[Orla]

If anyone has any words of wisdom they would like to impart, maybe post them here.

Here is a start:

CONVENTIONS:
For conventional bids, learn and understand the responses not just the conventional bid.

Orla

[inquiry]

My first of several short & sweet tips...

BE SWEET.....
  1. Be courteous to all (partner, opponents, kibitizer
  2. Compliment your partner or the opponents when deserved.
  3. Avoid griping after a bad result (see #1).

(your game will improve if your partner isn't worried about you griping and being generally unpleasant. Bad results happen, accept it and get ready for the next battle.)

[inquiry]

COUNT HAND/SUIT  PATTERNS not to 13....

Card counting is a daunting task for many players. Adding the cards in each suit in your hand to the cards shown in dummy, subtracting each from 13, guessing or discovering the distribution of another player, subtracting that from earlier, remembering the mathematical differences in each suit and trying to add back up to 13, etc, etc.

There is a quicker, less mental gymnastics way of counting out hands based on knowing the common suit distributions. You can use suit distributions for both individual suits and hands. No doubt you already know that a "flat" hand pattern is 4-3-3-3 or 4-4-3-2 or perhaps 5-3-3-2.  You may not be surprised to know that if you added each group of these numbers up and find, hey "they equal 13". A pattern counter, knows that these are the DISTRIBUTIONS that can exist in any one suit or any one hand. In other words, 4-3-3-3 might be my hand pattern or it might be how the Spade suit is divided between the four players. Here is a quick example using hand counting patterns.

NORTH
xxx
xxxx                                  S   W    N    E                
xx                                    1N   P   2C    P
xxxx            EAST                  2S   P   3N    P
                    xxxx             P
                    xxx
                    xxxx
                    xx

Partner leads the H2 (3/5  best leads).

HEARTS must be 3-4-3-3 around the table (if partner had 5, you could see 5-4-3 leaving declearer with 1 (no counting to 13 needed if you know the 5-4-3-1 hand pattern). So partner must have only 3H's. South's distribution in the majors appears to be 4-3.  A single suit count signal from partner on a minor, showing even or odd number of cards, and you will have a likey full hand count, and the number 13 never raised its head.   (if partner shows even number of clubs, assume 4, so partner is 2-3-4-4 and south is 4-3-3-3, if partner shows odd number of clubs, south would be 4-3-2-4). So you can see how quickly figuring out the suit distribution in one or two suits, gives you an excellent shot at finding the entire hand pattern of the undisclosed hands.

Memorize the following 20 common hand/suit patterns below (several you already know for sure), and you will be surprized how quickly card counting can becomes second nature. And unless you run into an 8 card or longer suit, you will never have to count to 13 cards again!![Fixed]

(first column is the longest suit, second column is the second longest or tied for second longest, other are the remaining suits)
       
4 - 3 - 3 - 3
4 - 4 - 3 - 2
4 - 4 - 4 - 1
5 - 3 - 3 - 2
5 - 4 - 4 - 0
5 - 4 - 3 - 1
5 - 4 - 2 - 2
5 - 5 - 3 - 0
5 - 5 - 2 - 1
6 - 3 - 3 - 1
6 - 3 - 2 - 1
6 - 4 - 3 - 0
6 - 4 - 2 - 1
6 - 5 - 2 - 0
6 - 5 - 1 - 1
7 - 2 - 2 - 2
7 - 3 - 2 - 1
7 - 3 - 3 - 0
7 - 4 - 2 - 0
7 - 4 - 1 - 1  [/fixed]

[keylime]

2 Short and Sweet Tips my mentor taught me...

1. Always expect partner to NOT have what you need.
2. To understand partner is to understand the partnership.

[byroner53]

Re: Short and Sweet Tips

Orla, my first tip to you must be: Come back to Ireland, we need you!  :'(

My second, perhaps easier, is drawn from the Bols Bridge Tips Competition which owed it's existance to Herman Filarski, the Dutch author & bridge expert.

This competition was first won by Terence Reese in 1975.  His advice to declarer was to follow early discards and ask: From what holding would the defender most readily have made those discards?  The answer will often resolve a cricical guess.

Reese wrote as follows:
"A defender who holds A-5-3-2 or K-5-3-2 will discard more readily from that suit than if he/she held Q-5-3-2 or J-5-3-2.  This will give you a clue where a finesse is needed to make a contract."
As so often: "The discard tells the story."  

[plum_tree]

When forced to discard, try discarding black on black, and red on red. A declarer that is not alert (or tired in extended matches/sessions) sometimes ends up miscounting the suit(s).

[Cyberyeti]

One I learned the hard way:

As dummy, if playing in NT on a hand where you might have played in a suit, NEVER place that suit in the position where the trumps would be.

Partner in 6N decided to ruff Ax opposite x for the overtrick, this was not a success and I've followed this ever since.

[plum_tree]

 wank, on 2013-June-15, 05:20, said:

top tip: look at the date of the last post in a thread

Posts like these are uncalled for in the N/B Forum. 10 years ago none of us N/B were playing the game. So going back into history and learning from what others have asked/posted just seems like the most natural thing to do.