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Please tell us your favourite bridge tip for DECLARER PLAY here and perhaps explain it there: http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=10445

Please tell us your favourite bridge tip for COMPETITION here and perhaps explain it there: http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=10445

Please tell us your favourite bridge tip for DEFENCE here and perhaps explain it there: http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=10445

Hi! Please tell us your favourite bridge tip about bidding here and perhaps explain it in details there: http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?sho...t=0entry94736

Hi! I would like to explain and discuss the bridge tips here because it would blow up the several collections too much when the discussion or deeper explanations are made in the collection thread (imo). Thx! Caren

Good morning (at least here it is, 9.15 and sunny :lol: )! Thank you for the replies. I will start some different threads now and look forward to many practical tips :D Caren

Hi all! What is the common sense meaning of 5 in a major in the following situations? a.) 1♠ pass 4♠ pass 5♠? b.) 1♠ pass 2NT pass 5♠? c.) 1m pass 1♥ pass 5♥? In all cases -> Partner shall bid 6 with good spades (2 of 3 honours)? d.) In a contested auction: 1♠ (4♥) 5♠? Partner shall bid 6 with a ♥-control? e.) 1♠ (2x) 3x* (pass) 5♠? *inviting(+) with support Are there other situations where 5 in a major trumpsuit has a conventional meaning? Ty! Caren

Before I do I wanted to know if it is a good or stupid idea... C.

Sitting in the sun and doing nothing, I had the idea that it could be nice to make a collection of the most useful bridge tips. I know that there exist books like "100 winning bridge tips" by Ron Klinger and the BOLS tips (I have no idea whether there is a copyright on those tips...). I do not mean to copy all the tips out of the books, just find it interesting which tips the experts here would like to give the interested reader that may come in mind when you need one :) There might be some sections like a.) BIDDING (e.g. "When in doubt bid one more" :P ) b.) COMPETITION c.) DECLARER PLAY d.) DEFENCE e.) PARTNERSHIP BEHAVIOUR f.) a fun section with stupid tips like "The Q is always over the Jack", etc. Perhaps it would be fine when there is only the collection of tips in 1 thread for each section (like the thread with the pure hands for the bidding poll) with a link to another thread where the tips are explained and discussed in details (because it would be too difficult to survey all in one). What do you think about that?? Caren

Though women are famous for multitasking I usually do either listen to some music or play bridge. Recently in a bridgeclub in Italy they played some old stuff like a Neil Young song ("Old man..", performed by Annie Lennox) and "Suzanne" of Leonard Cohen which was nice to hear again, it was still possible to play :lol: I love different kinds of music, Classic as well as Jazz and Pop, but it should have "the special something". My favourite CD at the moment is "Nicky Nicolai: Che Mistero è l'Amore".

Hiya all! After playing a big f2f MP tourney, my partner, a very experienced player who plays since more than 40 years and also in our senior national team, said, that he is more and more convinced to play clean team bridge also at matchpoints. He saw too many hands where this playing for overtricks led to a bad result. Do you agree? Look at this hand: http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=10251 : Do you risk the contract by playing the double finesse (at IMPs you would not, but at MP??)? BTW: it fails :P Another point is, that in most books of card play technique they play for safe, never mentioning a MP strategy. To be honest: I hate this slaughtering at MP for a lousy 10 or 30 points more B) I am often unsecure what to to when there are (too many) options. So it also happened that I played an unnecessary deep finesse just to hope for an overtrick (what should I say? Of course for a zero, so something was obviously wrong with my decision or the others played "IMP"...). :) Please help me :) Caren

Justin, are you sure that you are 18?? My deepest admiration! ;)

How did you learn it? It IS hard!! I was already thinking my female brain prevents it ;) Indeed I am working on this at the moment (frustrating!). To see the difference between a hyperdouble-crisscross and a backward-stepping stone-miracle squeeze is the next goal. The efforts come step by step. When I read a bridge book as beginner, I understood nearly nothing. After some time things cleared up (at least some...). Since I had no teacher and learned by playing and making mistakes, I was proud that I found some good partners who gave me hints and let me participate in their thinking. And it is always satisfying when the dummy is no surprise :)

I find (no proof by simulations :)) that those 45 hands often come up and I dislike to dbl with an "offshape" hand (my partners always bid my shortest suit then :(), or overcall a minor and concealing the major, or overcalling a 4° major, concealing the minor. I love raptor. Isn't it an advantage to compete with more distributional hands? Partner can easily preempt. With stronger hands I double or pass, in 2. position it is not clear if declaring will be fun with a balanced hand. But you are the experts, I would like to hear more arguments :) Caren

[hv=n=sxxxha9xd9xxcakxx&s=saj10xhkqj10xdaxxcx]133|200|[/hv] You play 4♥, lead is ♦K. As Ben suggested (thx :)): How do you play a.) in a team match (IMP; overtricks do not count much, you must bring in your game safely), b.) in a pairs event (matchpoints; the highest score counts -> overtricks are important)?

Rules for leads that come in mind immediately: lead our longest and strongest suit or the unbid suit, but... What is going on? Partner has the black suits and between 3 and 9 points (not really helpful right now). LHO is 44 or 45 in ♠ and ♦, I hope for 44. I hate to lead from a tenace into opps suit, may also find RHO with 5 ♥s. Therefore I do not touch ♥. I also don't touch ♣, the Q may make a trick. An Ace shall catch an honour... So I lead ♦K and delay my problem, hoping for a useful signal of partner. If he is really weak, I have not yet wasted a trick, if he is stronger, I can play ♠A or ♣Q later, depending on the signal.

Hopefully I am not "such player"... I rarely play according to instinct OR I tell my partner BEFORE that I might do so today and ask if it will be ok for him. And I am able to remember both, the good and the bad cases. The point for the discussion is this: IF there is that strong instinct / feeling, AND I KNOW the technics, I must decide if I go beyond 3NT or play in an odd way OR if I do the normal thing. To follow instincts is imo only possible when there is a basic trust between the partners. When there is a 2-way-finesse and you have no hints, you can just follow the rule to finesse against the less liked player or listen to a little bird in your ear or throw a coin or finesse always clockwise or whatever. Or you have the insinct :lol: (yes, it is necessary to make some statistics how often it works well lol) I know I loose the discussion because I cannot prove to be right or wrong, or if I just need an excuse for my unusual decision. Anyway... My feeling says YES :P When men play bridge, they play just bridge. Women have a big problem to get rid of family affairs, handle the hormon situation (can be terrible!), and other things. I recently watched a report about brain research. When men had to solve the problem with a turned-around-body in space, they used 3 brain regions, women used 4 (they analyzed first colour and form, which was not really necessary :) ) Nothing can be done against that, and it must not always bad.

Pass in 1. and 2. position. Mauro said, why. Caren

Hi! What makes bridge so exciting, is the variety of aspects like bidding and play theory, different forms of competition and also psychology. I am very interested in the last part. We had already a thread about the "perfect" partner. I would like to discuss some other things: I) Table presence - what is it? - has it or could it have every player? - can it be trained? - how important is it for a good competition? - has every topclass player a better table presence as for example the average player? II) Intuition - is it the same like table presence? - is there a difference between female and male intuition? - is it just a fe-/male "excuse" for a spectacular bid or play? III) Knowledge of men - does it help if you have a good "feeling" what kind of opps you face right now? IV) More general: how much can one rely on those points? V) Do you / your partners accept the above mentioned points as part of the game? to I): I understand it as a sense to recognize vibrations like a slight hesitation or move of opps when for example a finesse is played. Does one or both opps feel uncomfortable in a special play situation? I do NOT mean the hesitation during bidding which may be an unauthorized information. to II), happened in real life: a.) You have the feeling that 6 in a minor is the best contract but you have not enough system agreements to ask for everything you want to know, and you cannot not bid 6 yourself. You think to know your partner, in other situations you are on the same wavelength, and so you bypass 3NT, bid 5 in the minor, somehow "knowing" your p bids 6 if he has a bit more than promised (matchpoint tourney, 5 in a minor is most of the time a zero). He bids 6, made :) b.) You play NT, lead is the 7 and you hold Qxx (dummy) vs. A8x (hand) Every cell of your body tells you that the K is behind the Q, so the trick is 7 LOW 10 LOW. Next trick: K A x x c.) RHO opened 1♦ and I held in red AQ9xx Jx Axxx xx. My feeling told me to pass, but I bid 1♠, checking that the suit quality test said I can (=7). I finally played 1♠ dbl -2 :blink: The postmortem in the 2 first cases was funny, in a.) something like "yes, yes, female intuition...", in b.) "How did you play that suit, that was weird". All other protagonists were men, good players. I do not very often play what my feeling tells me because I do not really love to loose the postmortem ;) To III) Sometimes I read in Reeses books "Play these hands with me" etc. At the beginning he often says something like (I forgot the original text!) "Against 2 little old ladies..." or "Against 2 young ambitious but unknown players.." or so. Is it helpful to create a picture of the opposition? Imo not. I found out that it does not help neither to be overoptimistic of the own skills nor to be too pessimistic or shy when you know you play against strong opposition. The weak may play a top or the strong may get a zero, who knows at the beginning? To IV) I don't think that anybody made an evaluation on this ;) Experience may tell you something, but some remember only the times when it worked, others when it did not. To V) Depends :P With one of my partners I sometimes have the agreement that I bid and play according to my feelings (on BBO or when we play privately). Of course I "calm down" in more important f2f tourneys. This was again a long one... I cannot walk because of a little accident; and I am Creme Brulee right now, what is an obligation :P Caren

I am really thankful that you all answered :) Great advices!! For myself I would claim to be a careful partner and teammate (I'm not talking about bridgeskills, I mean partnership behaviour). My problems start where my partner breaks those rules, not only with words, also nonverbal signals like headshaking or sounds of disappointment or so. I am not very selfconfident. And I learned that women in bridge are often victims of male power (ok, they accept perhaps that role...??) When opps argue in zero-tolerance-manner, I could call for the TD, but I am already upset and out of the needed "trance". A break during the session was not possible, even running to toilet was hard. The time schedule forbid that! It was remarkable in this tourney: I had most of the time points and was either declarer or had the problems with lead or defense, so no relaxing as dummy. When I saw some (f)aces in my hands I just thought "oh no, not again" :D The "forced" dinner: I ate just a little bit salad because I know that I would be more tired after a heavy meal. Good that we can talk about that all here :D Caren

Thanks Mauro! I had much more problems with the psychological factors. For the physical part: I drank enough water, ate appleslices and cookies and chocolate from time to time during the tourney. The days before I made my walking, my body felt ok ;)

Hi! Last weekend I was out to play a big mixed major event. I made bad mistakes that I usually do not make, lost concentration, frustration grew and things became worse. The conditions were: a.) time and sleep factor: we got up very early in the morning, went 6hrs by car, of course discussing the system (we chose to play Polish Club some weeks ago), tourney started at 14.00, 1. round 30 boards, 1,5 hrs break with a big "forced" dinner, 30 more hands. I decided to go to such events 1 day before the tourney. b.) discussing during tourney: The start was not brilliant, we had strong opps who found for example a cheap sacrifice which was not standard on the score sheet. After my 1. real mistake partner asked "why didn't you blabla", I started to think about it, felt uncomfortable and soon made another mistake, partner was even more unamused. No discussion during a tourney, play every hand as if it is the first. c.) feeling injustice: opps ( a couple) played a convention, explained that 4♣ shows a 2-suiter with ♣s and ♠s satisfying the rule of 18, around opening values. They played 4♠, dummy came down with 6pts, husband said: "rule of 18??? It is 16". TD came and the usual procedure started: the husband became loud and told that he NEVER said a word about the rule of 18, the wife said nothing, on the CC stood only that 4♣s shows ♣s and ♠s. Result stood (4 ♠-1), very bad score for us. Against 3NT I lead the 3 from K6432 with no other entry. Partner won with the A, his J killed dummy's 10, opp played the Q and I ducked. Partner was angry that I didn't take the K but did not see that the suit was blocked (he had AJ98). ?? I have no idea how to handle that. d.) social manners: another pair had a big, very bad quarrel after a bad result for them. My partner found that amusing and funny, I cannot stand such behaviour -> next board I made another mistake, bad score for us. Also no idea what can be done. e.) atmosphere: the general tone was more harsh than friendly. TDs had a military style of giving advices or telling decisions. 2 other pairs of my local club did not even find a "hello". Of course wishes everybody to win and play as good as possible, but it is a hobby and a game, not war. I can act differently, but what can I do not to let it influence myself? f.) High expectations: Some weeks ago we also played a bigger mixed tourney with nearly the same pairs and came in 3rd. So the expectation was high on both sides. I told my partner for the ladies competition that I occasionally play really bad (last year we were 4th), due to different reasons, I am scared I will do in november, too. She said that she loves me and just wants to have a nice weekend with me :) g.) brain self-defense: After those more-than-usual-mistakes I felt that my brain is completely empty, refusing to remember anything on technics or system. There was a strong wish to escape. Breathing technics to calm down? Go to toilet to have a short break? h.) personal relationship: When I look at the result of this tourney, the pairs on top were married, mother and son, standard partners and/or long time friends. I feel also very well playing with a partner who likes me in general and will be on my side, no matter of my bridge skills. That does not mean that I do not like playing with others!! Sometimes lovers cannot play together because they mix bridge problems with everyday or relationship problems... i.) theory and practise: I noticed a difference. To understand the theory and to handle it on the table (or to remember...) is difficult. Play as often as possible with a STANDARD partner? k.) routine: I do not often go to big tourneys. It is a matter of time and also money. Routine lowers stress. Is online training a way? Please don't take this posting as frustrated lamenting. It is easy to give up but I prefer the way to work on things. Brain research prooved that the brain needs for learning (that is what it does most of the time) - energy and water - a positive atmosphere - a certain heart beat frequency - partnership instead of pressure - of course a special "landsscape" for a special thing like bridge. Personal experiences in comparable situations play also a role. So I ask you, the experienced competitors in major events and experts: What do you do to handle the stress or don't you feel stress? How do people compensate the stress? (Biting nails, argue with partner or opps, praise themselves, teach others at the table, smoking or having a drink etc., analyse a squeeze in every 2. hand ;), ....) Do you agree with my "solutions" above? Are men "tougher" than women? Thank you :) Caren

It was an Italian event... The dot on the i was, that WEST told me after the hand, that I have always 13 tricks... I think I must change my politics of not argueing. Perhaps I look like a shy mouse and opps find they can do it with me. In this special event, another player made a very fishy claim without explaining his way of playing, just tried and we accepted. As I said in the beginning, the tourney went not well so far and I had no hope of a changing, so did nothing. But somehow I am disappointed of this unethic behaviour, which of course happens also elsewhere.

The tourney was a big one with high prizes in Verona, also strong players in the field. When we played the hand, there were only 3 other scores on the sheet, all made just 4♥ +2 Here are the E/W hands: [hv=w=sj5hq43dkq854c963&e=sq109762h52d93c875]266|100|[/hv] I found it more likely that W had 4 ♥s because he tended to be very weak when I saw dummy... In Germany we are not allowed to open the E-hand. Without the opening it is easier to bid the slam :) Why didn't W lead a ♠? Seems that he knew his partner, or? That is why I wonder if I should have been calling the TD.

After some bad results in a bigger tourney, this hand arose: [hv=d=e&v=n&n=sa3hakj1098da72caj&s=sk84h76dj106ckq1042]133|200|Scoring: MP bidding: 2♦! pass 2♠! dbl pass 3♣ pass 4♥ 2♦ was any weak 2 in a major 2♠: inviting if partner holds the ♥ lead ♦9[/hv] Bidding comments? How do you play the hand? How do you expect the ♥ distribution? I'll post the other 2 hands later Caren The lead was ♦9 instead of ♦ K, sorry