[jdeegan]

daveharty, on 2012-March-31, 18:01, said:

Or are North Americans just crazier?

Depends on the North American.
You can view the weak two bid as constructive (ie. you definitely want to win when it is your hand) or obstructive (ie. your main objective is to disrupt the opponents auction). Normally, when playing money bridge or even IMPs (unless behind, late) against good opposition you want to be constructive. Playing MP's or even IMPs against the usual tournament field there is imo a very good case for being obstructive.

[aguahombre]

Without data to support this, I believe U.S. top players in general are less disciplined in their opening preempts that the rest of the World, thus cosidering the tactical advantage of first strike to be more impotant than better informing partner about what is going on.

I don't think that translates to "crazier", nor does it seem to apply to all North America. Sammy is no longer active.

[phil_20686]

aguahombre, on 2012-April-01, 09:49, said:

Without data to support this, I believe U.S. top players in general are less disciplined in their opening preempts that the rest of the World, thus cosidering the tactical advantage of first strike to be more impotant than better informing partner about what is going on.

Watching vugraph has given me the impression that the US and Italians tend to pre-empt much heavier than a typical European in general. For example, there is a sizeable fraction of top UK players who will commonly preempt at the 3 level on a six card suit.

For a long time it was my style to be disciplined/constructive at the two level but very undisciplined at the three and four level. I have largely given this up, I found that there was a common class of hands where we lost imps just by having done the wrong thing in a part score battle, and a second common class where partner was unable to do the right thing at the 5 level because of the knock on effects on four level preempts.

Of course, you can be heavier and still more undisciplined, or maybe it makes sense to be heavier in terms of defence if you are more undisciplined, as its harder for partner to try to save.

[Vampyr]

nigel_k, on 2012-March-30, 16:37, said:

Sometimes you have a hand where you dial it back because you have really bad trumps, but the hand improves a lot when partner raises. If you open 2♥ with x AQJxxx x Jxxxx and partner raises, then the problem occurs because you should have opened 3♥ in the first place. But if the hand is x Jxxxxx x AQJxx then I think opening 2♥ and continuing to 4♥ if partner raises is ok.

It seems to me that if this is a weak 2, you will have more serious problems than whether to reraise to game.

[nigel_k]

Vampyr, on 2012-April-01, 16:50, said:

It seems to me that if this is a weak 2, you will have more serious problems than whether to reraise to game.

Quite possibly. But opponents will often have problems too, and I won't necessarily be any better off if I pass to start with.

Regardless of what you preempt with, there will be some variation in how good your suit is. And when your suit is barely adequate (however you define that) but you have compensation shape and stuff elsewhere, it can easily be right to bid one more if partner raises because it improves your hand so much.