Help
pescetom, on 2018-November-28, 09:55, said:
We saw that game tries were not coming up much after switching to opening 1NT and figured that they would never be useful with 12-14 and only rarely necessary with 18-19, so we looked for an alternative more specific to finding games and slams short on points but with favourable distribution - we found a convention that pinpoints opener's shortages and gets responder to reevaluate his useful top honours and advise about 4-cards in the other major, responding with relays below 4M, and decided to experiment that. But it wasn't a scientific or definitive choice and we're quite willing to return to help suit game tries if it looks wise, that's why I ask.
In this partnership a 1M opening is 11+ and a single raise less than invitational.
In this partnership a 1M opening is 11+ and a single raise less than invitational.
I agree that with 18-19, one tries for game by bidding it. Indeed, my view is that many shapely hands with fewer values should also simply blast. There is a real benefit from not telling the opps how to defend and, especially, how to choose an opening lead.
That said, there are still going to be hands on which one ought to seek some additional information to decide on game or partscore. Many of these will possess around 15-16 hcp, and some will possess as few as 14 or so. These will be hands on which opener has shape and the key will be the combined playability of the side suit(s). Blasting is simply rolling the dice, since on these hands the opening lead usually is irrelevant. Is our AJxx suit facing xxx? Not good. Is it facing Qx? Good, and so on.
Imo, the need to find a side 4 card major isn't that critical, and indeed help suit tries can help there anyway
1S 2S 3H 4H...bingo, admittedly not when responder has xxxx in hearts, but he won't accept the try with that.
Similarly in spades: 1H 2H 2S 3S
Finding the side 4-4 fit is more important, in any event, in slam bidding, but I'd happily trade you every slam you successfully reach, and I don't, after 1M 2M for a used bus token (as I think Kaplan once said in analogous circumstances). It's not as if using hsgt's eliminates trying for slam on the rare hand where that makes sense, even if your gadget offers more precision. You may have a marginal gain on very low frequency occurrences, but the cost is that you are either overbidding, by blasting, to bad games or missing good games because you don't want to risk getting too high, and have no try available.
These are, of course, merely opinions, and maybe you find that the frequencies are other than I see them as being, or maybe your judgment on blasting or not is so good that you don't really need gametries. However, I did find it odd that you appear to think that tries only arise when opener is 5332. If that is indeed your experience, then I agree you appear to have no need for them.
My own view is that tries are especially useful when opener is 5-4, and indeed 5431 is probably the most important shape, since values opposite the stiff are usually wasted. It is, of course, possible to play two-way tries.
1S 2S 2N asks responder to bid the cheapest suit in which he would NOT accept a short suit try. This method is very powerful because on occasion the partnership reaches game without opener having identified his shortness.
One can either use 1H 2H 2N the same way, or (and this is better imo) use 1H 2H 2N as showing a hsgt in spades, and use 2S to ask about the short suit issue.