Which step in mastering bridge did you enjoy most?

[cherdano]

Learning a game like bridge, every step in your learning process is, in a way, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I am sure I am not the only for whom this learning experience is maybe the biggest part of the fun playing bridge.

 

Looking at what learning steps you have already achieved, what did you enjoy most? Is there something you haven't mastered yet, but you think you will and you are really looking forward to it?

 

Arend

[han]

When I've mastered some part of bridge I will let you know.

[ochinko]

Funny, I've never thought about it, but learning is indeed more fun.

 

Learning the end play, or the simple squeeze is like a revelation, doing it at the table - just technique.

 

I think I benefitted most from the Law, and counting the losers. Knowing how far to compete, making a low point game or slam, or a good sacrifice is most rewarding.

 

What I need to master is counting during the play :( And I've been a grown up since many years now.

 

Petko

[cherdano]

When I've mastered some part of bridge I will let you know.

I think you are doing pretty well on counting hcp, although lately you seem to have occasional problem when you have 4-3-3-3.

[whereagles]

Card play is fun, but I prefer designing bidding systems and conventions.

[Guest Jlall]

Also agree no one has mastered bridge :(

 

I think the most enjoyable thing to me was being able to visualize and count out hands without too much effort. I always told my dad when I started that I would "never" be able to do that because it was too hard.

[han]

I can't say that mastering the art of counting high card points has given me such a thrill. Although it must have been more than 20 years ago and I can't remember those days very well.

 

I'll try to give a more serious answer to your question. Every couple of months I find myself doing something new. Figuring out a problem at the table in a way that I didn't think I was capable of. Of course, it is very exciting to notice such an improvement. Unfortunately it only happens rarely.

 

However, this is not the greatest joy in bridge for me. The ultimate joy comes from confident partnership communication. Being complete sure that partner will interpret your bids and plays the way you intend to is the best that bridge has to offer.

[Double !]

I have thought about this topic from time to time.

 

Bridge does not and has not come easily or naturally for me. It has taken a lot of work and study to learn what I have learned at this point, and a lot of work eons ago working on my primary partnership. Just remembering material has required a lot of mental energy. (Please note that nowhere did I use the word "master".)

 

IMO a significant change for me occurred after reading Kelsey's books (Adv. Play & Killing Def.) as well as M. Miles "All 52 Cards where I learned something about HOW to think and reason. Reading Rubens' Secrets of Winning Bridge was also invaluable to me. IMO, it is more important for many people for whom the game doesn't come naturally to have a really strong player who is willing to take the time to teach thinking, reasoning, and partnership skills early on. There is also little substitue for actual experience. The more situations that one has exposure to the better. (e.g.: See BPO-005 hand D) Now, if only I could maintain my attention span for more than 5 minutes in order to remember to count to 13........................

[whereagles]

Also agree no one has mastered bridge :)

Speak for yourself :(

[42]

Jlall: I think the most enjoyable thing to me was being able to visualize and count out hands without too much effort. I always told my dad when I started that I would "never" be able to do that because it was too hard

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 :)

[Guest Jlall]

Jlall: I think the most enjoyable thing to me was being able to visualize and count out hands without too much effort. I always told my dad when I started that I would "never" be able to do that because it was too hard

How did you learn it? It IS hard!!

Practice makes perfect...simple as that. Try to count out every hand that you play. Try to do this while kibitzing (kibitz only one person on BBO not a whole deal). Read play problems and count out the hands. Tedious and difficult at first, but becomes like breathing after tens of thousands of hands ;)

[42]

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

[Winstonm]

One of the best BOLS tips I ever read said: "If you ever want to get anywhere in this game you must learn to build up a picture of the unseen hands."

 

Well, I've never reached any pinnacle of success and I'm darned near out of paint and canvas, so that tells you where I'm at.

 

JLall: Practice makes perfect...simple as that. Try to count out every hand that you play. Try to do this while kibitzing (kibitz only one person on BBO not a whole deal). Read play problems and count out the hands. Tedious and difficult at first, but becomes like breathing after tens of thousands of hands 

 

I can also attest that this skill will atrophy quickly without constent reinforcement - at least for me.

 

Winston

[Clinch]

I take greatest pleasure when a technical play I have read about actually occurs at the table, and I recognise it. I've been lucky enough to be declarer twice in my life when a smother play has emerged at the end of the hand; I would like to say I conceived the play early on, but on each occasion it was developed late in the game, and could have been avoided by better defence.

 

Those textbook hands so rarely crop up; when they do, they are a joy. Makes all that reading worthwhile. I also get a big thrill safety playing for a particular layout of the cards which then occurs, despite being highly unlikely.

 

Peter.

New York, NY.

[Guest Jlall]

I've been lucky enough to be declarer twice in my life when a smother play has emerged at the end of the hand

Those are sweet. There was one time at a club (of all places...it should happen in a national for the event lol) that I had QJT9x opp Axx in trumps. Q low low low, J low low pitch. So I had to guess the distro for a smother play. I guessed it correctly, and when i attempted to endplay lho, rho had the crucial card and was able to lead a trump back obviously. I was 50 % away from doing it lol. At the end of the hand I was like that was a shame I almost lost no trumps, at which point my RHO informed me I had to lose a trump as she had 4 of them... lol...oh well.

[mikeh]

The day I master the game will be the day before I quit playing :)

 

Visualization is the most rewarding part of the game to develop. I have never had (or maybe never recognized) a smother play, but I remember recognizing my first trump squeeze and my first criss-cross squeeze....

 

I also still remember the first double squeeze I pulled off. I had about 3.25 masterpoints and was playing a regional event and bid a silly slam that made on the double squeeze. Going over the hand later, with a better player, he asked me how I made it. I commented that LHO had misdefended....it wasn't until my friend explained what had happened that I realized my opps had been squeezed :)

 

Later that day I bought Love's book on squeezes :)

 

So don't panic if you do not yet recognize some of these plays. I am a grinder, not a natural card player, and I can pull off most of the book plays... which goes to show that hard work (and there were years when i worked very hard at the game) can compensate to some degree for a lack of that pure speed of thought that some players are blessed with.

[awm]

I'd say the most fun part of bridge is executing a good defense. It may well be the most difficult too. Some of the good moments:

 

- Catching declarer in a squeeze.

- Finding the only opening lead to set a contract.

- Using a tricky defensive play or falsecard to get a good declarer to go down in a cold contract.

 

There are also many moments of beautiful partnership cooperation in defense, as when our signaling methods allow me (or partner) to find the necessary switch or discard just in the nick of time.

[Elianna]

- Catching declarer in a squeeze.

The first time I did this was not very fair, it was against a kinda insane junior (I won't mention names) at camp, who managed to declare 3Nxx-9. :)

[Chamaco]

Needless to say, I can't talk of mastering any part of the game.

 

But I can tell you what pushed me towards the game of bridge, which is exactly what I like most right now, and very likely what I'll like in 20 years fromnow.

 

I started to play bridhe because it was a partnership game: I was intrigued by the idea of a cooperation with another mind, and being enriched by a partnership with a different "entity".

 

So, still now, the part I like of bridge are the parts that involve partnership: so everything that involves agreements between partners (bidding and defense).

the more agreements we have, the better.

[helene_t]

First, I was almost exclusively fascinated by bidding theory. My short-time memory is just too weak to reach anything in terms of card play. In the last half year or something, however, I've had enough bidding theory and turned more to declarer play. I enjoy solving puzzles in the bridge magazines, like "improve your play" in BW. I'm rarely able to use the principles at the table, though, other that the very basics. Lack of concentration. There are a few things that has become such a routine that I can do it in real life as well, like partial elimination and throw-in in a few situations.

[bestguru]

I'm right there with helene_t. Better bidding just gets me to those good contracts that I'm not good enough to make. My first intentional squeeze was much more rewarding than anytime that I succesfully used a gadget. I think my turning point was a series of 3-2 or worse trump fits with pickup partners. I went from aggravated to laughing it off to truly laughing and gearing down for the challenge. Maybe I'm demented, but that was some of the most fun I've ever had at the table.

[inquiry]

I will let you know if I ever master it....

[pclayton]

I think I mastered it after about a month playing. Since then, I've tried to get better. :)

[DelfinoD]

I mostly enjoy learning my first strong pass system :)

[Al_U_Card]

The one thing I never expect nor hope to master is the one thing that keeps me playing.....that little pulse of exhilaration as you open (see) your cards at the start of a deal.

 

I don't want to be "under control" at all times, I like to win but I prefer to enjoy and I need to be able to communicate and share the joy and pleasure that I feel each and every outing.

 

When I see the "crazies" abusing their pards or lamenting their fates, I only hope that they are getting what they need because I know what they are missing.