[mike777]

Here are some basic card play tips an old buddy send me. I hope they will improve my game. Perhaps they can help yours.

"I think we could improve a lot if we concentrated on some basic themes. .... frequently mis-applying them to bread and butter simple situaitons. Here's a list. By no means exhaustive of things I've observed.

Not only is the normal play right most (if not all) of the time, you're partner will NEVER work it out, and will sometimes make disasterous decisions.



1. When partner bids a suit, lead it. ..it's irritating.....anything in partners suit is good to lead from, especially a singleton, when your trump holding is such that you'd welcome the chance to ruff.

When my partner doesn't lead my suit, he either has an obvious strong alternative, or he is void, and that is what I'll assume.

2. Lead a suit headed by the Ace King (against suit contracts).......just do it, and charge me if it costs us.

3. Second hand low.

4. Third hand high. Do not finesse against partner. .....lucky for us declarer had stiff 9 and not Jack....but if you just play the proper card, we don't have to be "lucky".

5. Third hand bracket. DO finesse against the dummy....ESPECIALLY when the cards are touching....the other day I lead a club....the 10 was in dummy, you had the J9 wrapped around it, and somehow played the Jack...not only did it pitch a trick....I misdefended in the end, because I "knew" you couldn't have the 9.

6. Fourth hand, win the trick if you can....especially if it's with a card you can't win a trick with later.....Every once in a great while, some novice opp of ours will hold Kxx as declarer....the lead will come to the Queen or Jack, he'll hold up, and we'll run the suit down their throat.....

...giving you a free trick that you refused.....

7. .....Think of building a trick in suits when you have some combination of K, Q, Ten by playing the K or Queen first as opposed to finessing the ten first..... You may have nine tricks in NT if a side suit breaks 3-3 before they can run their long suit.....



Sure, there are some exceptions, and really good players learn to recognize them...but we can't be sniffing at them when they aren't there, and that is SUCH a quick path to a ZERO......We lose very little when we fail to find a really advanced play (one of the exceptions) and we tend to lose a GREAT deal when we screw up the simple stuff."

[ArcLight]

>1. When partner bids a suit, lead it. ..it's irritating.....anything in partners suit is good to lead from, especially a singleton, when your trump holding is such that you'd welcome the chance to ruff.

Maybe he's seen what you bid on!

[1eyedjack]

I reckon that there are two ways to learning bridge: the rule-based approach and the thought-based approach. I am unconvinced that the best way to go is to compile a list of rules to be obeyed, rather than trying from the outset to compile a picture of the hands that are possible from the bidding, and from that population, those which are required (again if possible) for the contract to be set, updating that picture as the play progresses.

I suppose for the rank beginner there are some rules which have a tendency to work on balance, and as a starting point it does no harm to learn them, but the sooner you can be weaned off them the better. I should have thought that you, Mike, will probably have got to that stage.

Just my opinion. BTW, did your old buddy tell you what to lead if you have an AK in a suit other than one bid by partner?

[zasanya]

1eyedjack, on Mar 17 2007, 02:01 AM, said:

I reckon that there are two ways to learning bridge: the rule-based approach and the thought-based approach.  I am unconvinced that the best way to go is to compile a list of rules to be obeyed, rather than trying from the outset to compile a picture of the hands that are possible from the bidding, and from that population, those which are required (again if possible) for the contract to be set, updating that picture as the play progresses.

I suppose for the rank beginner there are some rules which have a tendency to work on balance, and as a starting point it does no harm to learn them, but the sooner you can be weaned off them the better.  I should have thought that you, Mike, will probably have got to that stage.

Just my opinion.  BTW, did your old buddy tell you what to lead if you have an AK in a suit other than one bid by partner?

The talented beginner thinks; works out card combinations; makes right decisions acquires a reputation but also gets a reputation of a slow player.He then realizes that a few rules make the game faster without losing much.So he starts relying more and more on rules.Then comes a stage where he may or may not realize that on some occasions rules need to be broken.That separates the expert from the non-expert!

[kenberg]

My first attempt at bridge was in 1961. I was given a set of rules, one of them being never underlead a king. I was on lead against 3NT holding Kxxx in a suit that I was sure I wanted to lead. Recalling my instructions, I led the king. Rules can be useful, but they are guidelines not rules and they have to be properly understood.

I believe the single best rule is to always be aware of what the contract is and to try to have some idea of how it can be made or defeated. Of course this can be very difficult on some hands, and if you are playing matchpoints it's not the only issue. But I have seen many declarers, not all of them rank beginners, go after finesses that may or may not work when establishing a side suit is a dead certain path to the required number of tricks. In any contract there are a certain number of tricks that are the key to the hand. If someone wants to start thinking bridge, this seems like the optimal place to start.


Here is another rule: Listen to everyone's advice, but decide for yourself.


Ken