I think, therefore...it all takes longer

A few days ago, Bob did a class on Short Suit Game Tries (alertable.) At the heart of the theory on how to evaluate you chances of sucess is the 30 point deck. So, I'm wondering if the thirty point deck applies to ssgt. does it also apply whenever your side has a known void or singleton.

I also noticed that while I can recite the way several conventions work, once I have cards in my hand it's much harder to apply this knowledge. I'm really confused.

Also, if you say you play a convention but never remember that you play it, do you really play that convention? I never remember about new minor forcing. Maybe it's time to start saying: no, I don't play that, thanks.

Partnership bidding is a great place to test what you think you play, but it's a little disheartening too, when you start to realize, that all the stuff you thought you knew you have only a nodding acquaintance with.

Finally, hand evaluation. Each hand I ask myself the six questions and I come up with a number of plusses and minuses. So if I have 15 points and +--+++ How do I translate this into a number. And once p bids I might think oh, well that's good, or that's not so good, but again, hard to pick a number to assign.