A very tight slam to say the least, although there does seem to be a trend this way. Terence Reese many years ago argued the opposite “You can’t bid them all, so let some go”. TBF modern gadgets can help but wasn’t Barry Crane’s Law “Don’t bid Grand Slams even if they make”, largely because of the risk that a small slam was a good result.
Any thoughts here? Also, was this part of a huge comeback which overcame the deficit?
Regards,
Iain
bobbywolffJuly 18th, 2023 at 4:27 pm
Hi Iain,
A philosophical comment “All generalizations are false, including this one” can be taken at face value and no I am almost positive that the team which led by 46 going in, was, not surprisingly, the easy victor.
And Barry Crane’s Law (at least IMO) makes some sense, but especially at matchpoints, not necessarily at IMPs or rubber bridge since even an underbid or only a small slam still, in percentage (with everything equal, which BTW almost never occurs) and because of other possibilities exist more often in matchpoints, making settling for the small slam having more ways to be less dangerous than the same action in both rubber and IMP bridge, where adverse big swings point wise are much more disastrous.
Curiously, Barry used to play much more often in matchpoints than general team bridge, making his comment consistent to his favorite habit.
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Hi Bobby,
A very tight slam to say the least, although there does seem to be a trend this way. Terence Reese many years ago argued the opposite “You can’t bid them all, so let some go”. TBF modern gadgets can help but wasn’t Barry Crane’s Law “Don’t bid Grand Slams even if they make”, largely because of the risk that a small slam was a good result.
Any thoughts here? Also, was this part of a huge comeback which overcame the deficit?
Regards,
Iain
Hi Iain,
A philosophical comment “All generalizations are false, including this one” can be taken at face value and no I am almost positive that the team which led by 46 going in, was, not surprisingly, the easy victor.
And Barry Crane’s Law (at least IMO) makes some sense, but especially at matchpoints, not necessarily at IMPs or rubber bridge since even an underbid or only a small slam still, in percentage (with everything equal, which BTW almost never occurs) and because of other possibilities exist more often in matchpoints, making settling for the small slam having more ways to be less dangerous than the same action in both rubber and IMP bridge, where adverse big swings point wise are much more disastrous.
Curiously, Barry used to play much more often in matchpoints than general team bridge, making his comment consistent to his favorite habit.