[Vampyr]

akwoo, on 2020-March-02, 19:55, said:

The vast majority of beginners do not signal at all, and frankly they usually have enough trouble keeping track of the highest remaining card in each suit to worry about signaling or paying attention to partner's signals.

Let's say your partner signals correctly roughly half the time (with whatever system you've agreed) and the other half of the time automatically plays their lowest card in the suit when not playing an honor. I'm pretty sure you'd strongly prefer standard carding in this situation, and it's why standard carding is standard.

I don’t understand what you are trying to say.

[KingCovert]

Vampyr, on 2020-March-04, 10:03, said:

I don’t understand what you are trying to say.

I think he's pretty clear. Beginners tend to simply play their smallest card when following suit, and pay little attention to their signals. You won't be able to differentiate when they're actually signalling and when they're being lazy or inattentive if you play upside down carding with them. However, if a beginner plays a surprisingly high card, either it's a standard signal, or a signal of a rather surprising break in the suit. You can infer information.

I'm not saying that I believe that this is enough reason to teach beginners standard carding, or to suppose that it is better, I prefer upside down carding, and I think that it's just simply better some small percentage of the time, and standard carding is better an even smaller percentage of the time. But, his position is certainly rational.

[akwoo]

smerriman, on 2020-March-02, 22:12, said:

But if you tell them that low is encouraging, it will get them to focus on every card they play and they'll start learning far quicker, rather than letting them slip into bad habits. Was definitely true for me.

You try to get the average beginner to focus on every card they play, and they'll be forgetting whether the ace of hearts is out or whether trumps have been drawn. After a couple of hands, they'll be so exhausted they'll have trouble following suit.

[helene_t]

akwoo, on 2020-March-04, 15:57, said:

You try to get the average beginner to focus on every card they play, and they'll be forgetting whether the ace of hearts is out or whether trumps have been drawn. After a couple of hands, they'll be so exhausted they'll have trouble following suit.

This is maybe the crux of the matter. Should beginners be taught to always play spotcards systematically, or should they be taught to primarily rely on natural inference and only use conventional carding occasionally?

(By "natural" I mean basic things like "play any spot card if you can't or won't play an honour").

[akwoo]

helene_t, on 2020-March-04, 16:16, said:

This is maybe the crux of the matter. Should beginners be taught to always play spotcards systematically, or should they be taught to primarily rely on natural inference and only use conventional carding occasionally?

(By "natural" I mean basic things like "play any spot card if you can't or won't play an honour").

Neither. They should be allowed to play badly until they have enough hands under their belts (which is more for some and almost none for others) to start thinking about trying to infer anything at all.