[99_lvl]

Hi:) What are the most popular and, so to speak, "understandable" for novice bidding systems? Thanks in advance;)

[gszes]

stayman, jacoby and texas transfers, key card blackwood. While learning transfers you might as well learn smolen (3 level only).

[P_Marlowe]

where do you live / where do you plan to play most of the time?

Do you have a partner, a mentor?

Trying to learn the game via Forum questions, is not a good way, the
forum can supplement, but never fully compensate a reasonable teacher.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[diana_eva]

 gszes, on 2015-May-04, 05:44, said:

stayman, jacoby and texas transfers, key card blackwood. While learning transfers you might as well learn smolen (3 level only).

George, she asks about system not conventions.

[helene_t]

We have had this discussion a number of times before, for example:

http://www.bridgebas...e-should-learn/

[mikeh]

 99_lvl, on 2015-May-04, 04:09, said:

Hi:) What are the most popular and, so to speak, "understandable" for novice bidding systems? Thanks in advance;)

welcome to the forums.

Where you live is very important, if playing face to face bridge is important to you, because there are tremendous regional variations.

In NA, the 'basic' approach would be what is known as Standard American, also known as 'standard'. Don't be confused by players who profess to play something known as SAYC, which is an acronym for Standard American Yellow Card, which was an ill-fated attempt by the ACBL to offer a simplified, standardized bidding method for use by relatively inexperienced players. I gather that it has seen a bit of a revival online, but I also gather that in reality few of those players who claim to use SAYC actually know what it is. In any event, what it is, is bad bridge, so don't try to learn it.

In the UK, I gather the norm is Acol, which has fundamentally different underlying ideas than does Standard American. Poland would see you learning Polish Club methods, etc.

If you are planning to play mostly online, then the odds are that learning some form of 2/1 would be useful, tho it might be easier to learn Standard American first, and then move to 2/1 once you have a farily good grasp of standard methods. That would reflect the way 2/1 was developed....2/1 is an outgrowth of standard American, not an entirely new system.

Once you have decided what basic approach you want, find (at least) one book on the method, and study the book. If you can find local lessons, aimed at your level, sign up for them (and see what books or other resources they follow/use).

As for the forums, my suggestion is that you feel free to post as much as you want, in this part of the forum, and learn to recognize those posters who know what they are talking about. However, it can be very difficult to provide a full explanation in answer to a specific post. Some topics simply require more space, and more interaction, than can be accomplished in a forum like this, so having a live human with whom you can discuss things is very important.

As for choosing a teacher, make sure that you know whether the teacher is following a plan based on well-regarded materials. In NA, there is a series of books put out by Audrey Grant, who is a wonderful writer of books aimed at the novice and advancing player (disclaimer....I know Audrey and am a big fan of her as a person). I don't know about other areas of the world. This is important because some who teach are not very strong players themselves, and so you want the comfort of knowing that what is being taught is in fact a consensus method rather than the perhaps idiosyncratic personal preferences of the teacher. I am not knocking the teachers....one doesn't need to be an expert in order to be an excellent teacher of novices and intermediates. Indeed, some of the best players I know would, imo, likely be terrible teachers, because they have forgotten what it was like to not be expert.

[PhilG007]

 99_lvl, on 2015-May-04, 04:09, said:

Hi:) What are the most popular and, so to speak, "understandable" for novice bidding systems? Thanks in advance;)

From my experince the best bidding systems are Standard Amerciam Acol and Benjamised Acol

[dae]

The ACBL.org website has good LEARN TO PLAY BRIDGE -- free lessons. Also , a good site to refer to for novice/ beginners is Karen's bridge library, and www.bridgeguys.com if you need to look up these topics, or learn how to bid them. Also, lessons are generally good if you belong (or join)BIL- which means Beginners/Intermediate Lounge.They have free lessons at various times, as do IAC club, which stands for Intermediate/ advanced club . These are both Private clubs, where you can play with your own level, not any experts.... IAC does not charge to belong. They will teach you the most used bidding methods.

[dae]

Another good site to look at daily is www.bridgeclues.com It has an opening page with discussion, and then under BIDDING and PLAY, there are two lessons under each level- Novices/beginners, Level l, which is standard bidding, and level 2 which is 2/1 bidding.... New lessons each day. Good to make a shortcut on your desktop .

[SelfGovern]

Lots of good info above. If you're in North America, I agree on Standard American or 2/1. Although more complicated to learn in the beginning, I lean toward recommending 2/1 as your starting place, because its bids are more well-defined than "standard American", and therefore you'll learn the benefit of a well thought-out system, without some of the ambiguity of SA. Be advised that "SA" is a *very* loose definition of a system, and there are a gazillion different treatments within it (so you and your partner could both be playing Standard American, but have very different interpretations of SA, and interpret an auction very differently, and both be right!). (That is not to minimize that 2/1 doesn't also have differences, but they tend to be in more complex auctions, so less of a worry for a newer player)

Second, when you need to figure out who is giving better advice than another, look for the one who talks of probabilities. On a given hand, you may be right to get to 6!S and yet go down; on another hand, you may make 6!S but should have bid no more than 4!S or 5!S. WHat determines what is right? Not what worked on this hand, but what will work more often (simplification there; there are actually different odds depending on the form of scoring, but you still need to stick with percentages, not just "we went down, so we shouldn't have been there")

Third, Do yourself and your partners a favor and learn to understand the ACBL convention card (or the variant for your country/region). Fill one out according to your favorite system, and post it when you play on BBO, and let your partner know that you're using it. If your partner says "huh?" or lists himself as "advanced" or better but doesn't know what a convention card is (or says, "see my profile"), then move on when you can without being rude. A convention card is an expression of your philosophy of bidding, or is like a dictionary. Without one, when you say "bonnet", you mean hat, and when your partner says it, he means "the thing you lift up to see the car's engine". You'll have much more fun if you both agree -- and far fewer disasters. Note: It may seem daunting at first, just work through as much as you can, and talk with your partner about the stuff you don't know.

Fourth, find a regular partner that you can grow with. This will often be someone about your skill level. It will be someone who doesn't criticize you. It will be someone who doesn't only look at your results to see if you made a mistake. It will be someone who will share an interest with you in discussing results *after* your session is over (discussing hands during a session only distracts you from the next board, and never helps you get a better score on the last board!). It is also extremely helpful if your partner agrees to read the same 2/1 book as you, and agrees to use what it says as your agreements, until you get comfortable with that, and good enough to know when changing an established system makes sense.

BTW: An early post in this discussion is right; there are only a few essential conventions (assuming you don't play a system like 2/1. Work on developing hand evaluation skills before you add a lot of gadgets to your bidding. But a "system" (as I suspect you know) is not a list of conventions, it's a bidding philosophy. "System" is to "convention" as "automobile" is to "spark plug"

[99_lvl]

Thank you all very much! Actually, I'm from Belarus) I suppose, it wil be quite hard for you to recommend me some top bidding systems for my country, that's why I asked in general)) But nevertheless everything aforesaid was really helpful!Thanks once again

[99_lvl]

 gszes, on 2015-May-04, 05:44, said:

stayman, jacoby and texas transfers, key card blackwood. While learning transfers you might as well learn smolen (3 level only).

Thanks) What smolen is?

[99_lvl]

 dae, on 2015-May-05, 12:01, said:

Another good site to look at daily is www.bridgeclues.com It has an opening page with discussion, and then under BIDDING and PLAY, there are two lessons under each level- Novices/beginners, Level l, which is standard bidding, and level 2 which is 2/1 bidding.... New lessons each day. Good to make a shortcut on your desktop .

Thank you! Very useful!

[99_lvl]

 SelfGovern, on 2015-May-05, 13:25, said:

Lots of good info above. If you're in North America, I agree on Standard American or 2/1. Although more complicated to learn in the beginning, I lean toward recommending 2/1 as your starting place, because its bids are more well-defined than "standard American", and therefore you'll learn the benefit of a well thought-out system, without some of the ambiguity of SA. Be advised that "SA" is a *very* loose definition of a system, and there are a gazillion different treatments within it (so you and your partner could both be playing Standard American, but have very different interpretations of SA, and interpret an auction very differently, and both be right!). (That is not to minimize that 2/1 doesn't also have differences, but they tend to be in more complex auctions, so less of a worry for a newer player)

Second, when you need to figure out who is giving better advice than another, look for the one who talks of probabilities. On a given hand, you may be right to get to 6!S and yet go down; on another hand, you may make 6!S but should have bid no more than 4!S or 5!S. WHat determines what is right? Not what worked on this hand, but what will work more often (simplification there; there are actually different odds depending on the form of scoring, but you still need to stick with percentages, not just "we went down, so we shouldn't have been there")

Third, Do yourself and your partners a favor and learn to understand the ACBL convention card (or the variant for your country/region). Fill one out according to your favorite system, and post it when you play on BBO, and let your partner know that you're using it. If your partner says "huh?" or lists himself as "advanced" or better but doesn't know what a convention card is (or says, "see my profile"), then move on when you can without being rude. A convention card is an expression of your philosophy of bidding, or is like a dictionary. Without one, when you say "bonnet", you mean hat, and when your partner says it, he means "the thing you lift up to see the car's engine". You'll have much more fun if you both agree -- and far fewer disasters. Note: It may seem daunting at first, just work through as much as you can, and talk with your partner about the stuff you don't know.

Fourth, find a regular partner that you can grow with. This will often be someone about your skill level. It will be someone who doesn't criticize you. It will be someone who doesn't only look at your results to see if you made a mistake. It will be someone who will share an interest with you in discussing results *after* your session is over (discussing hands during a session only distracts you from the next board, and never helps you get a better score on the last board!). It is also extremely helpful if your partner agrees to read the same 2/1 book as you, and agrees to use what it says as your agreements, until you get comfortable with that, and good enough to know when changing an established system makes sense.

BTW: An early post in this discussion is right; there are only a few essential conventions (assuming you don't play a system like 2/1. Work on developing hand evaluation skills before you add a lot of gadgets to your bidding. But a "system" (as I suspect you know) is not a list of conventions, it's a bidding philosophy. "System" is to "convention" as "automobile" is to "spark plug"

A very good piece of advice! Helped a lot!!

[99_lvl]

 helene_t, on 2015-May-04, 06:37, said:

We have had this discussion a number of times before, for example:

http://www.bridgebas...e-should-learn/

[Vampyr]

 99_lvl, on 2015-May-14, 13:29, said:

Thanks) What smolen is?

Nothing you want to worry about.

[99_lvl]

 Vampyr, on 2015-May-14, 16:37, said:

Nothing you want to worry about.

Very nice reply;))

[helene_t]

In Belarus I believe Polish Club is popular about better players but you will see what people play at your local club. Unless it is something completely crazy it is probably a good idea to play the same, although you should probably avoid non-essential conventions at least in the beginning.