Saturday, December 11, 2004 7:22 AM

Hand Evaluation - Thinking in Patterns

 

 PITBULLS:

 

            Thinking in patterns is more than important to reach another level in Bridge . Thinking in patterns is Bridge. One of the greatest mysteries to me is that I know a number of local experts who apply patterns as a matter of course when they are playing the hands. They play the hand “double dummy” because they have everybody’s distribution “read” . Squeezes , endplays , finding cards all stem from thinking in patterns in the first instance. You know LHO is 4-4-3-2 so he will be squeezed in the two 4 card suits he is holding. RHO has pre-empted & shown up with 3 clubs so along with his 7 card suit he is 7-3-2-1 so you strip him of the two cards & the one card & throw him in with his suit so he is end played . He must give you a ruff &  discard. You know that a finesse is twice as likely to succeed as RHO has twice as many cards in that suit as his partner and on & on.

 

            These same experts have not trained themselves to think in patterns on defense . Translating bidding into patterns is a must have skill. Partner  bid 2♥ as a WJS, you hold ♥KQxx and are on lead . Your mind can come up with imaginary demons if you do not translate bidding in patterns automatically. You lead the heart K against 3NT & a stiff jack appears on the dummy & declarer wins the Ace. You get in with a side suit so now you start to worry. Maybe declarer started with A10x so I cannot lead a heart. Maybe I must switch to a spade to come through the heart. This is silly paranoia. Applying patterns the hearts are 6-4-2-1 or may even be 7-4-1-1 . You cash the heart queen and take all your heart winners. A diamond life master switched & they made the contract. He has not trained himself to “think in patterns” on defense , yet his declarer play is double dummy.

 

            In the bidding , when partner & the opponents are bidding , get into the habit of translating their  bids into patterns . Partner opens 1♣ . bids & rebids diamonds. You know he is at last 6-5-1-1 so you rebidding your spade suit loses its significance. If the opponents overcall a suit & raise it with you having  3 ,  apply a pattern like 5-4-3-1 or 6-3-3-1 . Is it not nice to know that partner has a singleton there during the auction ??

 

            Here is a double header where both the defender & declarer did not “think in patterns” . My partner opened 1♣, I responded 1♠ & partner reversed into 2♥. I bid 3♣ & partner bid 3NT. On lead was Tom Gandolfo who figured declarer mapped out a stiff spade on the auction,  so with ♠Q7x  Tom led the spade Queen ! . The board hit with ♠K9xx ♥x ♦A10xx ♣Q109x  & declarer played the spade king . The defender won the ♠A & declarer played the ♠J. 5-4-3-1 comes to mind so the defender holding A108xx has an easy play of conserving partner’s spade by immediately returning a small spade. Tom’s 7 forces the 9 & the spades are ready to go from either side of the table. Inexplicably the defender cashed the ♠10 & returned a small spade & Tom had to play the ♠7. Now declarer’s turn to fog out. Instead of saying 5-4-3-1 & ducking the spade , he won the spade 10 & went down in the now cold game. Thinking in patterns is Bridge.

 

            Applying patterns is a must have skill in Bridge . All Bridge thinking depends on this visualization skill. If you have troubling sleeping or during commercials train yourself in patterns . 5-4-3-1 , 6-4-2-1 , 7-2-2-2 , 4-4-3-2 , 5-4-2-2 . There are not that many. The next step is remembering to actually apply them at the table. It may take you years to perfect the habit but believe me your game will jump at least one level.  When an expert does not do it all the time on defense , it is just plain laziness as they have the patterns memorized for declarer play.

 

            A decent player went down in a 4♠ game last night when unbelievably he did not count trump using patterns. He was trying to “count trump” which is unheard of for an expert player. He had 7 spades to the ♠AQxxxxx opposite ♠Kx  so he drew one round of trump with everybody following. The patterns now can only be 7-3-2-1 or 7-2-2-2. Leaving trump out , he led a side suit which got ruffed . They got in with another suit , came back a suit which both players had no more of that suit. He now counts trumps the “hard way” & forgot that he ruffed already. Imagining two trump instead of one, he ruffs small & they over ruff.

 

The same player was in 7NT vul in a Swiss match at a sectional He had ♥Ax opposite ♥KJxxx so did not see this suit as a source of tricks. Applying patterns you say to yourself 5-3-3-2 so if the hearts on 3-3 with the queen onside you have 5 heart tricks . They were so the grand slam rolls home. Thinking in patterns helps you in “safety plays”. You have ♣AQ109xx opposite ♣xxx so you say to yourself 6-3-2-2 or 6-3-3-1 . All of a sudden the play becomes obvious as there is an avoidance play involved. You cannot lose to LHO but you can to RHO . So you cash your club Ace & drop the stiff king. You now make +690 instead of –400 for a +23 IMP swing !!!!

 

            A player who does not think in patterns missed beating a vul game . They are in 4♥ with ♥AKxxx opposite ♥Jxx & he held ♥Qxxx .  Declarer cashed the ♥AK & found out the bad news . They threw the defender in with a spade who had the ♦K to tap declarer the same length as he was. He has the club Ace & another diamond to ensure that they would lose control of the trump suit. As he does not think in patterns visually , he could not even see this line of defense. You cannot play the game of Bridge without memorizing & applying patterns in all facets of the game. It is impossible,

 

            A veteran player tonight made a “baby” defensive error because he does not automatically think in patterns . He opened a weak 2♦ with ♠xx ♥Axx ♦K109xxx ♣xx & ended up defending 4♠. Partner lead the ♦A & they play Gartaganis ( known count signals ) so he encouraged in diamonds by playing a middle one. Alternatively , he could have demanded a heart switch by playing the ♦10 in case partner has a stiff ♦A. Partner switches to a trump so by disobeying your diamond signal the diamonds are 6-3-3-1 with partner holding the stiff Ace. Later in the play , you get in with a heart & the dummy is dead if the original ♦ pattern was 6-3-3-1 but he cashes his ♦K to give the opponents a board entry & an impossible game. A baby error induced by not applying patterns rears its ugly head still again.

 

            The auction goes 1♣-P-1♥-P

                                            1♠-P-3♠-P

                                            4♠-P-P-P                     

 

You are on lead with ♦AQxxx so with the auction screaming for a diamond lead , you lay down the Ace. Partner encourages  so you continue with 4th best  with partner winning the ♦K . You have ♦Kxxx & the board & declarer two each so what is the diamond distribution ? You know declarer is minimum 5-4 in the blacks from the bidding so giving declarer the rest of the diamonds means there are 14 cards in declarer’s hand as well as a ♥ void . You do not translate the bidding into a pattern so you return a diamond , giving declarer a sluff & a ruff  to make a vulnerable game.

 

            Thinking in patterns helps you avoid bidding errors. ♠Qxx ♥KQxx ♦xx ♣KQxx you hear the bidding go 3♣-P-P-4♣  by partner. You bid 4♥ so partner bids 4♠ which is the standard way of showing a huge two suiter after the opponents pre-empt. You now apply patterns to visualize partner’s hand & she could be 6-6 in spades & diamonds or 7-5 in spades & diamonds or minimum  6-5 in spades & diamonds. Knowing all this , how valuable are your two KQ combinations in partners known singletons or voids ?  Accordingly , you pass 4♠ & pick up +650 as partner was ♠KJ10987x ♥x ♦AKQJ10 ♣void.        

 

Thinking in patterns is supposed to prevent such baby errors. However , it is more than that. Thinking in patterns helps your opening leads , defensive play , bidding & declarer play. Thinking in patterns is how you play Bridge , period. If you do not think in patterns , give up all aspirations of becoming an expert Bridge player . It is not going to happen.

           

 

   

  4441  2.993219

  4432  21.551176

  4333  10.536130

 

  5530   0.895203

  5521   3.173900

  5440   1.243337

  5431  12.930705

  5422  10.579668

  5332  15.516846

6610       0.072340

6520       0.651056

6511       0.705311

6430       1.326226

6421       4.702075

6331       3.448188

6322       5.642490

7600       0.005565

7510       0.108509

7420       0.361698

7411       0.391840

7330       0.265245

7321       1.880830

7222       0.512954

 

            My latest attempt to get partners & team mates to think in patterns is to use golf as an analogy to memorize the 13 most common patterns. Ask your caddy for a 4 iron. This means the patterns with a 4 card suit as the longest 4-4-3-2 , 4-4-4-1 & 4-3-3-3 . Ask you caddy for a 5 iron this means the 4 most common patterns with 5 as the longest suit 5-3-3-2 , 5-4-2-2 , 5-4-3-1 & 5-5-2-1 . Ask your caddy for a 6 iron which means the patterns with 6 as the longest suit 6-3-2-2 , 6-3-3-1 , 6-4-2-1 , 6-5-1-1 . Finally ask your caddy for a 7 iron 7-2-2-2 or 7-3-2-1. Memorizing these paltry 13 patterns will change your Bridge game. Just do it.