cherdano, on 2022-June-02, 12:09, said:
I think the Zenith definitely has a stronger field.
But you're also right to consider that you spend a lot more hands defending than at Best Hand. You could try to keep track of how you are scoring on these.
Finally, competitive bidding with weaker hands is also important at Zenith - maybe you are too passive on these?
I've noticed that Zenith players always open light - it seems like 11 points is enough for an opening bid in Zenith whereas I usually have 13 in 1/2nd seat (could be weaker in 3rd seat and in 4th seat I open if and only if my hand is above average - 10 HCP with 4 spades is enough for example). I got a bottom for passing a hand with 11 HCP (12 with distribution) and 5 clubs/2 spades in first seat. I think my greatest source of loss is blowing an overtrick while defending however.
Slam hands are far less often when you don't have the best hand, but it still seems like slams usually get above average. Even then, if the Robot has the strongest hand and you have the second strongest hand the slam usually doesn't get you that much since the robot is the one pushing for the slam. So the bidding advantage is worth closer to 1/4 as much when you don't have the strongest hand. In best hand slams are usually free points for me since the player is the one making the slam bidding decision. However, when you don't have best hand slam only occurs around 3% of the hands (about 6% of the hands are slams and ), and probably only about 2% of the time are you able to profit (since the Robot puts you in slam).
Similarly, when you have the stronger hand you're the one pushing for game. This advantage no longer exists when partner has the stronger hand.
Robots don't double as often as they should, so probably competing more aggressively is a winning strategy.