mycroft, on 2011-August-26, 10:23, said:
Well, if I'm playing with my old buddies from Waterloo in Calgary, there are calls that we will have no agreement (we can remember) on, but I can still say "well, everybody out there plays it as XXX" even if everybody here plays it as YYY. Toronto-style 2/1 is subtly, but significantly, different from Calgary 2/1, and it does come up.
Also, things like "everybody at our club" or the like. At Our Club, that's GBK (to regulars); at the tournament, not so much.
barmar, on 2011-August-26, 10:48, said:
Are there really clubs that are so in-bred that you can make generalizations like that? Don't people come to clubs with all sorts of different history and experience?
Of course partnerships play different things; but if I sit down with one of the C players in Calgary, I can ask 3 questions - "what's your preempt style?" "what do we play over their NT?" and "blackwood style?" and be on the same track with them 95+% of the time. If I sit down opposite a random Calgary A-player that I have no experience, I can ask the same three questions (oh, and "carding?") and be about 92% - even though many of those "agreed standards" are different between the two! If we had 15 minutes to discuss things, then sure, we'd have more deviances; but "everybody" knows "Calgary standard" (for their group), and effectively the way I distinguish my (standard or 2/1-based) partnerships in my head is "Calgary standard, plus... (or minus ...)"
In Waterloo, I could do the same thing, but I would know that 1H-2C; 2S meant something totally different than it does here, and that I could count on 2NT-3S, or that he didn't have to fake a heart bid after 1D with a 2335 11-count because 2C isn't game forcing, or...
[Edit: swapped out an example for a much more specific one]
When I go to sea, don't fear for me, Fear For The Storm -- Birdie and the Swansong (tSCoSI)