[Zelandakh]

 helene_t, on 2020-February-11, 14:52, said:

I think that's a bit unfair. SAYC only contains these bidding conventions:

Just because a convention does not have a name does not mean it is not one in practice. Things such as a 2/1 response promising a rebid requires a fair bit of thought if you just take it at face value. The first question any SAYC PUP needs to answer is whether 1X - 2Y; 2NT is forcing or not. If you go strictly by the booklet then it is, and it requires a reasonable amount of rearrangement elsewhere to make it work properly. Most think this is not forcing, thus directly ignoring one of the clearest instructions in the booklet. Whatever you think about this sequence, it shows the point that Stefanie is making, that the system is often not really coherent and making it coherent often involves turning it into a much more complex system than it was ever designed to be.

The only reason why SAYC is still even mentioned is that when internet bridge came along, it became necessary to have a simple system that could be agreed in a few words and that was widely available. Without any other Standardised SA system out there, SAYC was the default solution and it has remained so despite the best efforts of BBO and its rivals in internet bridge services to offer their own (considerably better) SA systems. And it is not only the Americans that have this issue, most countries around the world do not have a truly standardised bidding system (and those that do the system is often sub-standard) meaning that bidding often becomes more a matter of educated guesswork than a scientific process. It is almost enough to make one want to be Polish...

[pescetom]

 Zelandakh, on 2020-February-14, 09:24, said:

And it is not only the Americans that have this issue, most countries around the world do not have a truly standardised bidding system (and those that do the system is often sub-standard) meaning that bidding often becomes more a matter of educated guesswork than a scientific process. It is almost enough to make one want to be Polish...

Or Turkish, lucky enough to have a standardised and effective 2/1 GF system.

Italy has made multiple official efforts to standardise 5-card majors, but so far they all failed due to inconsistent design and excessive ambition (the conventions Garozzo prefers are unlikely to suit the average club player). BBO Italia is a popular and effective system but is evidently too simplistic for the federation. Luckily the official teaching materials for beginners are in much better shape and offer a sound basis for 2/1.

[blackshoe]

"No, I do not know Precision, but I do know Standard American, and what better reason could I have for playing Precision?" -- The Hideous Hog, in The Hog Takes To Precision.

[Vampyr]

 blackshoe, on 2020-February-22, 13:30, said:

"No, I do not know Precision, but I do know Standard American, and what better reason could I have for playing Precision?" -- The Hideous Hog, in The Hog Takes To Precision.

I thought that this book was really well done, because instead of focusing on the weakness of precision, namely the strong club, it focused on a major strength, the limited one-level openings.