Decisions made by players on hands like this one can be difficult because we can see all four hands. It is sometimes hard to imagine what it looked like to the player at the table. I wonder here what East thought she was seeing. There were two questions: Why did her partner not lead a heart and why did declarer lead one?
The only conclusion I can arrive at is that she read the position as needing her partner to have the 9H because it was the only chance to set the hand (it is hard to imagine partner having the king and not leading it). The actual layout just strikes me as more likely though (the layout for hearts, that is, the layout for the rest of the hand is a bit crazy – am I really going to imagine South with 4-4-4-1 shape based on the bidding? No. No, I am not.).
bobbywolffDecember 21st, 2023 at 5:49 am
Hi Jeff,
Methinks you are tending to take our beautiful game too seriously, mainly because the hands you see here or with every bridge columnist, need to leave thoughts of play, bidding, timing, psychology, or any trait common to our game, (the more original the better) and thus your thoughts may develop to be. in the direction of responsibility to guess right, which, in turn
will cause you to over think when, in truth, the right line of play (or earlier, bid) was and is only an educated guess.
IOW, the position you take will likely be just a guess and the better way to deal with that,
is to play often, until you understand that only the experience you glean (from playing) will
improve markedly as you become more oriented to what many of us will call normal adjustment to different card combinations as well as learning how to psychologically learn
to glean information from individual players you play against.
Summing it up, just relax and keep your eyes and ears open, but by far the more important part you can do, is to promise yourself to keep your concentration level at the table, never
allowing yourself to lose it, until the hand is over.
Once that is established you will have passed at least more than 50% of the players you will ever play against.
Robert LiptonDecember 21st, 2023 at 10:47 am
Happily, I agree with our host. Everyone enjoys a clever swindle, except the sucker being swindled. “Who does not dare, does not win” is another quote that might have headed today’s column,
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Hi Bobby,
Decisions made by players on hands like this one can be difficult because we can see all four hands. It is sometimes hard to imagine what it looked like to the player at the table. I wonder here what East thought she was seeing. There were two questions: Why did her partner not lead a heart and why did declarer lead one?
The only conclusion I can arrive at is that she read the position as needing her partner to have the 9H because it was the only chance to set the hand (it is hard to imagine partner having the king and not leading it). The actual layout just strikes me as more likely though (the layout for hearts, that is, the layout for the rest of the hand is a bit crazy – am I really going to imagine South with 4-4-4-1 shape based on the bidding? No. No, I am not.).
Hi Jeff,
Methinks you are tending to take our beautiful game too seriously, mainly because the hands you see here or with every bridge columnist, need to leave thoughts of play, bidding, timing, psychology, or any trait common to our game, (the more original the better) and thus your thoughts may develop to be. in the direction of responsibility to guess right, which, in turn
will cause you to over think when, in truth, the right line of play (or earlier, bid) was and is only an educated guess.
IOW, the position you take will likely be just a guess and the better way to deal with that,
is to play often, until you understand that only the experience you glean (from playing) will
improve markedly as you become more oriented to what many of us will call normal adjustment to different card combinations as well as learning how to psychologically learn
to glean information from individual players you play against.
Summing it up, just relax and keep your eyes and ears open, but by far the more important part you can do, is to promise yourself to keep your concentration level at the table, never
allowing yourself to lose it, until the hand is over.
Once that is established you will have passed at least more than 50% of the players you will ever play against.
Happily, I agree with our host. Everyone enjoys a clever swindle, except the sucker being swindled. “Who does not dare, does not win” is another quote that might have headed today’s column,
Bob Lipton