What is the best way for a beginner to improve skills?

[VM1973]

Huh?

 

It's the ONLY way.

 

Try Watson's Play of the Hand reading wise. Not as valid for matchpoints but written in the early 30's, still the Bible on declarer play. Big book but 1 or 2 hands a day with the morning coffee......

 

One of the Marty Bergen books has a really good chapter on how to "talk" a bridge hand. There is nothing a bridge player likes to share more than their opinion if you can frame the question right.

 

Playing is still the way to go, this is just a sidebar.

Yeah, you're right. What was I thinking? Just study a hand or two a day, and play a bit, and you'll be the Dallas Aces in no time.

[diana_eva]

Free software that helps:

 

Learn to Play Bridge

 

Bridge Master Demo

[Mbodell]

Both.

 

Don't worry too much about getting other people upset as long as you can play up to speed, and follow the proprieties of the game (like not socializing at the table during the round or failing to use the bidding boxes etc.).

 

Find people better than you and talk to them about the hands you play. In most regions that is more likely in a duplicate environments. In other places social folks may be the better task.

 

The BIL lounge on BBO is a great way to go too.

[Antrax]

Yeah, you're right. What was I thinking? Just study a hand or two a day, and play a bit, and you'll be the Dallas Aces in no time.

I think maybe the intent wasn't that one strategy has to be chosen now and followed until he's a pro player, but rather how to improve as a beginner. Once improvement is achieved, a new tactic for advancing further can be considered.

No?

[fromageGB]

I think a key point here is that in social bridge you do not necessarily get a good mix of bridge skills to learn from. The trouble is that the person the group may look to as "expert" may have some completely wrong ideas, and if he is your mentor you are likely to be damaged more than you are developed.

 

In my view, echoing most, read all the time and play duplicate where you can. You need a regular partner you can discuss and learn with. It's no good playing casual partnerships all the time, but occasionally do that and gain awareness of other styles.

[helene_t]

11 years ago I took up bridge and badminton at club level while having played both socially (albeit very infrequently) for decades.

 

At the badminton club, we spent almost all the time practising. Sometimes we would spend an hour practising serves only. When we did play we might not even bother to count points, but even if we did, "winning" wasn't the issue. It was about getting feedback on specific mistakes from the more experienced opponents. Competition might take up to some 20% of the hours on the court for the better players, but that figure would be zero for beginners and near-zero for most players.

 

At the bridge club we would play competition all the time. An odd minute for post-mortems now and then, and maybe a bridge class once a year. I was one of the few members who spend any time reading about and discussing bridge.

 

When the question was raised whether beginners should play socially or duplicate my immediate reaction was "duplicate, of course", since the level will be higher. But the flip side is that duplicate is too fast and confusing. The fact that people are playing internal club competition all the time stimulates the "result merchant" mentality.

 

The best learning environment would probably be social bridge with competent opps/partner, if such a thing exists.

[jh51]

I think a key point here is that in social bridge you do not necessarily get a good mix of bridge skills to learn from. The trouble is that the person the group may look to as "expert" may have some completely wrong ideas, and if he is your mentor you are likely to be damaged more than you are developed.

 

I am reminded of a situation I encountered years ago. I was an IT consultant and the folks I was working with played rubber bridge over lunch. On a number of occassions I would open a good (> 16 HCP) hand, and get a jump shift (game forcing) from partner. More often than not, I would go bounding off looking for slam. More ofent than not, there was no slam and often going beyond game was dangerous. It seems that somewhere along the line these guys had learned that you want to be in game when you have an opening hand opposite an opening hand, and the only way they knew to be sure to get to game was to jump shift. It did not matter to them that to most of the rest of the bridge playing world, a strong jomp shift meant a hand stronger than a random 12-14 HCP. I can only assume that whichever one of them was considered the expert of this little band had decided that this was the way to play the game and the rest had fallen into line.

[ggwhiz]

I am reminded of a situation I encountered years ago. I was an IT consultant and the folks I was working with played rubber bridge over lunch. On a number of occassions I would open a good (> 16 HCP) hand, and get a jump shift (game forcing) from partner. More often than not, I would go bounding off looking for slam. More ofent than not, there was no slam and often going beyond game was dangerous. It seems that somewhere along the line these guys had learned that you want to be in game when you have an opening hand opposite an opening hand, and the only way they knew to be sure to get to game was to jump shift. It did not matter to them that to most of the rest of the bridge playing world, a strong jomp shift meant a hand stronger than a random 12-14 HCP. I can only assume that whichever one of them was considered the expert of this little band had decided that this was the way to play the game and the rest had fallen into line.

 

Reminds me of my University buds that gathered at a cottage for 20 years to play medium stakes rubber for 20 years, cut for partners every rubber.

 

One other that had gravitated to duplicate brought his regular partner, a consistent tournament performer and he got crushed!

 

He called what they played Easter Island Bridge and said it wasn't really Bridge but soimething thye invented themselves and nobody had a clue what was going on except them.