Friday, December 20, 2002 12:33 AM
Quality Practice
PITBULLS:
A golfer goes to the driving range to improve his/her golf game . Once there ,
if all she does is hit balls then no improvement takes place . You are just hitting balls and putting in
time . You have to practice with a purpose . You practice hitting fades or
draws , high shots and low shots or 40 yard pitch shots . You develop “muscle
memory” and then good things start to happen . Your golf buddies start donating
cash to your favourite charity i.e. yourself !
Bridge
is the same way . If you want to improve to a higher level in Bridge you can
not just come and “pitch cards” . You must have a practice game plan and train yourself . Say to yourself , today I
am going to make a conscious effort to count declarers
points on defense or today I am going to think in Bridge patterns when I am defending or playing .
Today I am going to make a conscious effort to try squeeze techniques . Today I
am going to learn the ins and outs of a new convention or partnership
understanding . After a while good
things start to happen . Your grey cells “ muscle memory” gets trained and these things become second
nature over time. Good things start to happen and Peter Jones calls you a card rack for 25 years !
Playing
with a Pitbull and we are defending 4♥ with the
auction going 4♥ opener
and all pass . The board hits with
Q10x xx Axxxx KQx and the Pitbull leads the Q
of diamonds , declarer plays small as does partner and declarer wins the King.
She then cashed the A & K of hearts and leads a club . You have the Ace of
clubs and the King of spades so what do you do ? If you have trained yourself
to count points on defense , you can actually “show boat” and rise with your
Ace of clubs and lay down the King of spades . Declarer has shown up with the
King of diamonds and the AK of hearts for her bid so there are no points left
for her given her 4♥ pre-empt . You beat 4♥ two tricks instead of letting them make it . You
ducked the club because you have not
yet trained yourself to count
points on defense !
Playing
with a Pitbull , LHO opens 1♠
and Paula bids 2♥ . Opens rebids
2♠ and Paula
bids 3♦.
Opener now bids 4♦ and Paula bids 4♥ ending the auction . I lead the jack of spades and
the board comes down with
AQxxxx A 1098x xx Paula wins the Ace of Spades , cashes the Ace of hearts and leads a
diamond. My Pitbull partner has
AKx of diamonds and wins the King . She now returns the spade and Paula draws
trump , knocks out of the diamond Ace and guess the club correctly to make 4♥ and a zero for us . I asked why I did not get a
diamond ruff when the bidding said that the diamonds were 4-4-3-2 . The Pitbull
replied that I did not think of it . This means that she has not trained herself to think in patterns . If you listen to the
bidding & say to yourself 4-4-3-2
how can you not give me a diamond
ruff ! ( I also played the diamond 3 )
Another hand playing with a Pitbull who missed identifying a simple
squeeze . She was in 4♥
Steve Willard led the K of spades into her stiff Ace
. RHO ( Alex Fowlie ) had made a 1♦ overcall so probably had both diamond honours. The
Pitbull led a heart and finessed the K which lost then RHO led back his stiff
club . Declarer drew trump and then though a long time and ran some trump and
then went one down when the clubs were 4-1 . A squeeze does not work until you rectify the count . The Pitbull just has to lose her two
diamonds and the count is rectified . Steve has the Q of spades and the 4th
club and gets squeezed in the black suits. This team should be up to making game contracts on simple squeezes before
the Venice Cup trials. Squeezes should not
be beyond the competence of the Pitbulls .
Another hand the coach blew but maybe we can learn
from it . Susan and I would have won the Sunday CNTC qualifying if I got this right . The opponents are in 4♠ and the board
came down with KQxxxx xx xx KQJ .
Declarer had opened a strong NT and the transfer made him
declarer . Susan led the J of spades and I held A98 xxxxx K108 xx and won the A of spades . I knew we had 2 spade tricks so we had
to get two tricks in the reds to beat this hand . I led back a heart and
declarer had a 100 honours in hearts so he made 5 as we lost our A & K of
diamonds . A pure 50 % guess in the reds on my part ? No , I made a mistake . I counted the points on
the board and in my hand and I knew Susan had 7 HCP one of which is the jack of
spades . Start putting theoretical 6 pt
combinations in Susans hand that
will beat game . One is AQ of hearts but there are three others which involve
diamonds . The AQ of diamonds and
the Ace of hearts & the Q of diamonds and A
x of diamonds !!
Therefore it is 3-1 in favour of a diamond switch !! I should have worked this out at the table .
You will not reach the next level if
all you do is hit golf balls .
Playing just for the sake of playing is just hitting range balls and putting in time . If you spend a great
deal of time and money with your hobby , not working on your game as in gold is
ludicrous. Try putting into practice some of the advice the coach says and puts
into E-mails . There is only 6 months left to the Venice Cup trials and we do have a goal . Improving does require
some effort on your part . The
coach is on your side remember , so play with him , ask questions and argue with him in E-mails !!! The status quo is not an
option for you as you promised to
improve your game to the next level .