Tuesday, January 21, 2003 9:01 AM

Road to Monaco

PITBULLS:

Following the Dave Letterman top ten list , here are the coaches top ten reasons to get to Monaco .

10. Good opening leads. Well thought out leads after listening to their bidding and asking questions. Lead directing doubles when appropriate.

9. Counting HCP in declarer play and defense

8. Appling patterns in declarer play and defense

7. Tactical Bidding – making things difficult for the opponents

6. Defenses against their tactical bidding

5. 1^st & 2^ND seat discipline in pre-empts , weak 2’s and weak jump overcalls

4. Good card play techniques : safety plays , squeezes & end plays

3. Good penalty doubles of their games

2. Good table deportment . Control emotions and respect partner . Act like a champion and ooze self confidence . Honour thy partner …

1. #1 reason by far . Established partnership . You have bids and understandings that casual partnerships do not have . You make less bidding mistakes because you know your system and have discussed things before . You get to better slams and are more accurate in your game and partial bidding. You know each others bidding style .