54 Hands

Whatever momentum "How to Read Your Opponents Cards" gave me in counting is long gone. It's hard to hold on to when you're playing infrequently.

That said, I did play 54 hands this weekend - 18 in the Friday morning 299er club game, 24 in the competetive afternoon club match, and 12 in Saturday night's IAC teams match. The results were, perhaps predictably, a 53%, under 40%, and a narrow loss.

Friday was interesting in that, out of the 42 hands I played, I only declared 3. Make of that what you will. My play was not great, and mistakes were made.

In the morning session, I was unable to puzzle something out.

I overcalled 2 spades, which partner raised to 3 before the opponents settled into 4 hearts. I was on lead, and chose a diamond from Qxx rather than a spade from AJTxxx. Dummy came down with KQxx in spades, so I was glad that I did not chose a spade lead. Partner won the diamond lead and returned the nine of spades.

I thought and thought, but could not come to the correct conclusion. For whatever reason, it seemed impossible that partner wanted me to continue diamonds, the higher offsuit. I also figured partner had to have the doubleton spade, but this, it turns out, was incorrect. It should have been clear given that partner was establishing winners in dummy, but I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that partner had raised with a singleton.

Good problem.

Saturday night's match featured the worst back-to-back trick plays I have made in months, maybe years. A reasonable excuse might be that I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, but honestly, this was really really bad. As it turned out, RHO gave me the contract right back on the next trick. The ironic part was that I now had sufficient count to know which way to take the 2-way finesse in spades. Maybe counting to 40 is just easier than counting to 13.

A kind expert who happened to be kibitzing offered that I seem to do better at forum problems than at the table, possibly due to nerves. This is likely true, though maybe concentration is a better probable cause. That said, I probably average only part marks on forum puzzles, so it's still not a raving endorsement of my game.

The outlook isn't really all that positive in the short term, either. As the snow melts, I'm going to have to focus more time and energy on my other ambition, triathlon training. So, for the next few months anyways, I don't really see any more time for me to play regularly, and sort out these issues. Rather than via brute force, I'm going to have to use quality time to focus on improving my game.

Maybe I'll play some more with GiB, where I can focus on my counting, and take my time on the tougher reasoning problems. I'm probably not alone in playing a little too quickly when I'm in a competetive match.