazy goulash tournament in Russia (http://www.nncup.org/page_04_e.htm).
I can play cards, but I've never played goulash. I get the feeling that 2/1 with relays isn't gonna cut it with 9-card suits and whatnot.

I know there are goulash tournaments on BBO, has anyone come up with a sweet goulash system that we could play over in Moscow?

This is *very* effective:

http://tomtrottier.com/Goulash.html