How To Read Your Bridge World

[y66]

Larry Cohen has a very nice article in the June Bridge World called "How To Read Your Bridge World" in which he describes the parts of the magazine he enjoys most and the parts he finds most useful for improving his at-the-table results.

 

Some excerpts:

 

Match Reports

- Seeing the actions of the world's most successful players from a variety of perspectives is powerfully educational.

- The details of highly artificial constructive auctions aren't of much use ... it is the competitive bidding that everyone can use to improve bidding judgment. Seeing aggressive competition, darting in and out of auctions, and making final decisions is the best way I know to learn.

- I find the card-by-card account of top-notch declarer play and defense fascinating. Reading about everyday, randomly-dealt layouts can be much more useful than studying constructed "lesson deals" because the reader doesn't know that there is a special idea to search out.

 

Test Your Play

- Only for masochists.

 

Improve Your Play and Improve Your Defense

- Now we're talking. Highly practical. Although I don't always agree with the recommendations in Improve Your Bidding, it provides useful discussions of basic situations that a partnership should cover.

- I recommend religiously attempting and then reading the solutions of these exercises each month.

 

Book Reviews

- Reading is the fast, efficient track to improving, especially if you choose your material wisely.

- I rely on this section when choosing books I will read. Yes, of course I read. No matter what your level, there is always more to learn ...

- Unless you have special interest in system building, direct your energies mostly to reading about play.

- Books on developing bidding judgment are few and far between and the system context in such a book may not match your style.

- Books on bidding systems aren't likely to be of much help (unless, perchance, a regular partner reads the same book). Almost every partnership will do best not to take on new methods, rather to ensure that the partners are on the same page regarding the basics.

- Bridge World Standard (available at www.bridgeworld.com and easy to use) is a reasonable guideline for standard bidders - I wouldn't recommend delving more deeply unless you plan to play 100 or more sessions a year with the same partner.

 

Declarer-Play and Defense Articles

- ... table feel and judgment are often much more important than following a technically "correct" line. Inferences from the defenders' bidding (or absence thereof) or tempo are more a factor than "book percentages".

 

And much more.

[han]

I didn't understand the point of the article. Apparently Larry Cohen is so interesting that he gets several pages in the BW to write the obvious.

[glen]

I thought Cohen should have noted, for his review of Challenge the Champs, that Kokish & Kraft provide, for each deal, the BWS Auction - this offsets Cohen's "the innards of many of the published auctions are of interest only to hard-core system fanatics".

 

For New-Methods Articles, we have:

This is not my cup of tea, but I must admit that every now and then the next great treatment could be right in front of me. ... And I do read them all, but I am usually in "scan" mode.  I lazily prefer to let someone else test and break in new methods

Then, in the same issue, BW editor Rubens has placed the Handling Wide Ranges article by Ed Herstein on page 25. Rule of thumb for Rubens article placement - if it is early, he really likes it - and this is early, the second article by an author, after Rosenberg's wonderful coverage of the Shanghai final.

 

Herstein's approach, in a summary form:

 

Over 3♣:

3♦: Game invite in a major

--3♥/♠: Pass or correct

--3NT: maximum, no good major, ♦ stopper

--4♣: strong suit, short majors

--4♦: likes both majors, ♥s better

--4♥: likes both majors, ♠s better

 

Over 3♣/3♦:

3♥: suit and/or values, forcing

--3♠: good opening suit (2 of top 3 or whatever the partnership defines)

---- if responder now bids 4 of opener's minor, opener bids 4♥ with ♥ support

--3NT: ♠ stopper, may have 3♥s if not maximum and no shortness

---- if responder now bids 4 of opener's minor, opener bids 4♥ with ♥ support

--4 of opener's minor: No 3 card ♥ support, no ♠ stopper, not good suit

--4om (other minor): maximum, ♥ support, shortness in om or ♠s

--4♥: 3♥s, not maximum with shortness

 

3♠: suit and/or values, forcing

--3NT: ♥ stopper, may have 3♠s if not maximum and no shortness

---- if responder now bids 4 of opener's minor, opener bids 4♠ with ♠ support

--4 of opener's minor: No 3 card ♠ support, no ♥ stopper

--4om (other minor): shortness in om, maximum, ♠ support

--4♥: shortness in ♥s, maximum, ♠ support

--4♠: 3♠s, not maximum with shortness

 

That's a method that Cohen should do more than just scan.

[y66]

If I'd read Larry Cohen's article 2 years ago, when I started working on my game in semi-earnest, and taken his comments to heart about focusing on play and adopting Bridge World Standard as a reasonable basis for agreements, I think I might have saved myself a lot of time and aggravation and put the time to better use elsewhere -- like working on my golf game! :)

 

I think that's why he wrote this article -- to help others make good use of their reading time.

[barmar]

I thought it was a very nice article, especially as I found myself agreeing with him on several points (like the match reports -- they're practically the reason I keep my subscription).

[nige1]

Bridge World is wonderful. I haven't received my June copy yet but Larry Cohen's advice seems excellent. My tuppence worth:

• Style is almost as important as content. It is easier to learn painlessly from witty writers like Simon, Reese, Mollo and Bird.
  
• Nowadays, more swings seem to be created by bidding than by play; but play is an intriguing intellectual challenge. The better you play, the better you defend, and the better your bidding judgement (Good bidding depends on "imagining the play").
  
• Technical books and advanced articles on play can help you by extracting the gist of classes of related techniques and putting names to them . (e.g. "uppercut", "submarine squeeze"). This make them easier to remember.
  
• Older books on play, written before programs like "Deep Finesse", have more mistakes than modern books.
  
• Defence and bidding depend on rapport, so it is a good idea for the partnership to read the same material to "sing from the same hymn book".
  
• Larry's point about bidding systems is fair enough. Many pairs derive lots of fun from tinkering with systems but time spent in other areas would improve their results more.
  
• Books on bidding judgement are useful, even if the system is not precisely what you play. For example, Simon's "Why you lose at Bridge", Larry Cohen's "To bid or Not to Bid" or Robson & Segal's "Partnership bidding at Bridge".