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