ynrobinson

Is it not the individual's responsibility to count the cards in his hand? Without knowing the laws, I'd guess that the first 12 tricks stand, and declarer gets the 13th trick by default because defenders screwed up not to count their cards. If the player with 14 cards is on lead, maybe let him play what he has, even if it's a winner. If analysis shows that EW benefited from the 14-12 split, throw out the hand, but OP says EW played poorly so that's not a consideration.

I played against this pair once and it was fun. I recall three or four hands, all of which belonged to them. One was a beautifully bid 7NT, starting with 1♦ (15+) - 2NT (also 15) - 4♣ (Gerber) - whatever - 7NT. Another was a disastrously bid 6NT after one partner tried to relay 5♠ to 5NT but was taken to 6♣ instead IIRC. Strangely, with 10-11 HCP I didn't double and let them go down 2 undoubled. There was also a hand opened 1NT where 5-card Stayman turned up negative, missing a 4-4 major fit. I asked about this and was told they don't play 4-card Stayman. It was a great learning experience for me playing against Will and Brian.

"Poorbridge" refers to a website by that name, which collected funny bridge deals from Durham (UK) but has not been updated recently. I scored up another "poorbridge" 7♣ contract minutes ago on BBO. I won't type out the hand because it's too time consuming for too little benefit. Here is the Handviewer link: http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...4DKHQDTSTHAHKDQ A10xx -- x AQJ98xxx My hand seems to come right from a solver's club puzzle. One reason I bid weirdly on BBO is that I'm afraid partner will pass my forcing bids, so without the confidence to take it slow, I'll blast into games and slams. Opponents pass. 1♣ - 1♥ - 1♠. So far so good; it makes sense to show the spades then jump in clubs on my third turn, for example if partner says 2♦ I'll move to 4♣ and I think (I hope?) that's game forcing. Partner, also apparently fearing that I'll pass his forcing bid, goes straight to 4NT! I decided I'm not waiting for partner to make the decisions, so if 2 aces and a void isn't good enough I don't know what is. I bid 7♣ straightaway! QJ9 KQ10xxxx Ax K Defender leads a diamond, which theoretically is the only way to beat the slam because it forces my ace to destroy the entry. Now I must cash the club king and finesse in spades without drawing trumps first. I put down the queen of spades, and RHO covers with the king. Yes! I win the ace, draw trumps, and play off my winners, too giddy to claim. A look at the scoreboard shows one pair at 7♣ doubled, three at 6♣ (one of them doubled), and three at 5♣ -- all but one of them making 13 tricks. (Other pairs played heart or notrump contracts, or defended EW's 10-card diamond fit.) RHO had Kxxxx of spades. From the fact that I bid 1 spade showing four cards, and dummy has three cards, and he himself has five cards, he should deduce that partner has just one spade (or maybe none). Therefore he cannot possibly benefit by covering the king. I was fortunate not only that RHO had the king (a 50-50 chance) but that he played it.

Thanks. A fascinating puzzle. I had roughly the right layout of cards at one stage but the wrong sequence of play.

[hv=d=e&v=n&n=sakj1095hqd2cakq105&w=s2hk107542d8cj9432&e=s763hj963dk10976c6&s=sq84ha8daqj543c87]399|300|Scoring: IMPs The bidding: E - S - W - N P - 3NT - P - 4♣ P - 4♦ - P - 6♠ P - 6NT! - P - P X - P - P - 7C X - AP[/hv] I played this hand a few hours ago on BBO. See handviewer: http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...KH9D5HTSAHJDJHK I sat north. I assumed partner's 3NT was gambling but didn't know. Whatever it was, I wanted slam. 4 clubs was either Gerber or "pass-or-correct". 4 diamonds showed partner's suit. Hoping for partner to have either the spade queen or heart ace, I bid 6 spades. Partner, bless him, raises to 6NT, and I decide to pass and let him go down one or two undoubled, but then it gets doubled and I think it's better to go down one in a suit than four or five if they can run hearts. So I bid seven clubs, that gets doubled too, and all pass. I can't recommend partner's bidding -- a dubious usage of gambling 3NT and a ridiculous takeout of 6 spades when he had plenty of spade support. East leads a small diamond and I think there's no way he underled the king (or I can't risk that he did) so I put up the ace. Then a spectacular "poorbridge" moment: I lead the queen of diamonds, planning to discard a spade from hand if west plays a low diamond! I didn't ponder how incredibly stupid this was: if clubs break in my favor, I have 13 top tricks. But before I had the chance to whack myself in the head, west made an even stupider play: he ruffed low!! Apparently he didn't think east would underlead the king of diamonds either. :D I overruffed, and with the diamond distribution known, I cashed the club ace and returned to dummy with a heart to finesse in clubs. I drew trumps and ran the spades for +1630 and 14 imps. Of the 15 other pairs, 8 played in 6 spades, 2 in 4 spades, 1 in 7 spades, 1 EW in 7 hearts doubled, one in 4 hearts doubled, and...one NS in 3 clubs, down one! 6 spades is easy to make if you want only 6. The logical play for 7 spades, taking AK of clubs and ruffing a club with dummy's 8, falls to the adverse break of clubs. GIB shows that east can defeat 7 clubs double dummy only by leading a spade. I analyzed that dummy wins the spade queen, leads a club and west covers, so south wins and returns a heart to dummy to lead another club. This time west does not cover, and declarer is busted. If he wins in hand, he loses a trump later. If not, he cannot return safely to hand because west will ruff a spade. The poor fellow who went down in 3 clubs won a diamond lead with the jack, led trumps to his AK, then gave up on drawing trumps. He played a spade to the queen, and the diamond ace was ruffed and overruffed with the club five. At this moment declarer can win the jack of trumps, throw west in with the ten, win the heart return and run spades for 12 tricks. Even if he doesn't know the distribution he could win a spade return too, no problem. Instead he puts down the queen of hearts...and loses to west's king! Now a heart return to the ace, diamond ruff by declarer, ace of spades ruffed by west, heart ruffed by declarer, another spade ruffed by west, and finishing with two good hearts for the defense. Oh dear. :( Handviewer link: http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/handviewer...TSTHJD4DKDQH5SJ

hanp: WHen I do post the solution, it will be a separate thread - so you won;t have to see it by accident. :( I've given up...but I'm curious as heck. :D

I hadn't heard of that experiment, but my initial reaction when I read the OP was that the reason you're not doing as well with memory at bridge as at chess is that instead of counting in a way that relates to what's going on in the hand and what you need to remember, you're trying to count the way we count cards at blackjack, where the order of play and who played what is irrelevant. So it's a pure memory effort. OTOH, if you watch the plays in context, with a picture of the whole hand and what's going on in mind, it's much easier. The famous experiment in chess psychology by Adriaan L. de Groot established pattern recognition as a key element that distinguishes experts from mediocre chess players. Reference: "The Psychology of Chess" by W. Hartston and P. C. Wason. One thing I find easier about chess is that every position emanates in series from the opening position, which is the same in every game. Remembering the moves requires knowledge of the series, but if I lose an element of the series I can usually reconstruct it by knowing the next element. I find the same experience when reciting music: I may miss a notation but I catch the next one and continue. In bridge too, I am finding "there were five tricks so far, a club and three diamonds but what was that other trick? Oh yes, it must have been a spade." Thanks all for your suggestions.

yn: You are on the right track. but your current thinking cannot work. The 6 tricks N-S take must be in CLUBS - since they have at least 6 of the remaining clubs (and East cannot possess either 4 of them OR any club above the 9, since then he would have to win a Club trick.) But you have the right idea regarding what must be done - a LOT of discarding. :( I see why you say that, and it's a good hint. "A prioiri" defenders could win only 3 club tricks if I set up the suit like this: W: 5432 N: AKQ E: 876 S: J109

Clarification: I'm not sure that east and south must be void in spades - maybe they are not. I intended to say that, if they are void in spades, they can discard four high diamonds each in the first four tricks, then west's 6 drops the 5 and 4, then the 3 and 2 are high. West can either cash those cards or "draw trumps" as all three players ruff.

I'm working on it. To state the obvious: the defense's six tricks are three top spades, choosing spades as north's long suit, and three top trumps. I've modeled the hand with west leading AKQJ of spades with east and south void in spades and discarding four diamonds each. West ruffs the fourth spade. West then cashes the 6 of diamonds, north dumps another spade, and east and south drop the 5 and 4. I'm having trouble sequenceing the play from here until the end because I can't cause everyone to discard all the hearts quickly enough.

I have an above-average memory, and when I play chess games I can often review the game move-by-move without having written down the moves while the game was in progress. I do well with names, phone numbers, lines of text or other indices of good memory, both short and long term. I am trying to learn methods to remember during a bridge hand what cards have already been played. I understand that awareness of what has already happened enables obvious inferences, for example that nobody else holds any cards in the suit, so I can run the suit on offense or discard it on defense. I also understand that following the discards of unseen hands enables a skilled player to "count out the hand" by its distribution of suits, which ideally allows the last five or six tricks to be playable "double dummy". I am finding it difficult to keep track of cards played. I am seeking your collective advice for how you approach this task. One thing I've tried is to keep a running count of cards played, like this: First trick, defender (west) leads ace of clubs, all follow: 0004 Second trick, king of clubs, declarer (south) ruffs with a spade: 1007 Third trick, declarer wins a spade: 5007 Fourth trick, declarer wins another spade, defender (east) discards a heart: 8107 Fifth trick: diamond, all follow: 8147 And so forth, with four numbers for spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds respectively. I find it difficult to keep track of these numbers when three or four suits are played to a trick in the later stage of play. I find it hard to reinforce this habit when often the hand is claimed (or transparently equivalent to a claim) before all the tricks are finished. The other thing I've tried is counting the cards in my hand and in dummy by suit, noting that there are missing (for example) 4 spades, 8 hearts, 7 diamonds and 7 clubs. The purpose is to establish distribution for the two missing hands, starting with one hand known to have a long suit if possible. It's virtually impossible for me to establish one hand's full distribution, remember the original count of missing cards, derive the other hand's full distribution and still keep apprised of what is happening trick by trick. The experience of trying to do this reminds me of how difficult I find it to coordinate movements while swimming: any time I focus on the arm movements, I neglect the leg movements, and vice versa. Since you're all experienced players, and have either moved past this stage or given up trying, how would you advise?

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sq103hqj9653d9753c&w=s75h104djcaq986532&e=s9842hkdk10842ck107&s=sakj6ha872daq6cj4]399|300|Scoring: IMP The bidding: 1♣ - P! - P!! - P EW have 8 club tricks and a heart ruff. South went down 3, minus 150, minus ten IMPs on a pickup BBO game last night. NS missed a cold slam. Only two of the 16 boards reached the slam. I sat west. I passed 1♣ hoping either to pass partner's double or to bid clubs at my second turn. North had only 5 HCP but an automatic 1♥. I once held A9xxxxx of hearts and watched LHO bid hearts 3 times on KQJ10x and his partner raised to game on a singleton. That was an easy double for down 2, and I thought I'd never hold more than 7 trumps on defense. This time I held 8 trumps. Wow. I don't like opening 1 club on a 4432. Other souths opened 1D, 1NT or 2NT.[/hv]