2008-02-27 21:15

Hand Evaluation - Expert Bridge

PITBULLS:

I have played long enough against expert competition that I feel I can define expert Bridge. Expert Bridge is how you “think the game” of Bridge. Expert players have translation skills finely honed. No matter what aspect of the game from opening leads , defense , bidding & declarer play , experts have the ability to translate. They translate bidding , leads , signaling & the simple act of showing out of suit into hand patterns. This is only the first step though. Using this pattern as the basis of their thinking they now apply simple logic & deductive reasoning. However , the translation process always comes first & automatically. Non experts do not do this translating so are just good guessers & are playing the game of Bridge randomly. Beginning players play the game randomly plus they lack the experience to make good guesses. I define tournament players who do not “think in patterns” as experienced guessers but not experts.

Playing against expert competition you are “lost” without this skill & these experts can make you look silly. They have the advantage of applying patterns & you do not , tilts the playing field into their favour. You are putty in their hands. Playing against Gordon Campbell of the Gartaginis teams shows how “translating” information into patterns can make things difficult for opposing experts. My partner held ♠x ♥AKQxxx ♦xx ♣xxxx & opened 2♥. Gordon doubled & I bid 3♦ which was doubled & Gordon bid 3♠ which was raised to 4♠. I led a small heart & the board was ♠Jxx ♥Jxx ♦Q10x ♣A10xx . Partner won the first heart with the king to conceal his queen as a standard deceptive play knowing Gordon counts HCP’s. Now like all good defenders , Partner pauses at trick one to get a “lie of the land” via translating information into patterns. 5-4-3-1 in the trump suit pop’s out as he is looking at a singleton spade. 6-3-3-1 in hearts looks like the heart situation as I lead the heart deuce. With the diamond holding on the board , he knows that he should conserve my heart exit cards & we will have plenty of time to tap him later. Gordon fearful of a diamond ruff bounces on partners diamond return with the Ace. Now Gordon is in a dilemma as he has to weigh the options of a diamond ruff against a trump safety play. After long thought , he decides to cash the ♠AK so down one in a vul game as I held ♠Q109x ♥10xx ♦Kxxxx ♣x . Knowing that I had two trump tricks against their game & heart support that killed partners hand , I put a diamond bid in early to assist the defense.

Say the defenders continued hearts as a best guess without applying patterns , Gordon ruffs , spurns the safety play , goes to the board to ruff out my last heart exit card & just runs his top clubs until I ruff in & get end played for –620. Gordon applied a pattern also in the heart suit 6-3-3-1 to rid me of my exit card. Patterns are a blueprint for defense but you must create the blueprint first by translating information into patterns. This defense is not great defense but standard expert defense. Against experts & with experts , this defense is simple standard stuff.

Another hand where creating a blueprint is essential to the defense & what can happen to you if you do not . I opened 2♥ with ♠Qxx ♥KQJ109x ♦x ♣9xx which was passed to Gordon in the balancing seat who bid 2♠. His partner made a game try of 3♥ & Gordon bid 3NT . I led the heart king & the dummy came down with ♠AK ♥xx ♦QJ10xx ♣J1087 so all the experts at the table start translating information into patterns. Gordon ducks the first heart & partner shows out on the 2^nd so Gordon wins it. Partner has ♠xxx ♥x ♦xxxx ♣AKxxx so he now has a pretty good picture of declarer’s hand. He knows the heart & spade patterns 6-4-2-1 & 5-3-3-2 so Gordon is 5-4 in the majors. If Gordon has the ♦AK , we can count 8 tricks. If he has the spade queen also , he has 9 tricks. Therefore , partner places the spade queen in my hand. Under no circumstances will partner discard a spade as that will just endplay himself in clubs later in the hand. Applying patterns is a stepping stone to counting opponents tricks. Gordon leads a spade to the Ace & starts running diamonds. When diamonds exhausted , he leads a club & partner wins the ♣K & exits a spade. Gordon leads another club , partner wins the Ace & returns a spade & I claim for +100 instead of –600. Patterns is how you think & play the game of Bridge at the expert level , everything else is just guessing or pure dumb luck.