[sceptic]

when bidding competively, I run into all sorts of problems

1/. Remembering what we agreed. (i.e. forgeting a tool, amongst the basic just forgeting the convention)

2/. evaluating my hand the second time around (both, over and underestimating).

3/. Pushy opps.

4/. LOTT (does not always seem to work).

5/. Partners that refuse to discuss system.

What problems do other beginners, intermediates have and what do you think is the worst issue and the one we should try to cure first?

I would like to hear from both beginners and experts on this as we may see things differently

[whereagles]

If you run into 5, it's better to keep it as simple as possible, and bid as unambigously as possible. Pards who refuse to discuss system prefer simple bidding.

[EricK]

(2) is by far the most important of these.

If you sort that out, you will have less of a problem with (3) and (4).

Why not find examples of where you fear your judgement let you down in this area, and psot them to this forum. Post the bidding up to the point you had the decision to make and see what other players would have done. Sometimes it is difficult to know whether you made the right decision but were just unlucky, or you made the wrong decision.

(1) and (5) are linked. Unless you have an exceptional memory, you will forget conventions and treatments and so on, until you have practised them enough. Obviously you can't practise them with a partner who won't agree to play them.

My advice is to find a regular partner who also wants to play these treatments and try to play with them exclusively (or as much as possible) until they are fixed in your mind.

Eric

[paulg]

You are doing better than me since the biggest problem I find is evaluating my hand the first time around!

Outside of regular partnerships the problems are based more on style - what does partner have for an overcall, are takeout doubles only made on 5155 shapes with 20 points or any 4333 shape with 12+ points, which doubles are takeout and which penalty.

I try to address most of the problems by making a plan before I start bidding, trying to plot possible routes through the auction. LOTT can be a useful guide as it's often more accurate at low levels but experience counts for a lot too. Both partners reading the same book can be a big help - Cohen's LOTT book or others.

Be consistent too. I'm an aggressive bidder and it confuses partner if I suddenly start playing in a very conservative manner.

And I think you'll find that experts look at the vulnerability a lot more than beginners. They will be very aggressive at Love All, reasonably aggressive when non-vul vs vul, fairly aggressive when Game All, and cautious when vul against non-vul.

Finally, without faith in partner it's very difficult to compete effectively. You have to able to trust someone in the auction

p

[Flame]

Welcome to the bridge world.

[hrothgar]

hand evaluation is the foundation on which everything else rests. If your hand evaluation is badly flawed, nothing much is going to help you much. In contrast, if your evaluation is sound, it will allow you to apply a wide variety of different tools.

[BrianEDuran]

Hi

As many other people have pointed out judgement is key. Hand evaulation is one of the hardest part of the game, and it is something even experts have problems with. I don't know this because I'm an expert, but because they blow it at my table some times, and all I see in magazines are bidding forums were"experts" don't agree. I think this is the number one improvement an intermediate player can make.

One of the hardest parts of bridge for me is getting the most out of partner. While I doubt any partner would every have said I'm rude or anything, I have very scatered result at individuals and not so good results with pick up partners. For me it takes several games before I know what the right thing to say to cheer up your partner/teammates after a cold game was set. Getting the most out of your partners is hard, some people are naturals for some people it requires work Every level player can improve here.

As for spectic line item 1) forgetting agreements, I don't actually think this is big deal. It will happen, it has happen to everyone in this forum, and will again. What matters is how you react afterwards. Apologize to partner, say you will talk about it after the game, and move on. In most club games one board doesn't make or break you game, since everyone loses one or two. Moving on after a problem hand is my number one improvement most beginners can make. Don't think about it, don't talk about, play the next hand. This is extremely hard and I would say that as many Match Points are give up by people thinking about earlier mistakes (which they can not change) as the mistakes themselves.

Brian

[inquiry]

1. Remembering what we agreed. (i.e. forgeting a tool, amongst the basic just forgeting the convention)

I don't worry so much about this. With a regular, full time partner, forgetting wouldd be very bad. With the occassional pickup parner on line, it is to be expected. Try to learn form your forgetting so you don't forget the ssame thing twice and other than that don't worry about it... if you are forgetting a lot of things, simplify your ssystem.

2/. evaluating my hand the second time around (both, over and underestimating).

RE-evaluate your hand after every bid by the oppoenents and your partner. Not jsut the second time around. You rnot going to get everything right when you do this, but it is much better to add values for fits, remove values for misfits, add values for hcp in a suit bid to ryou right, subtract a little something for hcp bid to your left... sure their honors may not be where you suspect, but in the long run they will be.

3/. Pushy opps.

I enjoy pushy oppoenenst, cause I push back.

4/. LOTT (does not always seem to work).

Lott is a tool to use when you ahve nothing esle to go on. Try to add back into LOTT the concept of hnor palcement, secondary suit fit, etc.

5/. Partners that refuse to discuss system.

Poitely find a way to excuse yourself. and comeback shortly later looking for a partner who will discuss your system with you. It is better to have non-optimal some bad bidding agreements than no bidding agreements at all.

What problems do other beginners, intermediates have and what do you think is the worst issue and the one we should try to cure first?

Hand evaluation, visualization during bidding, and play. I would try to fix play first... once you learn more about how to play hands, your evalaution will begin to get better. And as you start evalauting your hands during the auction, and visualizing most likely hand patterns and thus how the play might go, you will improve... and one day, you will realize you are not an intermediate anymore.

Ben

[luke warm]

all the questions were answered... the only thing i'd address is your last question... imho the one thing that would help most people is learning how to count... well, not *how* to count, but learning to count everything, all the time