[1axbycz1]

I shall start by telling you about my bridge background. I only play online bridge and no live bridge. Not that I do not have friends that play bridge, well I have, but they play this version of bridge called "floating bridge", also known as "Singaporean bridge" (yes I live in Singapore) where partners are not even fixed(!) If you want to find out what it is, I suggest you read http://rtan.net/bridge/nofloat.html. At first, I did not know about contract bridge, and played floating bridge with my friends. And well, I wanted to improve my skills, and wanted to search for floating bridge resources. I googled floating bridge, and came across that site which I linked above.

Alright, I decided to learn contract bridge properly. After learning for some time, I tried to get my friends to play contract bridge, but well, they simply found the scoring too complex and claimed that there were "too many bids to memorise". On my side, when I started learning, I found myself memorising rather than really understanding. I tried to get myself to learn quite alot before I actually dared to step into BBO and play. When I entered, I had loads of trouble. To start off with, the bidding table confused me. I took the opps bid as my partner's bid. I still remember opening 2♣ where what I meant was a weak-2 in clubs. That was my second time playing, and before that I was just reading about the theory. My partner, who posted his profile as expert, scolded me really badly. I dared not play with any advance or higher player for a month, but I got over it.

Now, I will not consider myself as a real beginner, but at least of intermediate standard. I am currently seeking ways to improve my skills. I believe that I need to now understand rather than just memorise. There are many resources online, and many conventions. However, I need to choose my conventions as some of them cannot be used together. How do I decide? Some sites do not even state their advantages and disadvantages of the convention, just say how it works. I once asked why I need 5 cards to open 1M. The response I got: to find a easy 5-3 fit. Alright, that's all. I believe there's more to it right? Just quoting an example here. And many more things which I read from webpages but do not understand. I have posted some posts here, but well, I cant be posting everything right?

Oh well, what now? I am currently an intermediate player (or at least that is what I feel) but have no regular partner to practice with. I know that there is this "find a partner or teacher" forum, but that forum is really dead, with hardly any posts.

To sum up, I love the game of bridge and want to progress further, but simply feel constrained due to various reasons. Sigh... I dont know if there are any other players that feel the same way or am I the only one? Or is this something that all expert players go through? I try to keep an open mind on this.

[NickRW]

Hook up with the BIL for online stuff, or the people here for face to face (proper) bridge

[1axbycz1]

Ok thanks for that.

[Zelandakh]

Being an intermediate on BBO is not about how good you think you are. It is actually much simpler than that - once you have played for a year then you are an intermediate, before that you are a beginner. You can only be an advanced player when you enter face to face tournaments and regularly do well in them. You could be as good as Zia but if you do not play face to face tournaments then your official BBO rating is intermediate.

Conventions are actually not very important for your learning. In fact they can be detrimental. It is far more important to learn to bid a basic system well, to learn good evaluation and judgement than to learn lots of conventions. It is a common misconception that someone that knows lots of conventions must be more advanced than someone who plays simple bridge - this is erroneous.

Since you play on BBO I would suggest that you initially confine yourself to the conventions within BBO Basic and then BBO Advanced. So Jacoby 2NT and transfers, RKCB, and Feature, etc are essential. 2/1 Game Force, Forcing 1NT, inverted minors, Smolen, 4-way transfers, Puppet Stayman and Lebensohl would be preferable.

Beyond this there are lots of good conventions but you have to understand the pros and cons of them. Some, such as transfer responses over 1C and transfer advances over an overcall, are very simple to employ and have very little downside. Others like Gazilli are much more complex and have knock-on affects to other parts of the system. But before you move onto them you need to be 100% comfortable with natural bidding.

Ideally you will understand it well enough to see why there is a need for a convention and then it is clear what you are gaining and why the loss of a natural bid might be worth it. You will also come across some bids that cannot have a natural meaning. In this case you might want to look up what a 'normal' artificial meaning might be assigned.

So overall my advice would be to just play as much as you can with a basic system. As you play you will doubtless meet up with some players with whom you develop a rapport. You might find it helpful to start a more stable partnership with 1 or more of these players and if they have some favourite conventions then you could add these to your list. But keep it simple as this is important for developing your skills. At this stage, most of all you just want to play as much as you can and to try and see what sorts of things worked and what did not. Pay particular attention to times when you got to high or missed a game or slam for a reason other than a good/bad break of the opps' cards - this will help you to develop your evaluation. This experience base will be hugely beneficial to you even playing more complex methods later on whereas experience on how a particular obscure convention works will likely be of very little use to you.

But most of all - just enjoy yourself!

[Phil]

If you are truly serious about getting to be a good player, I would suggest you read everything you can about play and defense. There are lots of great resources on the net, and get your hands on some good bridge books. This process should last for at least one year and preferably two. Read the old threads about cardplay on the forums, and start with the hands in the B/I section. When you have read every B/I hand on card play, go back and read it again.

Do not learn a single convention during this time, but familiarize yourself with stayman, transfers and negative doubles Nothing else!

[rogerclee]

Try to hook up with the good/young Singaporean bridge players (my guess is that you are youngish). Being friends with good bridge players and discussing hands with them is the best thing you can do for your game.

[plaur]

For understanding concepts of bidding this is a great start:
http://forums.bridge...topic=12700&hl=

and this one:
http://forums.bridge...opic=12429&st=0

[mick357]

I have been playing bridge for 10 years and still consider myself an advancing intermediate, because I cannot do advanced squeezes,etc. I can do trump coups, strip and throw in and then end plays,

I know several conventions and not just the first response, like a lot of players, You must know advanced slam bidding to get to the level of advancing intermediate.

Because of the excellence of the experts and world class players, the knowledge you must have to advance each level is very high. I am not saying this to discourage you, but the game of bridge is very difficult. Please do not get caught up in the fact of whether you are an intermediate or advanced player.

Read books, go to the sites on internet where there is an wealth of information. Bil on BBO is excellent place for a novice to learn. Most important find your self a group of players that you can learn with and a steady partner that is willing to learn. Bil also offers a mentoring program that you can sign up with. They usually last 6 months and i recommend them highly. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me; Mick357. I am also a Bil friend and willing to help you.

http://home.comcast.net/~kwbridge/
http://www.gwilliams.org.uk/index.html here are a couple of sites to get you started. Some of the teachers in bil have very good web sites also.

[1axbycz1]

How do I join the BIL?

[NickRW]

1axbycz1, on 2010-November-05, 06:45, said:

How do I join the BIL?

Click the link I gave you in the first reply to this thread. About 60% of the way down the page click "Apply Here" - I think.

Nick

[Gerben42]

Comment to Mick: Advanced squeezes is not the way to being an expert. Counting is. If you visualize the hand and know what's going on and act on it, you are well on the way. It's not about the spectacular plays, it's about not making simple mistakes from not paying attention or not counting, and about good judgement in bidding and on the opening lead.

[1eyedjack]

1axbycz1, on 2010-October-08, 19:04, said:

I have posted some posts here, but well, I cant be posting everything right?

I would disagree with that.

[mgoetze]

Zelandakh, on 2010-October-08, 20:27, said:

Since you play on BBO I would suggest that you initially confine yourself to the conventions within BBO Basic and then BBO Advanced.

I've not seen anyone playing BBO Advanced for several years now.