Why, and what can be done, are related questions. I am not sure I know the answer.
Possibly I had some role in encouraging Joe, (yleexotee) to write up his sheet of suggested defaults for play. I am sure it took time, i don't see that it is much used. Perhaps Oliver's creation of this Forum was partly motivated by a suggestion I made. Oliver described it as easy enough to do, but still it took some time. We can see how little it is being used. So what's up?
I play bridge because I find it interesting. This interest spills over into enjoying discussion of hands. Not everyone does. When I first started playing duplicate I took a series of lessons on conventions, lebensohl and such. There would be a lecture and then supervised play. There was this one woman who, when we first started and also as the several weeks of lessons came to an end, would begin the supervised play by asking "Partner, do you ay the short club?". That was it. Leb? Not a chance. Why she took lessons escaped me.
So I had in mind some discussion. Not happening.
Here is the first board from the Sunday tourney:
http://tinyurl.com/k9z8gssWe agreed to use Joe's notes (with exceptions) so 3D was understood as Bergen despite the double. Myself, I would have bid a direct 3H (and I would do the same if we were not playing Bergen since after the X it is weak). But whichever ne chooses, we have a ten card fit and it is hard to imagine us not going to 3H one way or another.
Is this a good contract? That's where it gets interesting. I have five obvious tricks to lose. The opening lead was the spade T, I took my Ace. Surely I shouold have played the diamond J at T2. Maybe lho will duck, maybe he won't, but he might. Instead i led a heart after which they took their clubs. later their diamond and a spade. I long ago accepted that I make mistakes, and I actually take satisfaction in spotting them afterward. This was an error. It might not have made a difference, but it was still ab error.
There are other interesting points. This was mps and optimal spot for NS is 4D (or 4C for that matter). They can take five clubs, four diamonds and one heart, and there is nothing we ca do about it, at least I do not see any defense. And +130 outscore +50, and outscores +100 in 3HX. Now 4m, when it is right, is usually tough to get to and nobody did. Some were in 5C off 1.
How about LOTT? We have ten hearts, they have none diamonds, LOTT says there are 19 total tricks We can take 8 tricks in hearts, they can take ten tricks in diamonds, LOTT is off by 1. LOTT often is a bit off, and anyway they don't know we have ten hearts, we don't know they have nine diamonds. I regard the L part of LOTT (Law) as being a serious overstatement.
It score badly. Which is very different from saying one of us should have done something different. Except I should have led the diamond at T2.
I find such things interesting. Clearly, many others don't find this interesting. If people are not interested, they are not interested. My wife has a friend who loves watching golf on television. I pass.
I don't like speedballs at all. Bridge is based on thought. It's not chess or go, but still some modest amount of time for thought is expected. By me.
Also I was hoping Joe's notes would reduce the frequency of misunderstandings.
An auction:
1H-(2C)-2S-(P)
P-(P).
I was the spade bidder, with a 15 count and five spades. I am aware of the Negative Free Bid convention, but it is a convention. An alertable convention, at least in acbl land. Apparently more common in Europe, see
http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/negative-freebids/As it happened, the result was not all that bad, although both 3NT and 4H can be made. Good karma, I guess. Whatever one thinks of the merits of Negative Free Bids, clearly it is not good when one partner is playing them and the other isn't. The link above has other links, and discusses variations. It also mentions that NFBs work best within a big club system where the opening bid. not 1C, is limited to 15 highs.
So discussion is good. Or at least I like it. I think I will put up a few more hands from time to time, maybe it will catch on. Or not. We will see.