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One, brief direct bridge advice


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1) COUNT, COUNT, COUNT!!!! (and for people who have the misfortune of being innately innumerate, I said that 4 times)

A square is much easier to visualise if you have contrasted out its corners.

2) If you are angry with partner, keep it to yourself.

NEVER utter the 3 words above with one of the vowels missing.

S/He will not understand your frustration any better if it is uttered 3 octaves higher than necessary.

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Take a lesson from poker - Put Partner on a Hand. The post mortem should always start: "I thought you had..." Re-evaluate with every turn of the bidding, and use your bids like poker chips to elicit the specific information needed to pinpoint the optimum contract.

Do not think of bridge as in "What information do I need, so that I can reach the optimum contract?". Think of bridge as in "What information would my partner need so that he can reach the optimum contract?".

 

JFK might word that as: "Ask not what your partner can show to you. Ask what you can show to your partner!".

 

Rik

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1) COUNT, COUNT, COUNT!!!! (and for people who have the misfortune of being innately innumerate, I said that 4 times)

A square is much easier to visualise if you have contrasted out its corners.

2) If you are angry with partner, keep it to yourself.

NEVER utter the 3 words above with one of the vowels missing.

S/He will not understand your frustration any better if it is uttered 3 octaves higher than necessary.

Or - there are three kinds of bridge players, those that can count and those that cannot!

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Count to 40 as well as 13, especially when declarer has made a limited bid (Precision, NT, ...) As soon as dummy comes down you should work out partners point range; and as cards are determined (shown, inference, signals), work out what partner can still have. There's nothing like finding a brilliant defensive line that requires partner to have a card they can't have.
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Don't walk the dog. E.g. with a weak distributional raise for partner's suit, bid immediately to the maximum level you feel comfortable with. Don't bid 2, and then bid 3 and then bid 4 (which will invariably get doubled now that opponents have worked out their strength and degree of fit.)
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The ABC of bridge...always be counting :) Counting is the cornerstone of all good card play, it is a grind but it is 100 % necessary and there's no way around that. I know I'm not the first one to say it ITT but it really needs to be re-iterated.

 

Leave bad boards behind, leave good boards behind too.

 

All your opponents are stupid. Winning is just a matter of being a bit less stupid than they are.

 

I like those a lot too.

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Count to 40 as well as 13, especially when declarer has made a limited bid (Precision, NT, ...) As soon as dummy comes down you should work out partners point range; and as cards are determined (shown, inference, signals), work out what partner can still have. There's nothing like finding a brilliant defensive line that requires partner to have a card they can't have.

I will never forget a hand that was played by a very experienced player against me. This was in the finals of a two-session qualifying and final regional open pairs.

 

My partner opened the bidding and it went pass by RHO. I passed, and fourth seat balanced, and eventually wound up as declarer.

 

The opening lead was made, and dummy held Qxx (or something similar) in the suit. The Q was played and I covered with the K, declarer winning the A.

 

Later, declarer finessed through me for a missing King! Justice was served - partner's singleton King won the trick.

 

So, assuming that declarer believed me that my initial pass showed less than 6 HCP, he played me for a card that I could not hold.

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In a pick-up partnership, don't agree to play leads and signals that you don't understand!

 

This may sound trivial, but I have several time spent almost all the precious preparation time discussing bidding conventions that are unlikely to come up in the few sesions we were going to play. Only to have a couple of boards blown up due to misunderstandings like "what exactly does strong tens mean?" or "does rusinoff only apply to the opening lead?" or "when do we give count on partner's lead?".

 

So basically, pay a little more attention to your lead and carding agreements, and a little less to bidding agreements.

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