Quick bidding question -- what's your plan with
Ax
KJxx
AKJxx
Kx
Answer -- Learn to count to 19. Yes, your humble narrator stopped counting at 16 points, which was not the correct answer. I saw the King of Clubs, but declined to assign it any value. I specifically thought "AKJ twice is sixteen." Needless to say that cost me a cold (vul) game. Minus 10.
Despite this disaster, I managed a second overall (out of 30 pairs) when none of my other decisions were particularly bad (I gave away an overtrick here and there -- me likey IMPs), and several were good. Several gifts were donated, of course, but generally a solid game. I believe this ranks as my best tournament finish.
Which is just a roundabout way of gloating and way of mentioning why I'm not discussing other games. So ... no new content for you!
(Edgar Kaplan might agree with me, even though he's dead: Kaplan and Rubens Evaluator).
Not to diminish your accomplishment at all, but IMP pairs is all about getting gifts at the right time (when a vul game is at stake) and not blowing 10 IMPs by missing a game or slam or going for a number. About half of that is under your control, and the better you get, the less frequent the part that you can influence.
In fact, all of the gifts at our session involved my partner stepping way out of line and then not getting smacked. (We agreed to open light, pre-empt light or very light, etc). Twice opponents went to game and then misplayed it assuming partner held more than 13 cards for her bid. At least once I'd have needed an RPN calculator to compute the penalty .... and my RHO held a trump stack, double would have been undoubtedly penalty (If you are going to overcall light, do it at your first opportunity, not second. Even I know that), but she inexplicably didn't take the sure large positive.
That and the bizarre auction that almost died in two spades and then slowly competing up to 4S, which made. (The following contracts were bid to play. 2D, 2H, 2S, 3C (I think), 3D, 3H, 3S, 4C, 4D, 4H and 4S.
IMP team games, however, are nowhere near as random, and are my favorite form of the game. In general, team games are far less random than pair games, but IMP pairs exacerbates the randomness because only a few hands are important. Board-a-match teams is probably the least random form of the game, but it's incredibly tiring; I like the opportunity to relax once in a while that's available at IMPs.