[enigmisto]

I have been learning Precision from the book Precision 101, and have a question about gauging whether partnership has strength for slam.

Let's say opener opens with 1C (16+ HCP). Responder gives a positive transfer response of 2D (indicating 5+ Hearts and 8+ pts).

Opener has 3 Hearts, so happily accepts the transfer with 2H.

In Precision 101, accepting the transfer is a TAB (Trump asking bid), and responder then answers. Opener can continue with various Control-asking bids, and get a pretty good picture of the strength of their partner's trump suit and their controls.

However, it seems to me that this is not enough to gauge whether to go to slam or initiate Blackwood. Responder has never had an opportunity to clarify the strength of their hand, they've just been busy answering CAB and TAB questions. Responder could have 8 points or 17+ points -- an enormous difference.

So what am I missing here? How does opener assess the point strength of partner when partner has never had a chance to speak beyond answering asking bids? Do points not matter when you have the answers to the asking bids? Or is partner supposed to reject the asking bids entirely and jump to game with a weak hand?

Thanks.

[Gilithin]

I can't say I am an expert on old-style Precision but I think the idea is that after the TAB and AAB asks, you should have a reasonable idea of partner's basic strength and further CABs clarify as required. I think the issue you have come across is one of the reasons the Blue Team developed their Alpha-Beta asking system, so you might consider switching to Italian Asking Bids if you think you can handle them. In truth though, Asking Bids have somewhat gone out of fashion and most modern Precision variants are based on shape relays followed either by control-showing or RKCB. Ideally you would be able to try out each of these methods to find out which matches best to your way of thinking.

[LBengtsson]

enigmisto, on 2021-June-01, 23:04, said:

However, it seems to me that this is not enough to gauge whether to go to slam or initiate Blackwood. Responder has never had an opportunity to clarify the strength of their hand, they've just been busy answering CAB and TAB questions. Responder could have 8 points or 17+ points -- an enormous difference.

the asking bids should clarify what responder has: a minimum hand or much more. if I have 17+ points and opener bids only to game I bid on. there can be confusion when stiffs and voids are shown as reply to CABs except if you use relay to show these instead of aces/kings. the problem hands lie in the range of about c.11-14 where there is definite game and possible slam. however opener is almost always boss except if you have hand of strength like his. some judgement is needed I agree with that.

[PrecisionL]

TABs have gone out-of-favor by most strong club players. Try one of the these two approaches (there are more complicated possibilities):

(a) Acceptance of the transfer is a Beta Ask for A+K control total, A = 2, K=1. Responses: 0-1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Opener only uses this if he has no good suit of his own. 10+ controls required for slam if there is no void or singleton in the hand.

(b) Acceptance of the transfer is a QP ask where A=3, K=2, Q=1. Reponses by steps: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 etc. This gives a better indication of responder's strength. This can be followed up with an Ace ask. Sometimes you can figure out the exact honors.

[HardVector]

Consider updating your system a bit. A lot of the modern precision systems categorize responders action into 1d=0-7, 1h=8-11, higher bids=more and potentially slammish. This gives a 1c opener an idea of how hard to push the slam idea. If you have a minimum 1c opener and partner bids 1h (8-11), then you know that slam is unlikely unless they have the perfect hand. A place you can find this spelled out is in Meckwell precision.

[spotlight7]

HardVector, on 2021-June-03, 01:41, said:

Consider updating your system a bit. A lot of the modern precision systems categorize responders action into 1d=0-7, 1h=8-11, higher bids=more and potentially slammish. This gives a 1c opener an idea of how hard to push the slam idea. If you have a minimum 1c opener and partner bids 1h (8-11), then you know that slam is unlikely unless they have the perfect hand. A place you can find this spelled out is in Meckwell precision.

1C-1H 8-11 is used in Meckwell Lite. Meckwell
uses transfers such as 1C-1H shows spades.

[akwoo]

enigmisto, on 2021-June-01, 23:04, said:

I have been learning Precision from the book Precision 101, and have a question about gauging whether partnership has strength for slam.

Let's say opener opens with 1C (16+ HCP). Responder gives a positive transfer response of 2D (indicating 5+ Hearts and 8+ pts).

Opener has 3 Hearts, so happily accepts the transfer with 2H.

In Precision 101, accepting the transfer is a TAB (Trump asking bid), and responder then answers. Opener can continue with various Control-asking bids, and get a pretty good picture of the strength of their partner's trump suit and their controls.

However, it seems to me that this is not enough to gauge whether to go to slam or initiate Blackwood. Responder has never had an opportunity to clarify the strength of their hand, they've just been busy answering CAB and TAB questions. Responder could have 8 points or 17+ points -- an enormous difference.

So what am I missing here? How does opener assess the point strength of partner when partner has never had a chance to speak beyond answering asking bids? Do points not matter when you have the answers to the asking bids? Or is partner supposed to reject the asking bids entirely and jump to game with a weak hand?

Thanks.

Points don't usually matter much when you have the answers to the asking bids. It does sometimes happen that you need to know about a few queens, but that is unusual.

Let's say you hold Kxx KQx x AKQxxx, and the auction goes 1C-2D-2H-2N-3C-3H-3S-4D, and partner has shown 6 hearts to one top honor and 4 AK-points (which has to be 2 aces here). I think 6H looks pretty good...

[nullve]

spotlight7, on 2021-June-03, 14:26, said:

Meckwell uses transfers such as 1C-1H shows spades.

I believe they play

1♣-1♥ = 8+, 5+ S OR 11-13 BAL

[foobar]

enigmisto, on 2021-June-01, 23:04, said:

I have been learning Precision from the book Precision 101, and have a question about gauging whether partnership has strength for slam.

Let's say opener opens with 1C (16+ HCP). Responder gives a positive transfer response of 2D (indicating 5+ Hearts and 8+ pts).

Opener has 3 Hearts, so happily accepts the transfer with 2H.

In Precision 101, accepting the transfer is a TAB (Trump asking bid), and responder then answers. Opener can continue with various Control-asking bids, and get a pretty good picture of the strength of their partner's trump suit and their controls.

However, it seems to me that this is not enough to gauge whether to go to slam or initiate Blackwood. Responder has never had an opportunity to clarify the strength of their hand, they've just been busy answering CAB and TAB questions. Responder could have 8 points or 17+ points -- an enormous difference.

So what am I missing here? How does opener assess the point strength of partner when partner has never had a chance to speak beyond answering asking bids? Do points not matter when you have the answers to the asking bids? Or is partner supposed to reject the asking bids entirely and jump to game with a weak hand?

Thanks.

As others have noted, the methods described above are really dated, and the recommendation is to adopt something like Standard Modern Precision (https://bridgewithdan.com/books/).

[mycroft]

Which is great if you have someone else willing to learn it, because everybody else still only knows "old-fashioned". Same with me and my Precision Today system, or X over there with his Rigal precision, or...

akwoo has the answer. The idea behind the asking bid structure is that you should be able to "fill in the holes" in your hand by asking the right questions, and know if you have slam or not. If you don't have that kind of hand, go the natural route instead of the asking bid route. Those pairs where all positive auctions are asking bid auctions have trouble when what opener needs to know about is quacks to fill in suit for tricks; but that happens. The basic precision you're looking at can TAB and CAB or can do something that turns off asking bids and then agrees partner's suit (or has a way to agree partner's suit without triggering TAB).

When to know if your hand is the kind that needs TAB and CAB answers or when different information is required is one of the things that comes from experience. Note that, as always, "Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."