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The Street Smart Bridge Player - Part II
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More on the Psychological Side of Bridge
Recall in our last issue we highlighted a few early
Bridge books that delved into the psychology of Bridge. Ely
Culbertson’s “The
New Gold Book of Bidding and Play,” and his “Contract
Bridge Red Book on Play” got into psyches, bluffs, false carding
and other ploys. Easley Blackwood’s “Bridge
Humanics” helped us get inside the mind of our partner, advocating
understandable bids – ditto on play. And many acknowledge S. J.
Simon’s excellent “Why
You Lose at Bridge,” advising the mortal Bridge player to keep
bidding simple by following the direct route whenever possible. Better
yet, do not instruct your partner and avoid becoming the proverbial
unlucky expert. The unlucky expert loses his shirt because he always
tries for the best result possible, where the true professional
accepts the best possible result.
In the mid-1990s, Marty Bergen penned his outstanding “Points
Schmoints,” underscoring 21 rules to becoming a good partner. He
begins with: do
not give lessons, unless you are being paid to do so. And following
his predecessors, Marty concludes his pearls advocating a player learn
partner's style, trying to picture problems from partner's point of
view, and sympathize with partner if he makes a mistake.
In fact before you begin, what do you
visualize before playing a game? Top professionals always begin by
visualizing themselves and partner as winners. Do you believe in
yourself, partner, and your collective abilities vis-à-vis fellow
competitors? Do you maintain your esprit de corps during the play? Okay,
let’s dive into new material.
Before you sit down for a duplicate game, do you
consider whether to sit North-South or East-West? In a matchpoint
game, the stronger players often sit North-South (or those with a
limited mobility). Consider whether you’ll have a better game playing
in the same direction as one set of players or another (in
tournaments, the Director will “seed” the top competitors at table 3
and 9 sitting North-South). On the other hand, with the typical
Mitchell player movement, the East-West pair movement may be
fast-paced; if you or your partner have difficulty getting settled
during a quick two board round too snappy for your taste, consider
sitting North-South.
Always be watchful for a swing hand, appreciating that
the bidding and play may be pivotal for the match. Carefully judge
the risk-reward relationship for a given bid or play; here’s a
situation where the
environmental factors are especially important. And if you’re
playing against weak or strong opponents, the swing may be predicated
more on the quality of the opponents than the cards you hold. Of
course, in the long run, consistency pays handsome dividends.
As the saying goes, the problem with communication is
the illusion that it actually happened! When it comes to bidding and
defensive carding, how’s your communication with your partner? Are
you a “busy bidder” or tend to bid only when necessary? How does
this complement your partner’s style? Hopefully, you don’t bid a
second suit “just because” without a good reason. The slogan, “it
pays to advertise” isn’t necessarily a useful mantra in Bridge without
a specific purpose.
Let’s say on the current hand you have unfavorable
vulnerability – with an opening hand would you make a takeout double
after the responder has made a 2 level call? Doing so is doubtful to
help provide lead direction and competing for the contract is highly
unlikely. So when the opponents are both showing opening hands, it
seldom makes sense to show that you have the balance of points. Doing
so is akin to putting the proverbial “kick me” sign on your back,
surely leading the astute declarer to make all finesses through you.
Certainly if you’re not in a competitive auction and
don’t have game interest, avoid excessive bidding that gives the
defenders a roadmap to your hand. Ditto on defense – carefully
consider the consequence of signals that provide more information to
opponents than partner. Let’s say your partner’s hand is deemed to be
a bust based on bidding, dummy and your holding – avoid signaling if
partner’s hand is irrelevant, knowing partner will not get on lead.
From the converse, hopefully partner’s carding won’t expose a lack of
points that would lead declarer to finesse the stronger hand.
On that note, let’s consider the tempo of
play. The stronger the opponents, the more attentive they are to
detect telltale pauses, hesitations, hitches, twitches, mannerisms,
body and facial gestures, etc. And while the Laws prohibit defenders
from acting on such behavior from our defending partner (or
dummy), we may certainly take notice of the opponents’ “tells.” So a
wise defender carefully plays each card thoughtfully in tempo,
regardless of one’s holding – loaded or a bust hand. And how about
playing a singleton? Should it be played right away? This is a
tricky subject! While a player is never required to play a “stiff”
immediately, Law
73.D.2 states: “A player may not attempt to mislead an opponent by
means of remark or gesture, through the haste or hesitancy of a call
or play (as in hesitating before playing a singleton), or by the
manner in which the call or play is made.”
Regarding advertising, you should always “chest your
cards,” especially against better players. Some players hold
their cards beneath the table so opponents cannot see the card faces
nor the location pulled during play. If you use this technique,
ensure your cards are way beneath the table. Taller opponents
can “enjoy the view” for those with angled cards not truly hidden.
Most of us rest our cards above the table, keeping the cards oriented
vertically which prevents innocent or not so innocent peeks. If you
have problems remembering to do this, make a habit of holding your
cards with your little “pinky” finger in front of the cards away from
the other fingers. Held in this manner, your wrist cannot bend
forward far enough to expose your cards. Finally, be a fair player,
reminding both your partner and opponents to chest their cards.
Incidentally, there is a slight problem holding your
cards above the table surface. What happens if the card drops out of
your hand and bounces face up? If the card happened to be an honor
card, the offender’s partner
must Pass at their next turn to call!
Next let’s turn our attention to team games. In a
three-way round robin of a Knockout match, after the first round your
new opponents may ask your score for the first session against the
other opponents. An innocent question? Hardly – based on your
answer, they’ll make an assessment if they are “up or down” to make
appropriate adjustments playing against you! In a regular team game
after the first half, only the side that is behind has the option of
changing opponents (North-South, East-West); if a switch is called for
by either side, it’s a good idea to share with your teammates useful
information about the opponents’ bidding and playing style.
Have you noticed how timing over a session plays an
important part of the outcome? First off, we should beware of the
“first hand syndrome” and the “last hand syndrome.” On the first
hand, it’s easy to get distracted, still be thinking of what
previously happened before sitting at the table, get side-tracked
fiddling with something that distracts you (including annoying
conversations). How about the last hand? We’ve all fallen trap to
getting in a hurry or losing our concentration with other players
talking and moving about. Even worse is the player who unilaterally
decides to make an extra-ordinary bid or play to somehow catch-up and
be a real hero. This not only has a poor track record of success, but
it can both erode partnership trust, confidence, and appear resigned
that the partnership cannot compete using skill.
By the way, have you heard of the “Seven
Deadly Sins” (see page 6 associated with the link) as it pertains
to Bridge? The Dallas Aces went so far as to enumerate the worst
transgressions in the game: no-win declarer play, no-win defense,
unilateral bidding (as discussed above), overbidding, technical
errors, system violations, and impulse bidding.
Our Street Smart Bridge player always tries to maintain
a positive emotional attitude and visualizes winning bids and lines of
play. So when the dummy comes down, rather than letting negative
thoughts about being in the wrong contract, the Street-Smart player
turns attention to the opening lead and focuses on finding a way to
get the best result given the current circumstance. At that point,
nothing else matters. Our Street Smart player has expansive thinking,
not simply settling for a binary “either-or” scenario, instead using a
spark of creativity and considering a host of possible scenarios and
logically working to derive the best solution. And how about the
Street Smart dummy? Most importantly, maintain your composure in a
manner to help your partner get a great result – this may vary from
player to player (know thy partner).
Do you recall the 2004 Bermuda Bowl where Lorenzo
Laurie’s partner left the table on the last hand of a grueling match?
The result was that declarer Lorenzo mistakenly pulled the wrong card
from the dummy himself, resulting a crushing one point loss to the
Americans. Incidentally, when the dummy leaves the table, it’s unwise
to pull the declarer’s cards. You might pull the wrong card, making a
mess of the defender’s rights; further, you might also loose your
concentration and focus. Tending to the dummy is the declarer’s
responsibility, not yours.
All top players are aggressively observant, but never
to the casual observer. We all have “tells”, gestures, remarks, eye
movement, breathing, changes in tempo that can give the observant
opponent hints about what’s going on inside our head. Perhaps it’s no
more than an occasional “flicker.” Of course, the observant player
must exercise a modicum of discernment – the tic might be either a
true or false tell. So if we take the sign on its face, we must be
aware that using the sign may be at our own peril. However, when we
use tells in collaboration with inferences learned during bidding,
opening lead, play, and attendant hesitations and tempo breaks, a more
complete picture is formed. Or perhaps there is a negative inference
– the bid or play the opponent should have made but for some reason
did not. And if you are lucky, an opponent’s ego will provide
unambiguous tells.
The most successful Bridge professional of all time,
Ely Culbertson, could easily tell when his rival Hal Sims held a poor
hand. Hal would take an extraordinary long time to bid a bust hand,
perhaps hoping others would figure he had values. The problem here
was that the normally outgoing six foot four inch 300 pound southerner
was typically quite outgoing, but surprisingly became silent holding a
bad hand. It didn’t take Ely long to put the two tells together and
read Hal’s hand based on his “reverse tell.”
Incidentally, tells aren’t restricted to a player’s
actions in the heat of battle. Look at yourself, for instance. How
do you dress, carry yourself, present your demeanor, use gestures and
body language away from the table? What is your disposition before
the match? Do you exude confidence or ask questions? Have an
attitude? Whatever the case, we leave impressions about ourselves.
Astute players don’t wait for the first bid to gain insights on the
field. For instance, if you are playing in a tournament and your
opponent has difficulty making a board correctly or is exceeding slow
dealing, you can probably draw some parallels on what to expect during
play. The same is true of overly assertive detail-oriented opponents,
insisting on quickly obtaining your team number without volunteering
their own, or asking unnecessary questions about your convention
card. We would generally assume opponents of this ilk would take a
similar view of bidding and play; be prepared for active and perhaps
aggressive bidding here with lighter preempts, competing over 2 level
contracts, and using a rich arsenal of conventional bids. Perhaps
these opponents will also be overly stringent enforcing Bridge Laws,
looking to call the Director at every opportunity.
Speaking of Bridge Laws, our Street Smart Bridge player has a strong
understanding of the rules of the game – not simply to whack the
opponents wherever possible. More importantly, the astute player
ensures the opponents’ actions promote a level playing field through
fair play. This way a player’s skill and ability become the primary
determinant that distinguishes to winning player. In our next
newsletter, we will dive into many of the ins and outs of the Laws
from the perspective of the Street Smart Bridge Player. Once we’re
grounded on the Laws, we will be prepared
to look into the
“dark side of the force,” shenanigans and
skullduggery at the table.
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