I Should Know Better

My biggest frustration lately is making mistakes that I feel that I shouldn't be making.

Playing in a very close team match, the last hand looks like this:



Get it right, you win. Get it wrong, you lose.

At the table, my mind went "if partner doubles, I have to pull - I have less controls than I've shown, and double will just be showing extras". So I pulled.

This is of course completely wrong. That thinking is the old me, back before I started reading, asking questions, and thinking. What's really going on? Opponents are likely no better than 4-4 in hearts. With my short hearts, partner rates to have some hearts. Also, my 4 diamond bid didn't show anything more than what I have really, even vulnerable. And while I had never played with this partner before, 11 previous hands had shown him (her?) to be completely competent.

All I have to do is trust partner, not rescue him/her, and we win.

The team captain was very gracious after the match, but our opponent, my Monday partner, had some sage advice. Just play more often.

There are a thousand good reasons why I can't play 100 hand a week, or devour a bridge book a month to further my game. All that is fine, but maybe, just maybe, I know enough now that in order to jump to the next level I need to play a few hundred (thousand?) hands. I feel like I'm becoming more aware, and that my head has much more good bridge knowledge in it than it did a year or two ago. Maybe if I just start playing, and playing with confidence rather than fear, the patterns that I should already know will influence my thinking at the table, for the better.

No Chance

My bidding judgment is being refined as time goes on. There's a time where I would never have accepted a game invite after opening 1NT with 4333 and 15 HCP.

I never said my bidding judgment was getting BETTER....



The jack of diamonds was led. Not bad - we're light point wise, but the extra trump means that if hearts are 2/2 I'm making.

LHO showed out on the second heart.

Ok, so there's no chance. I look it over. No chance. No chance.

Well, some chance.

I eliminate diamonds, and lose my first club. LHO wins and fires back a spade to partner's jack, and my ace. That spade return was a huge help.

Now, I know that RHO has the last trump. If he's got the queen of spades, maybe, just maybe, I can get endplay him into leading spades for me.

On the second club, LHO played the king, and RHO overtook with the ace. (Yay!) RHO played his jack of hearts, then exited a low spade.

Well, it was only ever a faint hope. I duck, and win with the ten.

Yay me.

Well, sort of. Turns out RHO still had the ten of clubs. If he exits with the club, I'm down 1, which maybe I deserve to be. Still, I made a plan, watched the spots carefully, and gave myself an extra chance to make.

It's something.