[kgr]

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North leads ♥J; Declarer takes the ♥A in dummy and plays 2 rounds of trump (North had ♠xJ), ending in dummy; South played ♠T and ♠9: Lavinthal)
He now plays ♥ from Dummy taking by the ♥K (declarer had ♥Qx).
It was now clear for me that partner had 2155 and he needed ♦A. There my thinking stopped. I played a small ♦.
My partner played ♦Q and ♦A and then played ♣ for declarers ♣AQ.
- I hoped that partner would play ♦A and small ♦ and then I would play ♣; but if I think more then I know we need 1 diamond trick and 2 club tricks. I would also know that declarer has 4c♣ and cal only ruff 2 ♣. => A high ♣ would have made it easiest for partner.
- Maybe partner should know I have ♦K (I played high ♥ at trick 1: obv switch for ♦; spades high-low; and a did lead a small ♦)
- Partner can return a ♦ in the double ruff iso ♣; then declarer still goes down. This is a bit counter intuitive. I didn't realize this after the deal. This is maybe less related to card reading and more technical?
=>
I'm not a beginner or intermediate player, but I'm missing this focus or card reading to be really good. How can I do better and realize all this at the table?
==================================
In another deal I had:
x=Q98x=KTxx=Jxxx
Partner did lead a high D (AJxx in dummy), I ducked and declarer took his Q. Declarer played some Spades and partner signalled Hearts. I gave the contract away by discarding a club (declarer had club AKQTx). A Heart discard would have been better.

[JLOGIC]

Ok, well the first one is kind of beating yourself up pretty hard. You effectively failed to defend for your partner (who made 2 much worse plays than you). It is very hard and exhausting to defend for two players. If you can do it, great, consider a career as a bridge professional because it is the most hard/different part of the game (and consider being my partner because I love when my partner's take the time to do it for me!).

As it is you are going to have limited amounts of energy/concentration, so if you are at the point where you are getting all of your hands right then you can consider using a lot of resources to after figuring out the winning defense, considering what problems might arise for partner. Basically, you just didn't go deep enough into this hand and into that point. Hopefully you will be able to filter through the hands easily, because thinking on every hand about what partner might do wrong is also exhausting, but as a bridge player you know what problems are more common to arise (for instance on this hand you forced your partner to underlead an ace or give a ruff/sluff, both plays that are "hard" for bridge players). This will enable you to use the limited resources we have as humans better.

Some people have more energy/focus than others, but some are just better at filtering through everything and seeing patterns/whatever. For instance, I feel like I am quite mentally lazy and don't focus very hard a lot of the time, and I'm lucky that I see the themes/patterns quickly (this is likely because I started bridge so young, and just natural makeup) which makes up a bit for this laziness.

Obviously the more bridge you play, the more you will see things quickly. For example, in a 2 card endgame if partner has 2 winners you don't cash your winner. This is the most basic defending for partner situation, and everyone has seen it before so we intuitively know it. But beginners will always cash the winner and that's fine, they don't need to use their resources on this type of situation and probably haven't seen it that often.

Sorry that was kind of rambly but my point is just that you are delving into an area that you probably have not spent a lot of time thinking about, so it is normal to me that you made this "error." If you can handle the extra energy load then just add to your normal analysis of counting/figuring out how to beat it "what can go wrong on partner's end, and how can I help avoid it?" In this case you would have come to the conclusion to play a high club back yourself. But, if you are not ready for that then that is fine, your partner is going to have to pull his weight too and not get this wrong.

The second hand is the opposite, you appear to have just made a stupid play. Unfortunately you will make stupid plays sometimes. Again, you have to give correct weight to the limited resources we have as humans; which suit to pitch from a 1444 hand has to be HIGH up on that list because it will often be crucial, so you should have spent time thinking about this play. Of course if you had thought about it you would have gotten it right as partner had already signalled for hearts. Ideally you spend significant time thinking about any plays that might be critical. If you are not doing this, then you were either already too tired to do so, or you just lost your focus or played too fast. If it is the latter then slow down, and make sure you are actively thinking to yourself "why am I playing this card?" If it was being too tired already, then that is a different issue.

[kgr]

Justin,
Thanks for taking the time for that long and interesting post (I know you are (one of) the best players who post here so I appreciate your answers)

 JLOGIC, on 2011-January-16, 12:18, said:

Ok, well the first one is kind of beating yourself up pretty hard. You effectively failed to defend for your partner (who made 2 much worse plays than you). It is very hard and exhausting to defend for two players.

But I knew that partner was 2155, so I should have done the effort to figure out declarers distribution. Then I know that she has 4 clubs and can only ruff 2 of them. So we should make 2 Diamonds and a Club. Then a ♣ lead is maybe more logic and not really defending for my partner.
(I don't really care to take the blame on me, it will maybe improve my bridge. The disadvantage is however that my peers think that I'm a bad player and that makes it more difficult to get a good game/partner).

 JLOGIC, on 2011-January-16, 12:18, said:

As it is you are going to have limited amounts of energy/concentration, .....
Some people have more energy/focus than others, but some are just better at filtering through everything and seeing patterns/whatever. For instance, I feel like I am quite mentally lazy and don't focus very hard a lot of the time, and I'm lucky that I see the themes/patterns quickly (this is likely because I started bridge so young, and just natural makeup) which makes up a bit for this laziness.

I'm a bit surprised that you are lazy at bridge
For me I think this is the most important thing to improve my bridge: Trying to get the pattern of all hands in all deals. It is very hard to try to do this always, but trying it always will probably train myself to get better in it.

 JLOGIC, on 2011-January-16, 12:18, said:

The second hand is the opposite, you appear to have just made a stupid play. Unfortunately you will make stupid plays sometimes. Again, you have to give correct weight to the limited resources we have as humans; which suit to pitch from a 1444 hand has to be HIGH up on that list because it will often be crucial, so you should have spent time thinking about this play. Of course if you had thought about it you would have gotten it right as partner had already signalled for hearts. Ideally you spend significant time thinking about any plays that might be critical. If you are not doing this, then you were either already too tired to do so, or you just lost your focus or played too fast. If it is the latter then slow down, and make sure you are actively thinking to yourself "why am I playing this card?" If it was being too tired already, then that is a different issue.

Yes, I'm not always focusing enough. I should really push myself to focus on all hands....Maybe in important tournaments also when I'm dummy, simply to train myself.
(this hand was one of the later hand in a team match and I was getting tired because I did go out too long the night before ...and drunk too much)

[JLOGIC]

Yeah if you just aren't focused enough you have to push yourself harder to do so... Personally for me I feel like ***** when I play badly so that's enough to push myself a little more. Nothing worse than making a mistake you know you could have avoided.

Also if you went out late and drank too much and then weren't able to focus that well... well you know who to blame for that Easy fix there if you want to.

[kgr]

 JLOGIC, on 2011-January-16, 13:52, said:

Yeah if you just aren't focused enough you have to push yourself harder to do so... Personally for me I feel like ***** when I play badly so that's enough to push myself a little more. Nothing worse than making a mistake you know you could have avoided.

I think this is the way for every beginner..advanced.. to go to become better. And try to focus in patterns (3334, 2335, ...). This is difficult when you start it, but I feel that I will become better if I keep trying it. In a tournament of 28 hands I probably only remember to TRY to figure the hand patterns in 5 hands. ...Still a long way to go and a lot to learn . I even use Jack specifically to train this hand pattern recognition, and even then I forget to do it often.

 JLOGIC, on 2011-January-16, 13:52, said:

Also if you went out late and drank too much and then weren't able to focus that well... well you know who to blame for that Easy fix there if you want to.

I gave the possibility of the link with the play error...you seem to be certain of it is AA the fix?