[gwnn]

I was just wondering... In first approximation BAM is equivalent to MP, only fewer tables. But is the first approximation logically sound? What are good tips for BAM? Anything else than the recent "Philosophy at Pairs" thread?

Any thoughts are most welcome! Thanks.

[barmar]

Yes, BAM is essentially like a two-table pair game. The only real difference is that you know something about the pair sitting in the opposite direction on the boards you play, because they're your teammates, and in that respect it's like a team game (e.g. if you know they're playing weak NT, it could affect how you defend a hand, but this is pretty deep).

Other than that, the strategy is similar to matchpoint. The difference is that since there's only one other table, there's no "field protection". In matchpoints, if there are two ways to play the hand, and it's a total guess which way to play it (e.g. a two-way finesse), you expect half the field to guess right (they'll get 75% on the board) and half to guess wrong (they'll get 25%), so guessing wrong only costs you a half a board. But in BAM, if you guess wrong and the other pair guesses right, you lose a full board. Statistically they're the same, since half the time the other pair will guess the same as you. But this tends to magnify differences in judgement -- if the other pair is usually right in these "guesses", you'll lose many of these boards, because you don't have the benefit of other poor guessers flattening out the results.

This is why BAM is considered one of the most difficult forms of the game. It's ruthless in the way it punishes minor mistakes.