Interesting Q from rec.games.bridge

helene_t, on Nov 6 2009, 10:55 AM, said:

fred, on Feb 5 2007, 03:50 AM, said:

(Relating to his own assertion that the best beginner's bidding books were written 50 years ago) I think it is more likely that other factors (such as the proliferation of conventions and systems and the way that bridge is taught) are primarily responsible for both of these things.

Some observations:
- When I was new to duplicate bridge I found it great fun to invent crazy conventions.
- I was well aware that the crazy conventions gave me bad results. I didn't care much until I reached a level were I would actually be able to win a few small tournaments if I didn't play the crazy conventions.
- At that point I tried to convince partners to scrap the crazy conventions, but that could be difficult. New partners would insist on playing multi, bizarre notrump structures etc.
- Opponents were impressed by our crazy convention card. Many said explictly that we must be very good players since we played all those sophisticated conventions, and I am sure they weren't sarcastic.
- It is much easier to learn step responses such as Gerber by heart than learning to use logic to assess whether 4♣ is to play or a slam try in clubs.
- Authors of popular textbooks, as well as good teachers, admit that beginners shouldn't learn crazy conventions but they teach them anyway because the market demands it.

You're not alone. When I first started I had delusions of inventing a new system and conventions. I actually came up with one convention that I called Coles Unusual No Trump (Coles is my last name), but I dropped it due to the unfortunate acronym.

fred, on Feb 4 2007, 05:14 PM, said:

blackshoe, on Feb 4 2007, 01:49 PM, said:

Fred,

What would you recommend to the student of basic bidding theory? Any particular good books or articles? Anything else?

I am sorry, but the only good books I know of on this subject were written more than 50 years ago. Probably for some they would still be interesting to read, but the game has changed so much since then that I expect most non-experts reading such books (if they could even find a copy) would end up becoming confused.

I see most of today's books about bidding as analogous to those spam-like ads "work part time from your home and earn $100,000+ per year!" or "eat all the chocolate you want and never gain any weight!". Most modern books on bidding I have seen are nothing but hype and what they are hyping is some bidding system or collection of conventions that will "improve your results by 10% without you having to learn the basics!".

Here is what I would suggest:

Don't give a great deal of consious thought to this subject in your first few years of serious play. Learn a simple bidding system and only the few conventions that are so popular that they have essentially become part of "standard bidding" (unfortunately there are now quite a few conventions that fall into this category).

Keep your mind uncluttered with conventions that you don't really understand and play as many hands as possible, ideally with either a keen regular partner who is at roughly the same level as you or with a much better player who understands that it will help you more to spend your time discussing concepts like "a jump shift is forcing to game but a reverse is not" rather than the latest flavor of modified DONT.

Your brain is a remarkable machine. You will learn a lot of what is important by osmosis, especially if you manage to avoid distractions (like trying to come up with the best possible scheme of rescues when the 10-12 1NT opening that you shouldn't be using get doubled).

If you can afford to hire a professional player to be your partner or to give you online lessons (or whatever) you should do so, but do not hire anyone unless they are highly recommended by a person you trust and respect. If the pro or teacher starts by telling you that you must learn to play "4 of our minor is always 1430 Keycard Blackwood with specialized followups to the trump Queen ask" then find someone else - this person is trying to sell you snake oil.

After each session you play you should think about the hands and talk them over with your partner. If your partner is at the same level as you, try to make friends with an experienced player who is willing to discuss the hands you are not sure about (and who is the type of player whose idea of good advice does not involve teaching you that you would not have had a problem if you used his preferred variety of Extended 2-way Reverse Drury).

If you are fortunate enough to have access to an experienced player who is willing to help you, do not waste this opportunity by asking him questions that are designed to boost your ego (by trying to convince him/her to agree that your disaster on a particular hand was your partner's fault for example). LISTEN to your expert friend/teacher even if you disagree with him or her. Then THINK about it later. Do not get defensive when you are told that one of your bids was horrible. Instead try to understand what went wrong with your thinking process so that you can learn from your mistakes.

Once you get to the point that you consider yourself to be solid intermediate player (this should take 2 or 3 years of hard work) you should buy a subscription to The Bridge World magazine (and if you have friend who has a collection of back issues try to borrow them). Each month this magazine has a feature called The Master Solvers' Club. Read it and think about what you read. Re-read it and think about what you read.

You may find the other features of this magazine to be interesting as well, but it is fine if you read only The Master Solvers's Club in each issue.

This will help you to learn things like:

1) That bidding is not just an exercise in language, it is also an exercise in logic
2) How strong players apply logic to solve unfamiliar problems
3) The axioms that form the basis of this logic (which are "the basic principles of bidding theory" that I referred to in an earlier post)
4) You will also learn plenty about the language aspects of bidding, but most of these lessons will not involve learning the names and mechanics of new conventions.
5) That bidding situations in which the "right" answer is not at all clear are far from rare, regardless of how well you play.

This will also help you to improve your bidding judgment. Good bidding judgment is largely a function of experience. Reading what a bunch of good players have to say about a bunch of interesting bidding problems allows you to benefit from their vast experience without having to experience the same hands yourself.

Keep in mind that in many ways "learning the basics of bidding theory" is similar to things like "learning the basics of probability theory" or "learning the mechanics of compound squeezes" - these are all just parts of the game. On any given hand any given part of the game is unlikely to matter. You can survive (and you can certainly enjoy bridge) without learning such things.

All players are better at some parts of the game than others. For most parts of the game it is not necessary to be highly proficient in order to achieve reasonable results at the table.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

One of the reasons you see a lot of conventions is due to the awarding structure of duplicate bridge. 50 years ago, bridge is more like Poker, people may get famous and rich if they play high stake rubber bridge. Now bridge players can only get famous at bridge tournaments, which usually are in the format of duplicate. Again, due to the horrible structure of those tournaments, there is no money prize involved, so it's impossible to truly become an independent professional player. One has to be hired by the rich to be "professional". That kind of professional in my opinion is very different from the professionals in Poker. It's kind of a pet, a toy of the rich. They hire you just because they want to get famous or have an unrealistic ego that they believe that they can be world champion and therefore the best players if they hire 5 top players or play with a top player. To get famous and attract such kind of client, one has to win some tournaments. So now, the tournaments are the tools to get famous in the bridge world for ambitious players. And you may participate a lot of tournaments and shine a few times. Since the registration fee to attend those tournaments is rather low and you get no return in prize if you win, the tournament structure now favors those who play a highly variant game to get famous. And nobody would care how many times you have lost and how sever your loss is. They only see how good you ever placed in a tournament. If one plays in such a style in money prized tournaments for living, he should go broke fairly soon. However, he can get quite famous in bridge. So overall, bridge is not a game format to award overall effectiveness any more like the old rubber bridge. That's also the key difference between bridge and poker. In my observation, professional poker players actually work much more harder than professional bridge players to improve their game. Also, that's why bridge is a hopeless game comparing with Poker if the current awarding structure keeps. It is indeed very similar with the awarding structure on Wall street. If you are a trader and make a lot of money on a year, you get a huge bonus. If you lose a lot of money, you don't return your bonus. And nobody would care what a risky position you have put yourself in when you make that much money to get the bonus. The only difference is that on Wall street, traders manage others' money and in bridge, the registration fee can be ignored and you make no money prize even if you win.
Therefore, bridge players tend to play differently and invent conventions that may allow them to have a shot in big tournaments, even if those conventions may not be profitable ones in long runs cause bridge isn't a profitable game at all. One day, my wife asked me, "why do you go to those tournaments and burn money?" "why don't you only play money bridge at bbo, since it's the only profitable game format in bridge", I found that those questions are difficult to answer.

BBO Discussion Forums: Interesting Q from rec.games.bridge - BBO Discussion Forums