The term “Classic Custom Deal Menu” refers to this page from the original version of my bridge deal generator:
My deal generator no longer has a page showing specific deal configurations. It was handy at one time, but it has severe problems.
One problem is that it has a woefully small number of scenarios, in spite of its grand, sprawling appearance. Take the number of deal types shown above, times the number of valid partner point ranges, LHO point ranges, and RHO point ranges (taking care to exclude those that would be invalid in combination with each other—good luck), and you would get some number in the thousands. But the actual number of meaningful deal types and point combinations is likely in the squintillions. I once imagined coming up with the actual number but then reality set in.
So that page only looks full-featured. It is not.
Another problem is that each deal type had to be implemented in program code in my generator. That works for a few dozen deal types. It does not work for squintillions. Ain’t nobody—as they say—got time for that.
Another problem is that the deal types are based on my interpretation of exactly one system—one expressed in a book for beginners. They are useless for someone using a different system.
A problem related to the “my system” problem is the very description of each deal type as this or that type of opening hand. If it’s not an opener for your system, then the description is not only wrong, it might be deeply offensive to your sense of right and wrong in the (bridge) world as you know it. I know you’re not that sensitive, but the actual point here is that I implemented everything in terms of “an opening hand” and, in the old program, the dealer was almost always the opening bidder. Not realistic! Not good!
I have asserted in other guides and blog posts that when I got rid of that custom deal menu, but added the shaper panel and the recipe maker panel, I took away a few thousand misbegotten deals, but in return I gave you the entire world of possible deal recipes. And by “world” I do mean the aforementioned squintillions. I challenge you to imagine a deal you cannot approximate with my generator. In fact, I triple-dog-dare you.
I have demonstrated the use of the shaper and recipe maker panels elsewhere.
Now I have begun creating and making available sets of shapers, recipes, and deals organized into what I call “cookbooks” (yes, how creative). You can see links to my planned cookbooks on my main page. Today (9 March, 2024), most of those cookbooks are empty.
I have, however, built out the 1-Level Major Openers of my Classic Custom Deal Menu cookbook, and I’m sharing it with you now to illustrate the way I intend the shaper and recipe panels to be used.
You may wonder why I would bother duplicating the deal types from a custom deal menu that I have described as problematic. I’m doing that as a proof of concept, to show you that, for good or ill, you can now quickly and easily create deals that conform to any system. And you can classify those deals any way you like—my generator will not assign a meaning to them. The meaning and interpretation of your deals are up to you. You express the meaning in the file names you choose, and in the way you describe your deals in documents that include links to them. Just put your shaper, recipe, and deal links into your own documents or web pages, or save them as files and put them into your own organized file system on your computer.
Building just that first section of one cookbook unearthed a bug in my generator, which I fixed post-haste. I imagine that building out all of my planned cookbooks will expose other flaws or will result in other features. I will announce new features if they come up, but as for cookbooks, I will just keep building them and will only announce each one when it is complete, or upon completion of a significant section of the whole, or if I encounter a deal-building situation I think you should know about.
Meanwhile, you should get busy making your own cookbooks.
And with that I wish you happy dealing and bon appétit!