[Mike_P]

We gotta sort our hands after every deal, and this is an exercise that happens a gazillion times a year across the planet. I'm a little surprised I have seen no discussion and have not been able to Google a suggested efficient (and reasonably mindless) way to do it, perhaps arranging over and under as we riffle from one hand to another.

I have seen folks (myself included sometimes) who fumble forever with this chore -- I wonder if there is a technique to do this quickly and with a certain amount of elan?......

-- Mike

[Gerben42]

The most horrible way of doing this is by picking up the cards 1 by 1 and putting them into place. This takes ages, taking lots of playing time.

I pick up my cards and put them all 13 between thumb and index finger. Then I simply take cards 1 by 1 and put them into place. I don't really see the problem but always finish before everyone else....

[P_Marlowe]

Hi Mike,

there were several discussion on RGB
(rec.games.bridge.*), involving this
topic, just search for "sorting your hand".

A radical solution: Do not sort at all.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Free]

I have a ritual
I count them 4-5-4, and next I pick them up (I still have my 4 last cards in my hand) 4-4-5 sorting them in the meantime like Gerben explains. Dunno why, but I do it every time.

Btw, some people sort them by suit, some reverse their honours,... I wouldn't be surprised if people have special sorting mechanisms so their partners can draw conclusions. For example, if you always place your ♣ on the left, ordered high to low, and you pick your extreme left card playing the 2, partner can figure out you had a stiff... Can you accuse someone of cheating this way? Can you prove there are bad intentions?

[Gerben42]

I dont usually sort inside the suit, and before picking them up I count them 3 - 3 - 3 - 4. I try to avoid things like singletons and doubletons with two honors on the outside.

[blackshoe]

I suppose you can accuse anyone of anything you like. But, as a Royal Navy officer once told me, "whatever you do, you had better be right".

I take my cards out of the board [i]en masse[/] and count them face down below the table, reversing the order. Then I face my hand, and pull cards out suit by suit (not always in the same order), grabbing groups of cards in the same suit at one time. I hold the suit-sorted cards in my right hand, and when I have the hand sorted into suits then I usually order them by rank. I vary whether the rank order is right to left or left to right; I vary the order in which I sort the suits; sometimes I don't bother sorting at all. I suspect the only thing anyone could infer from watching me sort is that I have 13 cards.

[pclayton]

I pick up my cards and make sure I have 13. This takes about 2 seconds.

I arrange them into suits. If I'm a little fatigued, I prefer to put them into S-H-C-D but not in any order. If I'm fresh, I'll just make sure they are red/black alternating. For some reason when I'm tired, the mental stimulus of seeing the cards in a familiar layout of SHDC somehow helps me process information better.

I know players that play without sorting. I simply don't trust myself enough (and my eyes) to do this. I know I would revoke, or miscount, or something else.

If youre worried about someone peeking, keep your cards in a pile (instead of fanned) unless you really need to. Frequently during the auction, I will look once and put them into a pile, since I don't need to look twice.

Oh, and during the play, try to anticipate what declarer is doing and put the card you think you need to play at the front, so you don't have to fish it out.

[Tola18]

pclayton, on Jul 26 2006, 02:00 PM, said:

Oh, and during the play, try to anticipate what declarer is doing and put the card you think you need to play at the front, so you don't have to fish it out.

No, it must be better to have them all together. And pick up the one when you decided which. Otherwise you will often get away your holding.

A very common fault. Say, trumph played. Next player sitting with a card in fingers several long seconds. Him signalling long way he has the ace - who he play down, but also additional trumphs.

[pclayton]

Tola18, on Jul 26 2006, 01:36 PM, said:

pclayton, on Jul 26 2006, 02:00 PM, said:

Oh, and during the play, try to anticipate what declarer is doing and put the card you think you need to play at the front, so you don't have to fish it out.

No, it must be better to have them all together. And pick up the one when you decided which. Otherwise you will often get away your holding.

A very common fault. Say, trumph played. Next player sitting with a card in fingers several long seconds. Him signalling long way he has the ace - who he play down, but also additional trumphs.

I disagree.

At Atlanta last year, Zia is playing with Jill Meyers. Chris Larsen tells me about a story where he held xx of trump. Dummy has ATx.

Zia leads the Q and Chris actually fumbles a little. He drops the stiff K offside.

This really doesn't prove anything, but you have to be ready when declarer leads.

[Winstonm]

I just put my shortest suits in the middle and work outward - don't care if red/black. Shorts suits in the middle makes it harder for someone to "clock" your hand.

[matmat]

First i count the cards three times. (usually because i get 12/14 the first two). Next I pick up the cards one or two at a time and arrange them neatly into my hand. I like to count the spots on the cards at this time, to make sure that the numbers on the corners are right. I then wad the cards into a neat little stack and fan them out only when time to play a card, making sure to wad them back right after the play. This has the benefit that the cards are neatly in a fan until the very end -- I can't stand it when people, near the end of a board, have fans that look more like windmills with wings knocked out...

[JanM]

pclayton, on Jul 26 2006, 02:00 PM, said:

I know players that play without sorting. I simply don't trust myself enough (and my eyes) to do this. I know I would revoke, or miscount, or something else.

I used to kibitz Bob Hamman a lot, back in the 80's when he was playing on Trials and WC teams with Chip. It was hard work because Bob would sort his cards at the beginning of the hand and then shuffle them up and never sort them again - he also held them closed during most of the bidding and play. I was amused when I was doing the Vugraph for the Spingold and Bob happened to be one of the players whose hands I could see, to notice that although he still doesn't keep his cards fully sorted, they also weren't as fully shuffled as I remembered . Even the great get older.

[EricK]

Winstonm, on Jul 27 2006, 01:48 AM, said:

I just put my shortest suits in the middle and work outward - don't care if red/black. Shorts suits in the middle makes it harder for someone to "clock" your hand.

Unless they know that you do this. In which case it makes it easier.

[Sigi_BC84]

That's an interesting topic.

I count them 3-3-3 onto the table and check that I have four remaining in my hand. I sort those then pick up pairs of cards from the table and insert them into the proper places in my hand.

I keep suits alternating red-black (I'd love to have widespread use of 4-color decks, but that won't happen I guess) and within the suits I sort the cards accurately (helps me with signaling). Sometimes I keep my hand under the table afterwards as not to give away information.

--Sigi

[cade909]

Count 3-3-3-4 and alternate colors when sorting hand. I like to do this under the table security thing.
"The most horrible way of doing this is by picking up the cards 1 by 1 and putting them into place. This takes ages, taking lots of playing time."-Gerben42

Unfortunately my partner does it that exact way and it does take playing time. Oh well......

[kenrexford]

My wife holds her cards in a strange way, one I have never seen before, and to her it seems natural apparently.

Essentially, her entire hand of cards is upside-down, in a sense. Obviously, cards cannot be "upside-down." However, she holds them such that the numbers and letters are upside-down and at the bottom. It is very odd to watch, but it has the benefit of keeping the numbers and letters lower, away from peeking eyes.

I tried doing this, but it is very difficult. Somehow, for her it is the only way she ever holds cards, and thus "easy." She has extreme difficulty when I have her try holding her cards the way everyone else does.

I have no idea how she sorts the hand, and frankly I am afraid to ask.

[mgoetze]

Sigi_BC84, on Jul 30 2006, 08:30 AM, said:

(I'd love to have widespread use of 4-color decks, but that won't happen I guess)

Incidentally, I noticed that www.bridge-versand.de has lots of different cards but apparently no 4-colored ones. Maybe you know where I could get some?

[barmar]

I count the cards simply by holding the cards in my left hand, and sliding them one by one with my thumb into my right, usually counting 5-5-3.

When sorting, I again put the cards in my left hand. I transfer each card to my right hand, inserting it into its appropriate place (I do the same thing when sorting a suit in preparation for duplicating, and I'm almost always the fastest at the table). I always sort SHCD and decreasing within the suits, although if I only have three suits I'll rearrange them into alternating colors when I'm done.