kgr Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 What do you consider the most important to improve your bridge level:- Play as often as possible- Read a lot- Play with a good partner (partner that is better then you)- Play in a good field/club Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigi_BC84 Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 I consider all of what you listed equally important. Probably having quality competition (strength of the field/club) is underrated in general. Many people think they are good players because they don't have many "real" opponents. --Sigi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 Playing a lot with and against good players will definetly help a lot! Whenever you do something stupid, 3 players will point it out to you :D And if you can get some guys to analyse the deals, that would be a great help! Reading will also help, but probably not as much. It will help you to get your lines of thinking right, and to get some funky moves. Finding a creative line of play isn't always easy at the table, but if you've read some tricks, you might be able to use them ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inquiry Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 What do you consider the most important to improve your bridge level:- Play as often as possible- Read a lot- Play with a good partner (partner that is better then you)- Play in a good field/club To improve you have to "Study" the game. Study can include each thing in your list if done correctly. But let me handle each one in the list. - Play as often as possible While playing is important, we all know people who play everyday, often for many hours and NEVER get better. If you just play going from hand to hand without combining with some form of CRITICAL ANALYSIS of what you did (aka study), you will not get better. You may remember when some wacky psyche worked and forget when it doesn't. You may make a hand with an inferior line of play and think how clever you are. You may go down on hundreds of hands and never realize that there was a 100% line. Playing often is only useful if you are critical of your bidding and play and try to figure out if you did the right thing (bid, play, signal) or not on each hand. - Read a lot Reading is important, clearly. Why? Because until you get better, critical analysis is hard to do. You need to read to learn more about the game. Just reading isn't enough, how many people have read 100's of bridge books/magazine and still "don't get it". Use your reading to help you with the analysis of your hands "AFTER" you play them. - Play with a good partner (partner that is better then you) This is a great way to learn if your partner will help you with the critical analysis of your game. That is, if he feels not only comfortable with pointing out your errors but also if you invite him to do so. This is why playing with a mentor is great way to get better quick. - Play in a good field/club This is a must to get really good. If you can beat up on poor players, you will never learn the finer aspects of the game. Things like psychology of the game andd finer art such things like not all spot cards are the same, and the need for hold-ups, etc. You could have added kibitz good players or study the play of good players. Online bridge, with myhands, make all this much easier to do. Now with GIB solver tied into netbridgevu, studing what would have worked on hands you have played has never been easier. Just remember that the winning line shown by GIB solver is often THE WRONG line statistically. That you have to figure out for yourself. Homebase also offers analysis of hands, and makeable contracts if you play in their (our) events. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winstonm Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 Without doubt it is good opponents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke warm Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 everything everyone else said, plus i'd add getting one (or maybe two) regular partners, kib a lot of good players with that partner and bid the hands in whatever system the two of you are playing.. you can totally get rid of a lot of misunderstandings this way, and can also gain a really good idea of what partner means when he makes certain bids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 It depends on your own preferred method of learning, and I think that all of the topices touched on so far are useful. Reading is probably the best way to get quickly to a moderate level: you must possess a basic understanding of bidding and technique, and books can expose you to more situations in a short time than you can possibly encounter at the table. Once you have basic grasp of bidding and card play, there is nothing better than playing with a stronger partner. Speaking personally, I can readily identify three partners who taught me a great deal.. after I had already reached 'advanced' status and unless you are already genuinely world class (and maybe even then, for all I know), this method of improving your game works no matter what your level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bid_em_up Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 I'd like to add a couple more thoughts that nobody has touched on yet (although their suggestions are excellent). Learn one system, and learn it well. SAYC or 2/1 are your best choices. Not because they are the best system, per se, but because they are the most commonly used. No, you dont have to play every "current" convention. Yes, you can live without this, that and the other. For the "advancing" player, the biggest single mistake, imo, thats made is trying to play too many conventions, without actually understanding them and their inferences (or negative inferences from lack of the bid being made). You do not have to play something just because "everybody else does". Yes, it helps to have an idea of what certain conventions are and what they mean. But, until you are comfortable with everything you play, dont attempt to add anything else. If you start playing with a new partner who wants to play a given convention, feel free to say "sorry, I dont play that" rather than agreeing to play it and subsequently having a disaster. Are you forgetting to make certain bids? Making the wrong bid? Both are an indication that your system is too complicated for you (or your partner) at this point. Go through your system with your regular partner and decide if the conventions you are using occur frequently enough to be worthwhile or if something else might be better. I have done quite well in many events with pickup partners playing nothing but stayman, rkc, and transfers. I believe this is because you dont waste as much energy worrying about what bid to make, is it forcing, how will partner take it, and in turn, have more mental energy to use on concentrating on counting, playing, and defending. Learn to be disciplined at the table. Make your best bid the first time. Dont bid the same values twice. Learn to double the opps for penalty ;) (my personal favorite, and the major factor in why I refuse to play support doubles/redoubles). As always, jmoo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whereagles Posted May 13, 2006 Report Share Posted May 13, 2006 Learning to concentrate is by far the most useful thing to train. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winstonm Posted May 14, 2006 Report Share Posted May 14, 2006 Learning to concentrate is by far the most useful thing to train.Yes, and I may add that playing rubber bridge for more than you can afford to lose against players much better than you will definately improve your concentration. ;) I had the good fortune to talk to Grant Baze a week or so ago, and he said that rubber bridge is what made him, Soloway, and Hamman great players, and there are others as well who have had the same training ground. Winston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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