[thepossum]

jillybean, on 2025-April-23, 05:55, said:

keep your fingers crossed that partner has read the same book

We can always hope lol

TBH if a convention requires anything more than an easily digestible page I prefer not to play it. And if it needs lessons rather than an easily digestible page the same goes

[P_Marlowe]

mike777, on 2025-April-22, 13:17, said:

Recommended basic beginning points in teaching Lebensohl to a couple of club players who have no idea how it works or what it is?

Looking for first lessons stuff in how to handle weak two openings by opponents and how to handle interference when we open a strong NT.

Thank you in advance.

I think starting with Lebensohl after a w2 opening by the opponents is useful, and you can basically extend this to wjs seq.
I find the Lebensohl seq. after NT interference less common, and it gets more complicate, due to the fact that you usually
have schemas, that also incooperate Stayman (with / without) stopper.

The seq., when oppoents bid a WJS in hearts / spades come up.
And yes 2NT over there WJS is usually called Good-Bad, it is still a Lebensohl method.

[Douglas43]

Bridgebum has two separate articles by Marc Smith. Here's a link to the 1NT article: Lebensohl Bridge Convention After 1NT - Bidding and Responses and the other one Lebensohl Bridge Convention Over Weak Two Bids - Bidding

[akwoo]

thepossum, on 2025-April-26, 05:06, said:

We can always hope lol

TBH if a convention requires anything more than an easily digestible page I prefer not to play it. And if it needs lessons rather than an easily digestible page the same goes

If someone is trying to win or at least do well, then they have to recognize that, in a non-beginner field, Lebensohl is worth somewhere between 0.5% and 1% by itself, and that's a pretty big gain for a single convention. Someone who won't play Lebensohl or any other similarly complicated conventions of somewhere around the same value is starting something like 3-4% behind people who are playing those conventions, and that's a fairly sizable difference considering the difference between first and last is usually only a little more than 20%.

It's perfectly reasonable to have priorities in life other than doing well at bridge, but if doing well is important to you, then you need Lebensohl or something like it.

[P_Marlowe]

thepossum, on 2025-April-26, 05:06, said:

We can always hope lol

TBH if a convention requires anything more than an easily digestible page I prefer not to play it. And if it needs lessons rather than an easily digestible page the same goes

The truth is, Lebensohl is simple and can be explained in less than 5 sentences, ..., if you dont include the situation after we opened 1NT and they got in.

[thepossum]

P_Marlowe, on 2025-April-27, 23:58, said:

The truth is, Lebensohl is simple and can be explained in less than 5 sentences, ..., if you dont include the situation after we opened 1NT and they got in.

Larry Cohen made it appear simple
I am trying to write up his page from memory

And if anyone asks hopefully I am playing something like that page

[mike777]

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink”

[mw64ahw]

mike777, on 2025-April-29, 21:24, said:

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink"

So not a success then?

[thepossum]

akwoo, on 2025-April-27, 14:59, said:

If someone is trying to win or at least do well, then they have to recognize that, in a non-beginner field, Lebensohl is worth somewhere between 0.5% and 1% by itself, and that's a pretty big gain for a single convention. Someone who won't play Lebensohl or any other similarly complicated conventions of somewhere around the same value is starting something like 3-4% behind people who are playing those conventions, and that's a fairly sizable difference considering the difference between first and last is usually only a little more than 20%.

It's perfectly reasonable to have priorities in life other than doing well at bridge, but if doing well is important to you, then you need Lebensohl or something like it.

I did say I am playing it - trying to

But far too many people in this world at all levels mistake complexity with skill

Different mindsets perhaps. Any chance of a decent game of Bridge has gone in most contexts

But seriously most benefits come from the basics. Not much point adding a few percent to nothing

But after playing for more than 40 years the thought that anyone would put me in a class for anything lol

I would hope to summarise my whole bidding system on less than a page

And rather than everyone jumping on me unnecessarily I am trying to make the point if you know what you are doing you don't need a book or a lesson to learn something. And it seems for some reason some people like chasing targets round forums just to be rude. But they never insult you directly. Just in passing so only the target notices. These days I am confdent to assume such insults are directed at others