Friday,
December 20, 2002 12:33 AM
Hand
Evaluation - Quality Practice
PITBULLS:
A golfer goes to the driving range to improve his/her golf game . Once there , if all she does is hit balls then no improvement takes place . You are just hitting balls
& putting in time . You have to practice with a purpose . You practice hitting fades or draws , high shots and
low shots or 40 yard pitch shots . You develop “muscle memory” & good
things start to happen . Your golf buddies start donating cash to your favourite
charity i.e. yourself !
Bridge
is the same way . If you want to improve to a higher level in Bridge you can
not just play at the club & “pitch cards” . You must have a practice game
plan & train yourself . Local
club games are the driving
range of Bridge. Say to yourself , today I am going to make a
conscious effort to count declarers points
on defense or today I am going to think in
Bridge patterns when I am defending or playing . Today I am going to
make a conscious effort to try squeeze techniques . Today I am going to learn
the ins and outs of a new convention or partnership understanding . After a while good things start to happen .
Your gray cells “ muscle memory” gets
trained & these things become second nature over time. Good things
start to happen so Peter Jones calls you a
card rack for 25 years !
Playing
with a Pitbull & we are defending 4♥ with the auction going a 4♥ opener & all
pass . The board hits with ♠Q10x ♥xx ♦Axxxx ♣KQx , the Pitbull leads
the Q of diamonds , declarer plays small as does partner so declarer wins the
King. Declarer then cashed the A & K of hearts & leads a club . You
have the Ace of clubs & the King of spades so what do you do ? If you have
trained yourself to count
points on defense , you can actually “show boat” & rise with
your Ace of clubs & lay down the King of spades . Declarer has shown up
with the King of diamonds with the AK of hearts for her bid so there are no
points left for her given her 4♥ pre-empt . You beat 4♥ two tricks instead
of letting them make it . You ducked the club because you have not yet
trained yourself to count points on defense ! You divorced the bidding
from Defense.
Playing
with a Pitbull , LHO opens 1♠ , Paula bids 2♥ . Opens rebids 2♠ & Paula bids 3♦. Opener now bids 4♦ so Paula bids 4♥ ending the auction .
I lead the jack of spades & the board comes down with
♠AQxxxx ♥A ♦1098x ♣xx Paula wins the Ace of
Spades , cashes the Ace of hearts
& leads a diamond. My Pitbull
partner has AKx of diamonds & wins the King . She now returns the spade so
Paula draws trump , knocks out of the diamond Ace , guesses the club correctly
to make 4♥ so a zero for us . I asked why I did not get a
diamond ruff when the bidding said that the diamonds were 4-4-3-2 . The Pitbull
replied that she did not
think of it . This means that she has not trained herself to think
in patterns . If you listen to
the bidding & say to yourself 4-4-3-2 , how can you not give me a diamond ruff ! ( I also played the diamond 3 ) . Again you
have divorced the bidding from
defense.
Another hand playing with a
Pitbull who missed identifying a simple squeeze . She was in 4♥
Steve Willard led the K of
spades into her stiff Ace . RHO ( Alex Fowlie )
had made a 1♦ overcall so probably
had both diamond honours. The Pitbull led a heart , finessed the K which lost ,
then RHO led back his stiff club . Declarer drew trump , thought a long time
& ran some trump so went one down when the clubs were 4-1 . A squeeze does not work until you rectify the count . The Pitbull just has to
lose her two diamonds so the count is rectified . Steve has the Q of spades
with the 4th club so gets squeezed in the black suits. This team
should be up to making game contracts on simple squeezes before the Venice Cup
trials. Squeezes should not be beyond the
competence of the Pitbulls .
Another hand the coach blew
, but maybe we can learn from it . Susan & I would have won the Sunday CNTC qualifying if I got this right . The opponents are in 4♠ , the board came down with ♠KQxxxx ♥xx ♦xx ♣KQJ . Declarer had opened a
strong NT & the transfer made him declarer . Susan led the J of spades , I
held ♠A98 ♥xxxxx ♦K108 ♣xx & won the A of
spades . I knew we had 2 spade
tricks , so we had to get two tricks in the reds
to beat this hand . I led back a heart & declarer had a 100 honours in
hearts so he made 5 as we lost our A & K of diamonds . A pure 50 % guess in
the reds on my part ? No , I made a mistake
. I counted the points on the board & in my hand so I knew Susan had 7 HCP one of which is the jack of spades .
Start putting theoretical 6 pt combinations in Susan’s hand that will beat
game . One is AQ of hearts but there are three others which involve diamonds .
The AQ of diamonds , the Ace of hearts & the Q of diamonds & A x
of diamonds !! Therefore, it is 3-1 in favour of a diamond switch !! I
should have worked this out at the table
.
You will not reach the next level if all you do is hit golf balls at club games . Playing just for the sake of playing is just
hitting range balls & putting in time
. Playing just to win at club
games is just doing more damage
to your game as the level of competition
is just not there. If you spend a great deal of time & money with your hobby , not working on your Bridge game as you do
with your golf game at the driving range
is ludicrous. If Bridge is a large part of your social life
, the motivation to
improve should be there. As Nike
says , just do it.
Try putting into practice some of the advice the coach
says or puts into articles . There
is only 6 months left to the Venice Cup trials so we do have a goal
. Improving does require some effort on your
part . The coach is on your side remember , so play with him , ask questions & argue with him in E-mails !!! The
status quo is not an option for you as you
promised to improve your game
to the next level .