[markyears]

I'm a novice in Bridge and a new member in BBO. I started to learn and play Bridge by myself half a year ago. One thing I'm always struggling is "card memory", like how to count and figure out the card distribution in the middle of the play.

So I have two questions: Is this considered as an intermediate or advanced skill I'm not supposed to worry about now? Or I should pay much attention on it. Is there any recipe or any training method to improve this?

[babalu1997]

it is an intermediate skill
it is an advanced skill
it is also an expert skill

there are lost of variables in card memory, bidding, lead , past fallen cards and experience.
it is like a taylor or mclaurin series in calculus.

some common card combinations are often displayed in intermediate books, but the play of these depend on the principles of promotion and that is easier to learn

you use the same skill on defense

but it takes time and dedication

and also recognition, hoin over deals you played to see if it gits with a principle you saw in a book

[billw55]

markyears, on 2011-December-08, 14:40, said:

One thing I'm always struggling is "card memory", like how to count and figure out the card distribution in the middle of the play.

One answer is: you don't do it in the middle of the play. You do it continuously. Starting with the bidding, forming a general idea of who might hold how many cards in certain suits; then going into more detail from trick one on.

If I ignored or forgot all that, and then woke up at trick six and tried to sort it out from scratch, I would not get very many suits right.

[sasioc]

LCard counting and working out distributions is a hugely useful skill at all levels and one that I encouraged my beginners to learn from day one when I still taught. Start off by just remembering which picture cards have gone and move on to counting how many cards are gone/out in each suit (start by just doing it with trumps). Progress to trying to remember which hand played the cards you've seen (eg how many diamonds has rho shown up with, who played the ace of hearts). Once these things come easily you will be able to use them with your growing knowledge of bidding and carding to read opponents' signals and auction to attempt to place them with cards and shape that you have not yet seen (eg, lho has played 9 points worth of high cards and is therefore very unlikely to hold an outstanding ace as a passed hand). If you are struggling to remember what has gone you might find it helps to think about what you started with, eg if your starting shape was 5332 and you now have 3331 you can think "so I followed to two rounds of spades and one round of clubs. Did everyone else follow to those tricks? What high cards were played to them?"

I've been told it can be helpful to think about how many cards oppo have between them in a suit rather than thinking in terms of individual tricks, eg thinking "oppo started with 5 hearts between them because we started with eight" rather than "I played one round of hearts and everyone followed, I then ruffed something in dummy and played another round of hearts, which everyone followed to. I have 3 hearts left in hand and 2 in dummy, how many are left?", which is a lot of thinking to do at every trick.

Knowledge of possible layouts helps, eg having it in the front of your mind that if oppo have 5 hearts between them they are 3-2, 4-1 or 5-0. This sounds trivial but I've seen a lot of beginners struggle to work out how many cards one player holds after seeing another show out.

Lastly, I'd just like to mention that this really does get a lot easier with practice and that it will come - it is a skill that takes time!

[chalks]

I love keeping track of cards. It's difficult at times, sure... but if you can make that perfect finesse because you know beyond a shadow of a doubt where that king is... it's marvelous.

Here's my advice: Start off by only remembering one suit. Trump. You can count to 13 even while worrying about other things. Once you have no problem doing this (shouldn't take long), add in the honors for the other suits (not the full count). I find it to remember this by what hasn't been played. Often, you'll see Q-K-A-x on a trick. When this happens, you should only remember the J is still out (probably in the Q leader's hand). Once you can keep track of honors AND trump count without breaking a sweat, try to remember two suits and honors. I find that needing to remember more than that doesn't happen very often, and when it does happen, you generally have at least a strong sense of where cards are thanks to your knowledge of honors and at least two suits.

Even more interesting is when you start to predict shape based on bidding and one or two rounds of play (or less!). This is especially easy with imbalanced hands (e.g. preempts occurring), but even in the most balanced you will find yourself predicting where things are with a high degree of accuracy.

[phil_20686]

The secret to developing card memory is just to try to remember all the cards all the time. If you do this, you will continuously improve until you can do it. If you `don't worry about it' you will not aquire it by osmosis. Make the effort to look at every card and try to commit it to memory. You will get better. You will then find it easier to remember hands and combinations. You will find it easier to signal and read partners signals. All expert card play revolves around counting and if you wish to be good you need to aquire the skill.

[jdeegan]

phil_20686, on 2011-December-08, 17:46, said:

The secret to developing card memory is just to try to remember all the cards all the time. If you do this, you will continuously improve until you can do it. If you `don't worry about it' you will not aquire it by osmosis. Make the effort to look at every card and try to commit it to memory. You will get better. You will then find it easier to remember hands and combinations. You will find it easier to signal and read partners signals. All expert card play revolves around counting and if you wish to be good you need to aquire the skill.

This is good advice. What happens is that it gets easier over time. Eventually, you will be able to count with almost no apparent effort. It's kind of like an analog computer. You watch the cards as they fall, and then recall the info as you need it. For me, at least, this ability deteriorates if I don't play for a couple of weeks. The necessary mental conditioning, I find, is almost the same as physical conditioning in a sport.

[kgr]

markyears, on 2011-December-08, 14:40, said:

So I have two questions: Is this considered as an intermediate or advanced skill I'm not supposed to worry about now? Or I should pay much attention on it.

I agree with everything already said above.
It will be difficult in the beginning, but remembering cards/counting is most important to improve your bridge in the long run and you should do as much as possible to acquire the habit.

[fromageGB]

I think a key point is that you should try to make a habit of always doing it. It is easy to look at a balanced yarborough in defence and mentally switch off, just pulling out a card when it is your turn. Use this as an opportunity to give the counting of suits your full concentration - you don't have the distractions of how to play the hand !

[CSGibson]

Hi Mark.

Counting is a skill that all player should work on no matter their ability level. I have a question for you: How do you count a suit?

I often see two methods used, one where you count individual cards until you get to 13 (IE, 4 trump on this trick, 3 trump on the next trick, 3 on the next trick, and 3 left in my hand is 13), and the other is pattern based counting (I have 8 trump, there are 5 out there, they are either 0-5, 1-4, or 2-3, and I'll wait for someone to show out to figure it out). Personally, I find pattern based counting the easiest by far, as it takes much less effort, but I think most beginning players use the first method because it's intuitive for them.

Once you get a hang of the typical suit patterns (4-3-3-3, 4-2-4-3, 4-1-5-3, 2-2-6-3, etc), it will be easier to count hands on defense as well.

When I'm playing a hand, I try to start off with a base picture of what declarer's hand is from the bidding and the combined holdings in my hand and dummy's hand. If dummy and I are both short in a suit, and partner hasn't mentioned it in the bidding, then declarer is likely to be long in the suit, for example. So I start out with, let's say, a 5-4-2-2 pattern for declarer as my assumption, and then as the cards fall I adjust my pattern based on what I see. Sometimes counting honor cards can also adjust my pattern, as declarer often has to have 2 honors in a suit to make up an opening bid. That's much more advanced, but it can be a consideration.

If you are talking about remembering spots, that is a more advanced skill. You should still try, but I personally don't have any specific methods to recommend.

[blackshoe]

Some spots are easier to remember than others, particularly if they say something significant about the player's hand. For example, if opponents play 4th highest leads, and LHO leads a two, he doesn't have 5 cards (unless he's false carding or has forgot what he's playing). If he plays a high spot on someone else's lead, it's good to try to remember what it was, because it might be the beginning of a high-low. As to methods for remembering these, I'm with Chris. Just do the best you can.

[EricK]

It might help to ask yourself questions and answer them, rather than just try to commit cards to memory. If you say to yourself "Why did he lead the ♣9?", and then answer that question (as best you can), it ought to be easier to recall later on what card was led.

[markyears]

Thank you all very much for the advice!! And answer the question from Chris:
My methods for counting one suit is that: first I count how many in this suit in two hands (myself+dummy). Suppose it is 8. Then once this suit is played, if both the two unseen hands follow, I count 9, 10, until I see one hand is empty. Then I can figure about how many left and in whose hand. Is that a good method?

CSGibson, on 2011-December-09, 11:09, said:

Hi Mark.

Counting is a skill that all player should work on no matter their ability level. I have a question for you: How do you count a suit?

I often see two methods used, one where you count individual cards until you get to 13 (IE, 4 trump on this trick, 3 trump on the next trick, 3 on the next trick, and 3 left in my hand is 13), and the other is pattern based counting (I have 8 trump, there are 5 out there, they are either 0-5, 1-4, or 2-3, and I'll wait for someone to show out to figure it out). Personally, I find pattern based counting the easiest by far, as it takes much less effort, but I think most beginning players use the first method because it's intuitive for them.

Once you get a hang of the typical suit patterns (4-3-3-3, 4-2-4-3, 4-1-5-3, 2-2-6-3, etc), it will be easier to count hands on defense as well.

When I'm playing a hand, I try to start off with a base picture of what declarer's hand is from the bidding and the combined holdings in my hand and dummy's hand. If dummy and I are both short in a suit, and partner hasn't mentioned it in the bidding, then declarer is likely to be long in the suit, for example. So I start out with, let's say, a 5-4-2-2 pattern for declarer as my assumption, and then as the cards fall I adjust my pattern based on what I see. Sometimes counting honor cards can also adjust my pattern, as declarer often has to have 2 honors in a suit to make up an opening bid. That's much more advanced, but it can be a consideration.

If you are talking about remembering spots, that is a more advanced skill. You should still try, but I personally don't have any specific methods to recommend.

[EricK]

markyears, on 2011-December-09, 20:56, said:

Thank you all very much for the advice!! And answer the question from Chris:
My methods for counting one suit is that: first I count how many in this suit in two hands (myself+dummy). Suppose it is 8. Then once this suit is played, if both the two unseen hands follow, I count 9, 10, until I see one hand is empty. Then I can figure about how many left and in whose hand. Is that a good method?

The alternative is to count down - and this might be better. Say you start with 8 cards between you and dummy. Not only do you know there are 5 cards outstanding, but you know what they are. By mentally ticking off those cards as they are played, you not only keep track of how the suit breaks, but you know what cards are left in the unseen hand.

[blackshoe]

I found, when I started counting, that starting with "five out, so they can break 5-0, 4-1, or 3-2… both follow, so now 4-1 or 3-2…East showed out, so 4-1 and West started with 4" helps me work out the distribution of the hands more easily. It isn't the number of cards that are out in a suit that matters most, it's the distribution of those cards.

[kfay]

There was a study conducted a few years ago where chess grand masters and chess novices were shown chess boards with pieces on them. If the pieces were placed randomly, the novices were actually better (not by much) than the grand masters at reconstructing the position later. But if the boards were arranged in a position that would arise during an actual game, the grand masters could remember about 5x as many pieces as the novices.

Possible conclusion (and the one that I believe): humans can learn to remember specific genres of patterns. This comes from experience. The more you play, the easier it will be for you to remember what's happened because your brain will begin to have a built-in bridge memory section.

I'm not saying that you don't have to actively work for it. People usually don't get better at things simply by osmosis. But I don't think there's a sure-fire way to learn how to count hands. People do it a little differently here and there but the biggest factor, I think, is just playing a lot of hands and trying to count them. No matter what method you're using, you will be able to do it eventually.

[ggwhiz]

Where it starts for me is remembering a little over 1/2 a telephone number.

What's my shape? 5-4-3-1 always in the same order, ♠♥♦♣. As declarer, I can see 2 of those numbers as soon as the dummy strikes and need to remember 8 more numbers to cover all 4 suits. With a bit of practice you can plug in the other 2 (8 total) for all of them as the play evolves.

It's the same 4 numbers adding up to 13 for how a suit divides around the table as for the "shape" of your hand in a different context.

Usually there are only 1 or 2 of the suits that are crucial so it's not that tough.

I teach this to Bridge students as young as 8 as a memory shorthand excercise. However, I've seen them play the identical hand 3 times in a row without a clue so they don't really get it.

[aguahombre]

Of all this, IMO, GSgibson's treatise on pattern counting is by far the most useful.

Counting to 13, and subtracting, etc. is unnatural for humans. Memorizing the patterns which add up to 13 and working with them makes counting much easier.

Also, along the same lines, there are two main types of counting: cards, and points. If you have a mind like mine (not that great) ---you can use real numbers for HCP and patterns for suit count-downs, without jumbling them up in the brain.