Hi, bridge pals.
I have new bridge deal recipes to share with you.
As always, you can skip the explainer and get right to the recipes in the updated cookbook, here. You can also download all recipes in a folder instead of looking at them via web links, here.
Of course, if you don’t read the rest of this post, you will not qualify for the door prize.
My wishy-washy subtitle was prompted by the fact that, while I offer recipes that at least suggest a particular type of bid, I am keenly aware that opinions may differ on how to bid a particular hand. So, I try to avoid making bold assertions. That’s why I group recipes according to a particular scenario (e.g. preemptive opening bid) but each individual recipe is named based on its characteristics (e.g. 6-card suit, 5-10 HCP).
I’m also keenly aware that you can’t italicize Substack blog post subtitles, so I resort to surrounding words that I would italicize with *asterisks*.
Where, as I often ask, was I?
Oh yes: preempts!
Today I’m serving up eighty-four (84) recipes that may or may not suggest a 2-, 3-, or 4-level opening bid.
We’re still in the early going on bridge deal cookbook development, so each time I set out to make new recipes, I find that I need more *ingredients*. For newbies, ingredients are partial recipes—fragments from which we may construct full-on, respectable recipes. Ingredients get their own folder and sub-folders by seat, and may be combined with other ingredients to create more complete scenarios.
So, for ingredients for preempts, we must first think about HCP ranges. If you play SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card), then the weak 2-bids are done with 5-10 HCP. You may use a similar HCP range for 3- and 4-level opening bids. But not everyone plays SAYC, and I find that when I sit down with a new partner, they often suggest a different HCP range for preempts.
Also, there are sub-ranges within the overall HCP range, typically varying based on vulnerability. So, if you use a range of 5-10 HCP, you may use 5-10 when not vulnerable, but you may prefer 8-10 HCP when vulnerable.
Also, as teachers or students of the game, you may also want to create instructional deals with too few points, which implies a whole other set of point ranges (e.g. 0 to 5 HCP for really doubtful openers).
And so, I have added a great many HCP ranges to my North Ingredients folder, trying to supply both the overall ranges and the sub-ranges that you might need. Of course, if I didn’t include your favorite HCP range, you can add it yourself (and let me know—I’ll add it to the 100% certified official cookbook).
Here’s what I added to the North ingredients today:
And also:
So, altogether I added 14 point ranges to my North ingredients.
After making the HCP range ingredients, you then need to think about suit length. Preempts typically require a “good” suit of some specific length—usually 6, 7, or 8 cards. But you may also want to make deals that don’t feature a good suit—either to study the difference between those and the ones with a good suit, or else because you might use a system that requires only a long suit of any kind, good or not good.
So, I also added ingredients for 6-card, 7-card, and 8-card “good” suits:
And ingredients for 6-card, 7-card, and 8-card suits of any kind, for those who want to create hands that may or may not (depending on your system or card sense) be suitable for a preemptive opening:
Remember when I wrote that I added 84 potential preempt opener recipes? Now you see why: 3 types of good long suits times 14 HCP ranges, plus 3 types of any long suit times 14 HCP ranges, yields 84 recipes.
To create each individual recipe, I would start by loading a recipe with a particular number of cards (e.g. a 6-card suit), then I would merge in a recipe with an HCP range (e.g. 0-5 HCP). Then I would test the resulting combined recipe, then save it to a file with a unique name. Then on to merging in the next point range (e.g. 0-6 HCP). Lather, rinse, repeat until I had recipes for all suit lengths and all HCP range combinations.
Here’s the recipes for 6-card suits for all HCP ranges:
When making a set of deals for yourself or for students, just select the recipes that suit your needs, and generate deals from them. If I haven’t covered your specific needs, make your own recipes—but also let me know so I can add your scenarios to the shared cookbook.
Happy dealing!