Winning Strategy?
When you sit down to play at a club or tournament, what is your strategy for winning? Will you win because you are the best bidder in the room? The best defender? The best declarer? If you answered “No” to each of the above, do you expect to win at all? Or are you there just for the joy of “playing”, with winning being an accident that simply puts icing on the cake? Do you change your approach when you know you’re having a bad game, or just “play it out”? Do you vary your game to suit the various partners you play with? A significant number of club players play just about every day, but almost never have a good game. What keeps them playing? Most clubs have a small group of practiced players who regularly vacuum up the majority of master-points, and this gives more food for thought in terms of “Why do I expect to win today?”.
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Bridge-related
Bridge pro Michael Huston once told me something he had presented before American Bridge Teachers Association members. He said that the reasons players play can be summarized by an acronym for BASIC. B for Beauty, liking the impact of unusual positions, sometimes self-created through one’s own bidding. A is for Approbation, liking being acknowledged by others as a good player. S is for Sociability, liking the camaraderie of other players. I is for Intellectual, liking the puzzle-solving of the game. And C is for Competition, liking the winning.
So … according to Michael’s acronym, what drives players to the game is quite varied, and winning is only one reason players choose to play.