2008-01-30 08:11

Hand Evaluation - Visualization ( Anticipation )

PITBULLS:

In every sport you must acknowledge that there are opponents. A great deal of your strategy should be devoted to anticipating what the opponents may or may not do. Good opponents make it rough on you as it is the nature of the beast. They are doing their job well. In some sports , the team will go into a “prevent defense” to ensure the opponents do not score a late touchdown or goal. In Chess , you must anticipate the opponents next move so you can counter act it. In Bridge , with the application of patterns you can anticipate the opponents next move.

In the game of Bridge , ignoring opponents is not a good idea. Good players respect opponents but use them as stepping stones to get to their best spot. They anticipate the opponents next move so they do not hopelessly jam your auction. You show where you live to assist partner in making forcing pass decisions. In Bridge , a good partnership also has a "prevent defense" with bidding . The four most common disasters in Bridge is (1) opponents making a game or slam that could have been beaten by the correct open lead (2) opponents having a "free ride" to their contract without you making life difficult for them by taking bidding room away from them (3) not reaching a nice sacrifice & allowing the vul game/slam to be played instead (4) the double partial/game/slam swings .

Good partnerships realize when they are in a "prevent defense" auction so give each other leeway which they would not otherwise get . The partnership will not punish each other by leaping to game or doubling the opponents when the situation demands that partner might be bidding "defensively" . Normally these auctions would occur when the opponents have stated that they own the auction . Examples would be a 2 Club opener , a Q bid showing a limit raise or better , a 2/1 , an inverted minor , a Jacoby 2NT etc . The tools of prevent defense are bidding for opening leads , bidding to mess up their auction ( taking room ) , showing where you live for forcing passes & finding a fit your way.

Anticipating that there are opponents in the auction, transcends “prevent defense” though. Sometimes you have information that they do not have. You have a huge fit for partner in a competitive auction but they have the higher ranking suit. They do not know this, by applying patterns you do though , so sometimes it’s best not to rock the boat. Getting too aggressive will just push them into a nice spot. Sometimes when partner pre-empts the best strategy is to lie low & let the pre-empt do the dirty work for you. Make a tactical underbid once in a while & otherwise play with the opponents mind.

Patterns , the building block of Bridge , are important tool to anticipate what opponents might do in any auction. Partners & opponents make conventional bids which announce their patterns to the table. Apply patterns during the auction so you can have a reasonable idea of their next move. A player had this hand ♠QJ10xxx ♦x ♦AQxxx ♣x with the auction going 1NT ( everybody vul ) – 2♣ ( minors ) –3♥ forcing . The idea with this hand is to anticipate the opponents next move. Partner probably has 10 cards in the minors , so that does not leave much room for hearts. You have a singleton heart & they are in a forcing auction. Applying patterns , you know that LHO is going to bid 4♥. Therefore , you can safely bid 4♦ to inform partner that you have 5 of her suit. After the anticipated 4♥ , you can now back in 4♠ & transfer the decision where to play this hand to partner who is a better position to know the spade holding around the table. Applying patterns during the auction in order to anticipate the opponents next move is still another of the endless applications of patterns in the game of Bridge. .