Hand
Evaluation – Tactics ( Speed Kills )
PITBULLS:
If you have every played in national events or world events , you notice that all players take their time before bidding , declaring , defending or leading. Bridge is a cerebral game so are all these Bridge experts so dim witted they can not find the correct play immediately ? Of course not , they just knows that speed kills. All of them can not be wrong & you being the only right player by playing at the speed of light. This is preposterous ! Not giving a Bridge situation sufficient thought , leads to errors. Careless errors , missing inferences or just out to lunch due to not enough time taken to reach the proper conclusion. Bridge is not a race to see if you finish 45 minutes ahead of your team mates. You might have used these 45 minutes to prevent some errors that occurred at your table.
Here is a hand where the bidding went way too fast. Partner was in too much of a hurry to take control of the hand re Q bidding as opposed to describing his hand to partner. The auction goes with everybody vul 1♣, partner overcalling 1NT. You hold ♠KQJxxx ♥xx ♦AQ10xx ♣xx so you transfer to spades & opener bids 3♣. Partner passes so you have the first inference that partner does not like spades or she would have accepted the transfer freely. When you have a 6-5 hand pattern it is usually good bidding to let partner in on the secret. Partner could hold 5♦ or 4♦ so the best spot is a diamond contract & you use your 6 card spade suit for discards rather than the trump suit. Partner can easily have a doubleton spade on this auction so trumps are now subject to a 4-1 trump break ♠A109x will doom 6♠. Partner could hold ♠Ax ♥Axx ♦KJxxx ♣KQx & 7♦ is cold but 7♠ can not make as there are no pitches in a spade contract. There are many configurations where diamonds will be the superior contract in 6 level contracts. Why insist on spades as the contract ? Partner does not like spades !
Anyway you bid a calm 3♦ (obviously forcing) & partner likes diamonds with a 3♥ bid. Partner held ♠xxx ♥AKx ♦KJxx ♣KQx so dislikes her hand in support of spades due to nothing in spades & 5 wasted HCP's in their suit. Diamonds is a different story though. Having found your fit , you can make a clear & unambiguous leap to 5♣ ( exclusion) with diamonds as the agreed suit. You get to 6♦ for +1370 with a clear & simple auction. This is because you took the time to describe your hand to partner rather than racing to control the auction with the wrong suit as trumps. Speed kills during the auction also.
We feel that players not taking as much time as the opponents in high level matches , gives the opponents an unfair advantage. They
take time but you do
not. Partner
plays too quickly at trick one & goes down in a cold partial. They do
not & your team mates had to wait at the other table while their declarer was taking
their time. Partner plays too fast & fails to analyze the consequences
of a switch being a singleton & goes down in a cold partial. They take
their time at the other table & reached the proper conclusion. Partner does
not take the time to count their
tricks in a 3NT contract & quickly continue his opening lead.
Just a little time & thought & you would have said "wait a minute
here". Maybe we should switch & beat the contract .
Your team mates must endure slow & careful players but your opponents
reap the benefits
of your very fast play. This is unfair to your partners at their table
also. Bridge is a timed event but not a race. There are
no awards for the team that finishes the fastest in Bridge .
Wrong sport. The Olympics will have events where
the idea is to finish faster than anybody else.