[SimonFa]

Having learned the rudiments of bridge a long time ago but only ever playing what I would call "crew room" bridge ie natural with no systems beyond Stayman and Blackwood, I finally had the time to start playing seriously last August. I joined a local club and was fortunate that another person was joining at the same time. He had a bit of experience and had a ready made system which is based on SAYC and provided me with some notes. I have worked hard on those, bought some books played and on BBO using our basic system. I have also used the web to understand the various systems and have down loaded the system notes for SAYC and used Bridgehands and the Bridge Guys to read about the various conventions.

I have found that the best learning aids are watching the experts on vugraph whilst taking in the comments*, Gavin's videos on Bridge Winners and more recently following discussions in this forum, especially the Advanced and Expert threads**.

One thing that has struck about the difference between club players and experts is the willingness of experts to compete at the higher levels and especially the 6 level. It strikes me that club players view the 6 level with a certain awe and don't want to be seen "failing" at that level while quite happy to compete at the lower levels and go off a couple of tricks. This was brought home to me with great force on Thursday night when I picked up this hand, Red Vs White:

♠K ♥KQ87642 ♦ ♣AQT982

I should say that I wasn't playing with my regular partner but with this partner we are playing the same system and she has the same notes. Furthermore she can be a bit inconsistent and switches regularly between super cautious with outrageously aggressive, especially at the opening overcall level.

Anyway RHO passed and I wondered what to do and this is what went through my mind:

1. If I've got distribution like this ops may well have game in ♠s
2. I'm a bit strong for 3♥, we play 6-11 HCP
3. 4♥ might shut them out but am I risking missing a slam in clubs? I'm a bit weak on HCP but losing trick count looks good.
4. If I open 1♥ and they start bidding spades I might not get chance to describe my hand.

In the end I went for 3♥with the aim of bidding 4♣over the expected 3♠. The full bidding went:

(P) 3♥ 3♠ P
(4♣ 4♦ 5♣5♦

At this point I bottled it and passed, partly because I didn't want them to find a slam and partly because I wasn't sure about partner.

Anyway, top score for our side was 5♥x =, closely followed by 6♣x -1. The top score for them was 6♠ but most tables settled in 5♦ +2.

The full deal was [Bidding fixed]:

---

The more I look at this hand the more I like my opening bid, but the less I like my pass, and not just because I have the benefit of double dummy.

With all that in mind anybody got any good books, web sites or other learning aids for being competitive at the higher levels? I also think I need to improve my knowledge of duplicate scoring so I can make quicker calculations of the penalties for sacrifices and how to play the different format ie pairs, team, IMPS


* A big thank you to all commentators, very informative and entertaining stuff

**Another big thank you to the contributors

[Lurpoa]

 SimonFa, on 2011-June-05, 03:38, said:

Having learned the rudiments of bridge a long time ago but only ever playing what I would call "crew room" bridge ie natural with no systems beyond Stayman and Blackwood, I finally had the time to start playing seriously last August. I joined a local club and was fortunate that another person was joining at the same time. He had a bit of experience and had a ready made system which is based on SAYC and provided me with some notes. I have worked hard on those, bought some books played and on BBO using our basic system. I have also used the web to understand the various systems and have down loaded the system notes for SAYC and used Bridgehands and the Bridge Guys to read about the various conventions.

I have found that the best learning aids are watching the experts on vugraph whilst taking in the comments*, Gavin's videos on Bridge Winners and more recently following discussions in this forum, especially the Advanced and Expert threads**.

One thing that has struck about the difference between club players and experts is the willingness of experts to compete at the higher levels and especially the 6 level. It strikes me that club players view the 6 level with a certain awe and don't want to be seen "failing" at that level while quite happy to compete at the lower levels and go off a couple of tricks. This was brought home to me with great force on Thursday night when I picked up this hand, Red Vs White:

♠K ♥KQ87642 ♦ ♣AQT982

I should say that I wasn't playing with my regular partner but with this partner we are playing the same system and she has the same notes. Furthermore she can be a bit inconsistent and switches regularly between super cautious with outrageously aggressive, especially at the opening overcall level.

Anyway RHO passed and I wondered what to do and this is what went through my mind:

1. If I've got distribution like this ops may well have game in ♠s
2. I'm a bit strong for 3♥, we play 6-11 HCP
3. 4♥ might shut them out but am I risking missing a slam in clubs? I'm a bit weak on HCP but losing trick count looks good.
4. If I open 1♥ and they start bidding spades I might not get chance to describe my hand.

In the end I went for 3♥with the aim of bidding 4♣over the expected 3♠. The full bidding went:

(P) 3♥ 3♠ P
(4♣ 4♦ 5♣5♦

At this point I bottled it and passed, partly because I didn't want them to find a slam and partly because I wasn't sure about partner.

Anyway, top score for our side was 5♥x =, closely followed by 6♣x -1. The top score for them was 6♠ but most tables settled in 5♦ +2.

The full deal was:

---

The more I look at this hand the more I like my opening bid, but the less I like my pass, and not just because I have the benefit of double dummy.

With all that in mind anybody got any good books, web sites or other learning aids for being competitive at the higher levels? I also think I need to improve my knowledge of duplicate scoring so I can make quicker calculations of the penalties for sacrifices and how to play the different format ie pairs, team, IMPS


* A big thank you to all commentators, very informative and entertaining stuff

**Another big thank you to the contributors

I like your mail a lot....
I would never have opened 4♥, but that is not the question....


Yes, judging those situations is what makes experts, experts I guess.....

A guidelines could be, in doubt, bid one more, but do we really believe that ?

[1eyedjack]

I have played in the occasional 3-2 trump fit before. But playing in a 2-0 trump fit is a bit Salvadore Dali even for me.

[Cyberyeti]

 1eyedjack, on 2011-June-05, 04:46, said:

I have played in the occasional 3-2 trump fit before. But playing in a 2-0 trump fit is a bit Salvadore Dali even for me.

Real men play in 1-0 fits. A friend playing with a much weaker player opened 1♠ with a hand with a heart shortage and heard his partner bid 4♥. You can imagine the thought process "Does she know what a splinter is ?" anyway he passed and found the 1-0 fit.

[Antrax]

 Lurpoa, on 2011-June-05, 04:22, said:

Yes, judging those situations is what makes experts, experts I guess.....

Do you really believe experts are are experts thanks to their judgment on 7-5 hands?

[Lurpoa]

 Antrax, on 2011-June-05, 06:13, said:

Do you really believe experts are are experts thanks to their judgment on 7-5 hands?

yes , and many other things, I guess, that we, the down to the earth haven't the slighthest idea of.
Feel free to share your expertise here....

We are here to learn....from you, the experts...

[ahydra]

So you had 14 cards? I think you got the clubs mixed up. Also I think you missed a pass.

West's 3S is just plain weird as well. X (or perhaps some fairly large number of diamonds) looks the more sensible choice.

I'd have opened 1H, after which (X) 3C (3S) would likely have followed and you'd have been in a great place to bid 5C and put the pressure on the opps. [Having said that, it's likely the opps would bid 5D anyway and North is unlikely to bid 6C]

Though I understand your line of thinking I'm not sure I like the 3H opening due to the fact the hand does have some defensive strength. Particularly in 2nd seat you should also be wary of pre-empting partner as well. Finally, you're equally stuck after 1H-(1S)-?-(4S) and 3H-(3S)-?-(4S), but if you open 1H, there's a higher chance you'll be able to bid 3 or 4C (or maybe 2C!) next.

ahydra

[SimonFa]

 ahydra, on 2011-June-05, 07:34, said:

So you had 14 cards? I think you got the clubs mixed up. Also I think you missed a pass.

West's 3S is just plain weird as well. X (or perhaps some fairly large number of diamonds) looks the more sensible choice.

I'd have opened 1H, after which (X) 3C (3S) would likely have followed and you'd have been in a great place to bid 5C and put the pressure on the opps. [Having said that, it's likely the opps would bid 5D anyway and North is unlikely to bid 6C]

Though I understand your line of thinking I'm not sure I like the 3H opening due to the fact the hand does have some defensive strength. Particularly in 2nd seat you should also be wary of pre-empting partner as well. Finally, you're equally stuck after 1H-(1S)-?-(4S) and 3H-(3S)-?-(4S), but if you open 1H, there's a higher chance you'll be able to bid 3 or 4C (or maybe 2C!) next.

ahydra

Bidding fixed

[mgoetze]

Completely automatic 1♥ opening for me.

[jillybean]

 mgoetze, on 2011-June-05, 08:38, said:

Completely automatic 1♥ opening for me.

Agree

[gwnn]

Inquiry, didn't you have some interesting gadget for these stuff? You haven't written about it in a while Put us out of our misiry.

[BunnyGo]

I too would open 1♥, but your thoughts that led to opening 3♥ were interesting. I'm not as worried about my clubs getting shut out.

As for reading, I highly recommend Matchpoints (amazon link) by Kit Woolsey (both for how to think about the game specifically from that scoring, and because it's a great book), especially if you like his articles on Bridgewinners (and if you don't, give them another shot...also brilliantly written).

I also recommend the less well known How the Experts Win at Bridge (amazon link). I think it does a good job outlining general principles for bidding and play at IMPs and Matchpoints. It's not necessarily appropriate for advanced players, but may be good if you're getting back into the game.

[Phil]

 gwnn, on 2011-June-05, 09:28, said:

Inquiry, didn't you have some interesting gadget for these stuff? You haven't written about it in a while Put us out of our misiry.

He does! Misiry handles the big 2 suiters well, and even can handle the hands with 14, 15 and 16 cards, since it is based on LTC.

He also has the common sense not to utter a word of it in the B/I.

[Mbodell]

 SimonFa, on 2011-June-05, 03:38, said:

Anyway RHO passed and I wondered what to do and this is what went through my mind:
4. If I open 1♥ and they start bidding spades I might not get chance to describe my hand.

If they bid spades and you are worrying about clubs, when will it be more likely you have the space to show your two suits: when you start at the 1 level or when you start at the 3 level? In the former case they may bid and raise spades and you still may have a 3♣ call available!

If you want to involve your second suit then it is not as good to preempt (since that is for 1-suited hands). Your hand also has the strength for an opening 1 level call. You have 12 HCP, most duplicate players will open all (or very near all) 12 HCP hands. A lot of players also use the rule of 20 for when you add your HCP to your 2 longest suits and would open any hand where it adds to 20. If you do that with your hand you get 24 (12 + 7 + 5). Some players use instead the rule of 22 which is HCP + 2 longest + quick tricks >= 22 means open. If you do that you have 25.5 (12 + 7 + 5 + 1.5) and again are clearly strong enough to open.

The opponents may not have the length and strength to get into the auction - your partner might be the one with the missing strength and the spades. If that is the case you'll really want to have had the extra space the 1♥ gives you.

[Antrax]

 Lurpoa, on 2011-June-05, 07:32, said:

yes , and many other things, I guess, that we, the down to the earth haven't the slighthest idea of.
Feel free to share your expertise here....

We are here to learn....from you, the experts...

I'm not sure why I deserve six rolling eyes for asking a simple question. A-priori, I would guess experts are experts because they're very good at the scenarios that happen most commonly at the table. If that's wrong, I'd be interested in hearing about it and why. So, not sure why the sarcasm was called for beyond the general tendency of some posters to attempt to put down other posters whenever possible.

[matmat]

anyone else feel 3♠ is insane, as is not raising to 4 by E?