My play this week hasn't been very good. I'm noticing that I'm counting less and less, and playing on cruise control more and more.
I played 3 hands before work this morning, with the intent purpose of focusing on counting. (Naturally, I was dummy on the first hand. Bleh!) While I made 2 mistakes (missed a club discard on one, forgot that declarer opened 1NT, not 1 spade), it felt very good to take the time to reason everything out. It's not really all that much harder, and in the long run it's a lot more fun to play when you "know" what everyone has.
One thing I am curious about. When I'm on defense, I'll often assume that declarer has a minimum, for the purposes of estimating what partner might have. I wonder if this is how other players commonly approach the problem, or if instead they just set a range and adjust as the hand plays out.
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Recording my journey towards competence at contract bridge, be it duplicate or rubber bridge.
About Me
- warren
- I'm a thirtysomething intermediate player. My ambition is to rise to the top of the game. I split time between family, running, triathlons and bridge, so it may take a while. :)
Current Goals
- Slow down my play and think deeper
- Counting - improve my patience and consistency in counting
- Improve my card play
Current System
- 2/1, as per Thurston's 25 steps
- SAYC, as per ACBL
- Standard Carding with Odd/Even Discards
Contract/Duplicate Bridge Links
Currently Reading
Master Play (Kelsey)
1 comment:
There isn't any reason you can't practice counting while you're dummy. In fact, that is the best time, since it won't matter if you get it wrong.
Good defenders don't necessarily assume a minimum for declarer. What they do is work out as many lies of cards as possible that might beat the contract, then check which ones are consistent with the bidding, then which ones are more likely than others. Eric Rodwell, speaking at the Macallan tournament some years ago, said that many contracts make only because the defenders don't assume they can be beaten. It's good advice.
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