PITBULLS:

 

          There are two styles of playing Bridge. One is the disciplined style where partnership trust & respect is paramount. You win IMPS not by psychological ploys of forcing the opponents to go wrong all the time but by accuracy in your own bidding or taking advantage of the opponents “risk taking” . To take advantage of the opponents bad bidding you must be disciplined yourself so that you are the one to be believed in competitive situations. People who play the undisciplined style are out to create action. By opening non openers , responding without a response , unsafe pre-empts , ignoring vulnerability , psyches & bad overcalls their style is totally predicated on make the opponents go wrong. This comes at a price of course because the opponents must be believed rather than your partner . This lack of trust & discipline causes other bad decisions in the partnership. Try playing with Steve Willard or Ray Grace to get an idea of this “pigeon shooting” style of playing Bridge.

 

          When playing against undisciplined players experts “make them pay” . Not just with penalty doubles but that the fact that they are usually in the auction helps declarer play the hands. They give you information with their tactics on bad pre-empts , bad openers , non responses , bad overcalls etc  that you can use to your advantage. Witness this hand playing against Osama & Vince Nowlan. The auction goes 1♣ and 3^rd seat by Vince Nowlan and Osama responds 1♥. I doubled as a passed hand with K10xx AJx 109xx Kx  and Mr. Nowlan rebid 2♣ . BJ Trelford held Q98x Q10x KJx AQx and since partner is showing around 10 HCP’s with spades and diamonds , BJ bids 4♠ .

 

K	A	10	K
10	J	9	x
x	x	x
x		x

 

      BJ gets the club 9 lead from Osama . So how do you play the hand ? Card reading is using the information the opponents have given you by their bidding.

 

 

 

Q	Q	K	A
9	10	J	Q
8	x	x	x
x

       BJ knows that there is an opener that has 6 or more of his hand as clubs. Since he is the opener he is more likely to hold the spade Ace and with long clubs be short in spades. Accordingly BJ wins the club king and leads a small spade from the dummy and Vince plays the spade Ace. He returns a club and BJ wins the club Ace and Osama high lows in clubs which gives Mr. Nowlan 6 clubs. BJ cashes his spade queen and Vince shows out discarding a club. Pattern time ! It is highly unlikely that Vince has 3 hearts as he pulled 1♥ doubled quickly to 2♥. BJ gets a tentative count of his hand as 1-2-4-6. Next BJ leads the heart 10 and lets it ride and Vince win his King and leads another club. BJ wins his club queen and Osama makes a nice play by discarding a heart instead of ruffing . BJ hooks the spade and leads a diamond. Vince makes a questionable play by bouncing with the diamond Ace and comes back a low diamond. Now what ? You know Osama only has 2 diamonds , 2 clubs , 5 hearts & 4 spades. What HCP’s has he shown up with for his so called response ? Only one lonely jack !. Vince has shown up with the spade Ace , heart king ,  QJ 6^th of clubs and A?xx of  diamonds. Vince has not bid his hand like he had 16 HCP’s so you go up diamond King and drop Osama’s queen for +620. Without their undisciplined 1♥ response ,  BJ would have no chance with this contract. The field played this hand in 4♠ down two probably because they did not get “action” from Osama.