A plus is a plus?
by paul cronin on
November 9th, 2014
While all kinds of “courses” are offered on bidding, very few are offered on defense, and none on playing the hand. What is the sense in giving someone the tools needed to reach the “right” contract when he or she can’t play the hand well enough to make it? Is it better to be in the “right” contract and go down, or in the “wrong” contract and make it? Would be great to hear from one and all what “tips” they would offer to those wanting to play the hands better – and I’ll start same off with “When playing a suit that has two missing honours, always play the the two honours to be split – unless there is some evidence to the contrary”. Your turn!
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Mr. Cronin,
That’s absolute nonsense! I consider your “plus is a plus” post a big MINUS for this otherwise respectable BLOG!
But seriously, my comments have nothing to do with bridge. I came across you on your BLOG here and thought I’d disrupt it with this note… About 35 years ago now, you very kindly introduced me at different times to both computing and collecting. I consider that early computing exposure you gave me a huge advantage heading into a career that’s continued to rely on computer programming and I continue to this day to add to the stamp collection you gave me. Wanted you to know that I’ve thought of those two gestures every so often for the next 35 years and they’re still greatly appreciated to this day. You can either call this a nice BLOG intro to get others in the spirit of giving “tips” or simply complain to my mother about disrupting your BLOG when you see her at the next bridge event! Have a great week and thanks very much again!
Eliot MacDonald
We teach kids to play bridge at school bridge clubs. Bidding is not introduced until about 20 weeks of instruction on play. In the interim, the kids play mini-bridge; that is, bridge without bidding. The working theory is that one needs to know how to win tricks before knowing how to communicate the language predicting the number of tricks to be won.
While its not formally a “course”, I’d argue that Fred Gitelman’s BridgeMaster program is (pretty much) the best tool out there for learning declarer play.
Jeff & Richard,
Appreciate your comments, but the idea of the post was to get some good tips on declarer play.
C’mon, folks – let’s share!
Hello Eliot,
What a pleasure to hear from you – made my day!
Great to hear that your career is going well, and would love to hear more details about all and sundry. Drop me a mail anytime at phm@execulink.com
Mr. C.
Tips on declarer play?
How about having a plan for the play of a hand, before playing from Trick 1: For notrump contracts, count your top tricks and compare that to the contracted winners. For trump contracts, count your losers and compare to the number of contracted losers. In theory, having a plan means playing cards with a purpose in mind and avoiding random plays.
Execute a plan for developing extra winners (for notrump contracts) or for eliminating extra losers (for trump contracts). This involves learning the general techniques of promotion, length building, finessing, hold up, ruffing, etc. As well as considering entries and the drawing of opponents trumps.
Pretty involved subject and each teacher has his own approach. At New England Youth Bridge, for example, we try to present the elements of a plan in a flow chart format. In short, however, the idea is to marry possession of a plan with application of learned techniques.
I’m with Jeff. If I had a buck for every time I’ve said the words “make a plan”. Again and again, I see players call for a card from dummy at trick one immediately upon the dummy hitting the table. Take a few seconds, look at the two hands, review the bidding, MAKE A PLAN, then, AND ONLY THEN, call for that first card from dummy.
It’s funny how often people ask this qtoiusen. About 1/2 of the people I show WAYK to ask it in the first few minutes.No one walks in to a high school Spanish class and asks well, what if we couldn’t use English here? . Now, if they really did use just Spanish, they’d probably be much better off!
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