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ArcLight, on Jan 28 2008, 05:27 AM, said:
Cascade, on Jan 27 2008, 07:38 AM, said:
jdonn, on Jan 27 2008, 01:01 PM, said:
Yeah I know you would lose big on some single suited hands in minor.
Sure but big single suited minor hands already have three options:
1. Jump to 5 minor
2. Bid 3NT
3. Make a takeout double
Years ago I did a simulation that involved a hand that might be suitable for a 4minor overcall. The results of the simulation suggested that 4minor was the worst option - bashing 3NT without a full stopper; making an offshape takeout double; and overcalling a 4-card major all worked better than bidding 4minor - there is just no upside.
We I learnt about non-leaping Michaels it was the perfect convention to fill the void created by not overcalling on "tradional" 4minor hands.
Wayne,
What software did you use for the simulation?
That particular simulation I did with some of my own code probably in C or C++ or some version of Pascal.
I generated 100s of hands with something close to a diamond pre-empt and a particular problem hand that a friend had given me and then by eye looked through what likely 'ball-park' outcomes would be from various actions. I then IMPed all of the results to get a winner and overcalling 4♣ was a big loser. Basically when it was right it was harder to gain a decent score since 5♣ is further away than 3NT or 4Major and 4♣ doesn't score very much.
Now when I do simulations I usually use Hans van Staveren's dealer. I have a compiled version called mdealer.exe. It links with the GIB double dummy engine so you can get double dummy results.
When I do single dummy simulations I use GIB running from batch files which I generate with some Delphi code that I have written but it is probably not much use to anyone else.
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