I'm most familiar with 4-4, so I choose that.

I prefer 3-4 in handi games:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$W
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . , 1 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Just throwing it out there but I think it's cause the pincer variations can be quite sickening and give the stronger player the edge. The handicap books that I've read (Come Up to Shodan and Basic Techniques of Go) dedicate a lot of space to dealing with 3-4 and 5-4 stones as black. They can be tricky.

IMO, it's this: 3-4 stones have much more complex joseki just in general with more room for tricks and such than 4-4 stones, which have really simple joseki that it's pretty hard to mess up.

What emerus and Shaddy said. Of course, 4-4 is not a blunder , but for reference, 3-4 is 396 pages (265+131) and the 4-4 is 177 pages in Ishida's dictionary.

I must have been interrupted while I was posting and closed my browser. Anyway: I have this idea that the person taking the last corner wants an even number of asymmetrical corners. So, voilà.

Normally I would approach from R14 (or F3) because it works together with Q4, but since this is a handicap game, I need to play more aggressive.

Since we're using dictionaries, I might as well use this opportunity to experiment with josekis which I don't know very well.

I intend to play this fairly normal joseki:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wcm1 Prisoner Count: B-0 W-0
$$ ---------------------------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 7 . X . 6 . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . O . 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . 9 . X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ ---------------------------------------[/go]

Which gives me a nice base and possibility to later attack his stone on D11.

Excellent idea.

This is intuitive to me; up to here I think I could manage this corner without josekipedia. I assume that next he'll slide in and I'll block; after that the moves get increasingly non-obvious to me. Apparently W also has the option to invade the corner, which leaves him with a small corner and a heavy group... it won't be trivial for me to handle the aji of that position, but it looks good for B, even if I have trouble defending it.

@EdLee - thanks, glad you approve. I thought I might get some "consult a dictionary, lose two stones" comments.

Then we can lose 2 stones together.

As planned

Bizarrely, this is the only thread on the entire forum which routinely eats my posts. I think the gist of my comment was "I'm kinda glad he didn't take the corner, but I'm also kinda sad I didn't get the opportunity to see how different the wall is with the aji of the high distant pincer as opposed to the low pincer."

Still according to plan

is the first move in the joseki that looks odd to me. First, it looks a little too far, although once you know that it's the joseki move it's clear that B can't cut. is also a move I would never find on my own; I take it the point is to make W heavy and also to have the threat that enables B to complete the joseki successfully.

After W replies to the forcing move, I get to choose between {sente, W is very solid, B needs to watch out for a peep/ladderbreaker/clamp} and {gote, B is thick on the outside}. I think I'm going to take the former. It's not as huge a deal in a 2-stone game, but in general stronger players are able to harass weaker players by taking sente and keeping it for twenty or thirty moves. Best to stay on the offensive as long as possible.

(Qualification: I actually don't think I have that many sente moves available. But I can try to approach the lower right in sente, and then take a reverse sente move somewhere.)