Impact of BBO on my bridge

[paulg]

I wondered how much impact BBO is having on everyone's bridge? When I look at the changes to my system over the past 3-4 years almost all of them have been due to BBO, either playing or, increasingly, the impact of seeing the top players and commentators on Vugraph.

 

These include:

• transfer responses to 1♣ (Welland-Fallenius]
  
• Using 1NT as support double [Lauria-Versace]
  
• Don't invite through stayman w/o 4-card major [Fred]
  
• Gazilli [italians]
  
• Polish Club defence [balicki-Zmud]
  
• Transfers in competition [many Europeans]
  
• Polish leads [Poland leagues]
  
• many other minor changes
  

Although many share their systems on these forums, I find that Gerben, Frances, Justin and Luis consistently provide the most interesting system information some of which is now in use (redouble by 1NT opener to show a single-suited hand).

 

Judgement still remains a problem but this is another area where Vugraph is helping enormously. Seeing what the top players consistently do is about the only way to try and improve in this area especially at my level (probably just below real expert).

 

Card play and defending are areas that BBO also helps directly. Practice and concentration are needed (by me) here, but the ability to review all my matches, especially now that GIB can assist, is extremely helpful.

 

So I am indebted to BBO (Fred, Uday and Sherri) and Roland for their support, especially of Vugraph, in my quest to become a better player.

 

How has it helped you?

 

Paul

[ArcLight]

What I find interesting is some of the bidding problems that one sees in every day play. Not the crazy 7-4 hands where slam was cold because pard was void in another suit and had the trump Jack. But the more common ones, like do you bid over the premept, and if so, how?

 

I'll take a dissenting view on the conventions people use here. While I enjoy reading about all these systems, for 99% of players they will have almost no impact (other than to confuse the opponents and pards).

 

From time to time I have asked real experts (Bobby Wolff, Mike Lawrence, Larry Cohen, Fred) about a few conventions/leads/signals. They all pretty much said the same thing "it doesn't matter much". Since I throw away points left and right on bad play, gaining 0.0078 IMPS by using the XXX convention is a waste of my time.

 

In reading books on defense it’s obvious that the name of the game is counting/visualization and reasoning what layouts can exist or need to exist. We are on defense about half the time, so that’s where we should concentrate our energies.

 

Concentrating on complex conventions, rather than (for example) working on situations that come up frequently (NT contract - pard leads the 3, dummy has the Qx and rises with the Q, do you signal Attitude or Count?) will cause you to misfocus your time.

 

Its fun to read about these conventions.

Its fun to try them.

It’s also unlikely to have much impact on your game (probably no impact unless you are at the expert level).

 

The reason Experts use lots of systems, and accept the complexity is they are fighting for every edge. They are already expert card players. For those who are no (like me!) it’s far better to spend your time reading and rereading books on defense:

Eddie Kantars Modern & Advanced Bridge Defense

Mike Lawrence’s Defense

Kelsey’s Killing Defense and More Killing Defense

Partnership Defense at Bridge - Woolsey

Test your Defense - Mollo (outdated bidding, but has a few nice hands and leads)

Opening Leads - Mike Lawrence

 

 

Older books I have but haven't read

Defend with your Life - Kantar/Reese

Defense in depth - Hoffman

 

There are newer books I own but haven't read yet

Demon Doubling, demon defense - Boehm

Priebe has a book on Visualization on Defense

Pottage has Defend these hands with me

 

 

I see all these people in BIL with complex conventions on their profile.

I see many BIL "graduates" that list themselves as Advanced.

 

Complex conventions don’t make for a good or advanced player.

 

Stick with the basics and forget all the complex systems, until you are very comfortable counting AND your card play is correct.

 

 

 

:P OK, rant mode off.

[mike777]

Amen brother, I lose so many points on really basic counting problems. I gain so many points on basic counting problems. I mean really basic chapters one and two out of Lawrence stuff.

1) What contract are we in?

2) How many tricks do I need to to win or beat the hand?

3) Where are the Aces and Kings?

4) What did they/partner lead again and what basic information do I get from that lead?

 

Simple stuff really.

 

As for BBO it is wonderful as it gives us the chance to practice, practice and practice. Thanks Fred and Uday and all!

[sceptic]

I spend so much time on BBO, MY WIFE LEFT ME

 

thanks Fred Thanks Uday Thanks Sherri

 

and my bridge has imporved, this site is great

 

I just need to work on my typing next :)

[bestguru]

I spend so much time on BBO, MY WIFE LEFT ME

 

Sounds like a win/win situation to me. I must remember to increase my play time.

[nickf]

I spend so much time on BBO, MY WIFE LEFT ME

 

thanks Fred Thanks Uday Thanks Sherri

I'm speechless. I am without speech.

 

nickf

sydney

[the saint]

On mine - it has had some. I can get a decentish game at any hour of the day. Vugraph is invaluable too.

 

15 years ago it would have made an enormous difference when I was starting in the game. Today most of the England Juniors are online here. If this had been around then when I was starting out, I would have learned more, faster and networked better and probably been a much better player earlier. The speed of improvement of the England U20s this year has been rapid. From some really poor stuff, they are now starting to flourish, and I attribute this in no small part to them playing regualrly on BBO and all the vugraph presentations that I know they watch.

[JoAnneM]

Defense 45%

Declarer Play 35%

Bidding 20%

 

These percentages, or close to it, have been around for years.

[david_c]

Defense 45%

Declarer Play 35%

Bidding 20%

 

These percentages, or close to it, have been around for years.

Intriguing - I can't work out what these are supposed to be percentages for. Any guesses?

[hrothgar]

Defense 45%

Declarer Play 35%

Bidding 20%

 

These percentages, or close to it, have been around for years.

Funny that, I always heard that

 

you bid on 100% of hands

you defend 50%

you declare 25%

 

in turn, this suggests that you spend

 

57% of your time on bidding

29% on defense/signaling

14% on declarer play

 

(also this assumes that an hour of study on skill XYZ yields an equal return)

[Free]

Imo declarer play is more important than defense. It's actually quite simple to see why. If you're defending, you need to know what declarer is doing, and what he's going to do. If you can't play any decent contract, you won't figure out what declarer is doing, and therefore not know how to defend. How can you ever guard against an endplay or a squeeze if you don't know how it's done?

 

Bidding can help you feeling more comfortable at the table. For example, when I play with my regular f2f partners, I'm very relaxed because I know our system agreements will get us past the bidding in a good place. Playing relaxed is one of the most things out there!

 

What is most important imo?

1. Declarer play

2. Trusting yourself and your partner

3a. Defense

3b. Bidding (close to defense)

 

With BBO my declarer play has improved significantly. I've also read some books about it, but on BBO you get real practice: you don't know when you have a special hand, and they're not all 11 count 4333's ;) Without BBO I would've never learned as much about systems and conventions, which helped me a lot playing some tournaments against people playing similar systems which I didn't know before.

[zasanya]

Gentlemen and Ladies

Have we forgotten the most important reason for playing bridge?

Its HAVING FUN.

I think BBO has significantly contributed to this aspect.

At any time I can play with friends from different parts of the world.

Any learning is bonus and I did get a lot of that too .

[Aberlour10]

I remember how sad I was during the first vugraph sessions a few years ago, because I was not able to follow the english commentary, especially this specific bridge vocabulary made me a lot of problems in understanding.

I started to work hard on it and over the years it was getting better and better.

Today I have absolutely any problems during the watching. ( my first

languages are polish and german)

Vugraph helped on to improve also my declarer play....

 

Robert