How do you "count out the hand"?

[CSGibson]

When counting distribution, I find it easier to pattern out individual suits - if I have an 8 card fit, I'm looking to see if opponents are 3-2, 4-1, or 5-0. I don't bother counting my own cards, because I expect to remember what dummy and I had already, so I'm just counting the cards outstanding, mostly by remembering how many rounds both defenders followed suit.

[ynrobinson]

There was this psychological experiment where chess grand masters and beginning chess players were asked to memorize some random chess configurations as well as some configurations that had come up in real chess. The grand masters were much better than the beginners at memorizing realistic configurations, but wrt random configurations the two groups were equal. Because memorizing is easier when one can make sense of the picture.

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.

[gwnn]

Has anyone tried the software Counting at Bridge by Mike Lawrence and Fred?

As far as I can tell, this program as its sequel ("Counting at Bridge 2") are both highly-effective as learning tools. This opinion is based mostly on feedback from a lot of people who have used these programs.

 

Here is link to a simple game I created that is designed to help you master a skill that is essential in order to be good at counting the hand:

 

Link to game

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

I am sure this's been asked already but is there any chance of making this little program in Java? I would love to play it on my iPhone.

[helene_t]

Iphone doesn't support java afaic. It does support javascript, though.

 

Edit: you can get a 3rd party compiler but that presumably requires the source code. also you can install java on a jailbreaked iphone, but the legality of that procedure is "dubious".

 

source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive...java-on-iphone/

[gwnn]

oh. for some reason I thought Handviewer was java.