Ace Again - with Acol

I made it to the Ace level again on IntoBridge. This time, I went the whole way with Acol. Does it matter? I am not sure. I arrived there faster than last times, but maybe I learned a few new tricks. The results With Acol are often different different, but not necessarily consistently better or worse. The difference are either directly because of a different bidding system, or because of a different play by Lia caused by a slightly different bidding sequence. They go in either direction.

At times, the bad implementation caused a disaster. One time, Lia interpreted my bid as 43+ points, jumping to a small slam (but strangely not to 7NT). Acol definitely needs some attention by the programmers. As often, the bug reporting did not work, so I reported on their WhatsApp group.

But all in all, playing a more natural system like Acol is a relief. You simply start to ignore all the fine points of expert bidding. They are more rare than you think, and matter less than good judgement and play. Of course, this verdict applies to relaxed play only. Masters cannot be satisfied with the system as implemented to date. 

Most players will select the system on the base of available partners anyway. I currently have only one partner who plays 2/1. All others use Forum D, a system similar to Standard. 

The hand above is a typical example of Acol at work. When I open 1NT and it gets passed around, I know that I am on the edge of a knife. In this example, I went down for -100. On the other tables, the result was -120 for 2♠ made. So, it went well for me this time. Often, the story is different.