Tuesday, December 19, 2006 12:43 AM

The Kenny Gee Syndrome

PITBULLS:

Kenny Gee is a well known Canadian pro Bridge player who wins 1000 MP’s annually minimum. He never plays in good events with good partners as he always plays with clients. He plays a very swingy undisciplined style and if the action he creates causes the opponents to go wrong, he does well. He is looking for ways to create action on every board he plays. He must play this way as he would have no chance if he played otherwise as his partner would make way too many mistakes. This comes with the territory of being a Bridge pro.

A while back in a regional KO , I was asked to fill in on one of his pro teams. Kenny knows me by reputation so he knew I could hold up my end. Kenny decided in his wisdom to let Barry play with the client and he would play with yours truly. What I saw was the worst exhibition of Bridge I have ever seen . He was so undisciplined on every hand I never had a clue what was going on. We lost a ton of IMPS at our table and ended up barely beating a weak team by 4 IMPS. After that match , I asked for a partnership change or else I would have dropped off the team.

OK what is the moral of my story ? Kenny Gee could not help himself. His style is so ingrained that he could or would not play disciplined Bridge. If you play with partners all the time that are weaker than you are , you feel you must play hero and win every board yourself. Partnership Bridge does not exist. What you do though , is render your partnership useless. You could be playing with Garozzo but you take him right out of the game. You must make a conscious effort to play disciplined Bridge when playing with a good partner or else you will get buried. By whom ? Your own partner that’s who …

Partner has conditioned himself to believe his partner , draw conclusions from his bidding & take bids at face value . If you are like a confused client , you just keep passing so anything might work. Having partner bid your hand for you , make all the decisions singlehandedly , take horrible swingy risks all the time detracts from my enjoyment of the game. I like the partnership aspect of the game of Bridge. If I wanted single handed action , I would go to a Casino.