Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:23 AM

Hand Evaluation – HCP’s ( Repetitive Skills )

PITBULLS:

Repetition hones skills in your particular sport or hobby. The mere fact that you do something day in day out , you become very skilled at that endeavour. To the casual observer ,these skills actually appear superhuman. A professional hockey player practices his slap shot day in day out. Over time , the puck reaches unheard of speeds of 100 mph. A professional golfer through repetition drives the golf ball farther & farther. All of a sudden his drives are exceeding 300 yards on average. Through repetition & dedication to your sport or hobby , you developed very intricate skills.

What about Bridge players ? I only want to mention one of these repetitive skills so do not laugh. What does a Bridge player do with each & every hand she picks up. She counts her HCP’s. Over time, through repetition , you become very skilled at doing this. You do not even realize how efficient you have become at this mundane task but compared to the casual observer Bridge players are “superhuman” in counting HCP’s.

Why not take advantage of this developed skill ? Overcome your inferiority complex or excuses & make a conscious effort to count HCP’s as they occur when you are declaring a hand or defending a hand. You are not too tired or feeble-minded to do this. You do not even realize how highly developed this skill is honed already. You just need to concentrate & try it. I have a bad ( horrible ) memory & I can do it. So you have no excuse. This is why we play this game in part , is to exercise our mind. Become a “human odometer” with respect to HCP’s.

Ever play against Peter Jones & said to partner I had 16 HCP’s but I still went down in my contract. Jones to your left says indignantly no , you only had 14 HCP. You look at your hand again & there is 14 HCP staring you in the face. Peter had counted every one of them as he was defending the hand. Klimo , myself , The Gartaganis , Gordon Campbell , & Doug Deschner have this as an ingrained habit now. We do it on every hand as a good habit developed from years of playing at a reasonably high level. .

Do yourself a favour & try it when you are defending a NT hand ( initially ) & when you are declaring a hand. All of a sudden , a line of play or a switch on defense becomes crystal clear. You do not have to rely on educated guesses , signaling or experience. You know how to defend with certainty. By the way , when you play with a person who does count HCP’s & patterns , we know that you do not. It is blatantly obvious from our side of the table. You defend in a “fog of uncertainty” as Kelsey says in one of his books. We know you are just guessing.

Applying patterns & counting HCP’s are the two basics of expert Bridge. The counting HCP skill is already there , so you just have to tap into it by telling yourself to do it. So no excuses. Do it !