[thepossum]

Dear all

I was inspired to write this by another site I have a profile on where you can put your favo(u)rite bridge memory in your profile. I would be very interested in amusing, happy or traumatic anecdotes especially when things have gone wrong

I have played for many years however my first experience of a "serious" bridge club was not a happy one. Back in the 90s in my late twenties, me and a friend thought we would find a local bridge club and have a few enjoyable evenings playing in a club. So we went to our local club, a very respectable area full of very respectable people.

We walked into the club and asked if it was ok for us to play casually in duplicate. They said of course but the intimidation and psych games started the moment we walked in. I've never experienced such behaviour from mostly respectable middle aged people, many would have been teachers and academics

Firstly people started mocking the casualness of my friends clothes (he was a student). At our first table while we were setting up the boards one of our opps mocked me for turning the board around and said "can you not read upside down" with a sneering voice. She harangued me over how long it took to fill the boards

Anyway, we played a few tables, a few reasonable hands, a few disasters, going from table to table hearing the obnioxious mockery of so called respectable people. Laughing and talking - oh we havent played them yet etc with a laugh

Around half way through the session it was the last of the hands at a table. My partner made a bid I didn't understand but thought was weak. My RHO asked what it meant. I said I thought it was weak. She doubled. It was strong

My heart sank during the play (I was dummy) as I saw her face during the hand and understandable upset and anger

She just glowered at me after the hand, not really saying anything despite me apologising profusely. Next a knew the TD had been called to our table and was involved in a discussion over it. The TD decided it was a legitimate mistake

I apologised again profusely but all my RHO opp said with as much controlled anger and disdain as she could two words "Just go"

So we did. We continued the session hating every minute of it. Never went back to that club. He decided he never really wanted to play in a club again. I've played a few times in a more friendly club with a more experienced partner who was given more respect than my young student friend

Anyway. That was a traumatic experience. I understand the annoyance of getting an undeserved bottom but maybe if the bridge players had behaved better and the culture had been better from table one we would not have felt so nervous and prone to error.

Anyway they kept their club pure. It does have a reputation for taking things a bit too seriously. However I guess the real lesson was that we should have been encouraged not to play when we arrived if that is what the group was like. It certainly put me off bridge clubs for the last 30 years. I still avoid going to them despite knowing that most are friendly places. Please think about the damage you can cause by your behaviour. It was not a world championship, just regular club bridge. Is getting upset over one hand worth discouraging people from playing the game

Would love other's stories

Possum

[helene_t]

Maybe we can get Olegru to repost his story about how he learned to play bridge.

Anyway, when I became comite member at the Lancaster Bridge Club I was asked to say a few words about my own bridge background, so here it goes:


I grew up in Denmark where my whole family was addicted to bridge, except for my mother. Since we were only four people in the household she had to play also though, and she bought a book "the bridge-player's wife's manual", from which she learned that she had to show her interest for the game by frequently asking which suit is trump. I learned bridge when I was 8 but I didn't get to play much for the first 25 years, other than at the family reunion. So the level never became very high. Denmark is (like almost everywhere outside Britain) a strong-notrump country, but since I had no clue how to bid after a suit opening I wanted to open 1NT as often as possible, so I always tried to convince my partners to play weak notrump.

In 1996 I moved to the Netherlands and at newyears day 1999, which was just a few weeks after I had my sex reassignment operation, there would be a bridge drive at a lesbian disco, and I thought that would be fun to go there as I now finally would feel comfortable in such a place. So I bought a Dutch beginner's book to see how bridge is played in that country. It was very confusing. They called the system "Acol" but it looked more like Goren than Acol. Anyway, I went there and was lucky to find exactly 7 other players. At the first board, I got to declare a 3NT contract. LHO lead a small diamond to her partner's queen which I covered with the king. Then RHO switched to a club! "Hey, I won that trick, it is my lead!" I said, but my LHO told me off: "This is a feminist bridge club so the queen wins from the king!"

[Cyberyeti]

My grandfather was a decent player in his day, and started teaching me when I was 8. Went to one of the schools which supported bridge, won the (internal) school championship when I was 11, reached the national finals of the schools pairs when I was 12 or so, which was played alongside one of the big congresses and allowed us to play in the teams. We had a whale of a time, beating the guy who ran schools bridge in my county and an at the time international and I was hooked.

Schools bridge in the London area was an experience, there were both very good and very bad players. We won an 18 board match 205-0 for example. I then learned to bid at university.

Favourite memories, playing at one of the big congresses against somebody I knew well and with whom there was always a good level of banter. We bid to 5♣.

Friend: "I have every confidence you're going to make this" - pulls double card
Me: "I've seen your defence" - reaches for redouble but doesn't pull it
Me: "But I've also seen his declarer play" - pulls pass card
Sure enough partner misplays a contract he certainly could and possibly should have made
There is now a lot of laughter at the table
Guy at next table: "We're trying to play a serious bridge tournament here"
Friend: "So are we but we're enjoying ourselves"

Other favourite memories I've posted before so will only do briefly.

Causing an otherwise sensible bridge player to stand on his chair at the end of the evening at the Young Chelsea and shout "Who perpetrated that obscenity on board 17" or similar. I'd just made 6♣xx on a part score board.

Winning the teams at the Isle of Man congress which was a totally surreal experience from start to finish from finding partner moving house when we went to pick him up to the caterpillar on the salad incident and more.

Bidding 7♥x as a sacrifice and making it. Slightly tempered by team mates putting 6♠x on the floor the other way, thus depriving us of a 24 IMP swing (which I've still never had). Not many times you can floor a cold doubled vulnerable slam and still gain 20 IMPs

Hardvector's story below reminds me of another. I'd played with a partner for the one and only time, and twice in one session, we'd psyched a (5 card) weak 2 with 4 and partner had psyched opposite, both times with great results and no TD call. After that my regular partner and I started playing systemic 4 card weak 2s. So first time after we agreed to do this, I picked up 1st seat green v red Jxxx, xxx, xx, Jxxx or similar. 2♠-(3♦)-X I obviously had nowhere to go, and when the smoke cleared we ended up with a 4 figure plus score. Partner had a 2N opener with 4 trump tricks.

[HardVector]

I had tried to learn bridge by reading Sheinnwald's 5 weeks to winning bridge, couldn't get through it. It just wasn't jelling for me, because I wasn't able to play to incorporate any of the things I was reading. About 15 years later, a friend came to me and asked if I would like to learn how to play bridge, I said yes. His father-in-law used to play competitively in the 60's, stopped, and was interested in playing again. He was going to take 4 of us and have a bridge night in which we would have a dinner, then sit around and play bridge with him going around the table and helping us out and giving "lessons".

Quickly, the things he was saying along with my actually playing with cards in my hand jelled with the things I read before and everything started to click. After about 6 months, I was ready to go to a club because like many rubber players, I was tired of getting dealt bad cards. None of the other 3 stuck with it, but I haven't stopped playing since.

The most memorable incident from that time came from the first regional tournament I went to. My mentor was partnering me (he just wanted to introduce me to the scene), and I had a hand in which I opened first seat with 2h. It went (2s)-X-(P)-P. My LHO then turned to my partner and asked, "That was weak, wasn't it?". He said no. He then turned to me and asked, "That was takeout, wasn't it?". I said no. A couple minutes later, I was trying to figure out what -5 double scored. This was back before these bids were alertable.

[mikeh]

I grew up in a family where nobody played bridge, but one grandmother had taught us kids whist (but we rarely played). I was in Engineering school, in the student lounge, when 3 people asked if anyone played bridge. I said that I didn't but I'd like to learn.

Two weeks later, I was hooked but knew nothing. I found a copy of Five Weeks to Winning Bridge in the University Bookstore, and devoured it. Interestingly, having mislaid the book, I was for years convinced that it was Seven Weeks to Winning Bridge, but maybe I got the slow learner's edition.

Be that as it may, I was the best player in that game very quickly: being the only person to have actually read a bridge book. Next year I moved into residence and really got hooked, almost flunking out. The only times I ever had breakfast was when I stayed up all night playing bridge...then had breakfast and went to sleep, missing classes.

One of the players I met then was later to become my partner when, 35 years later, we won the Canadian National Team Championship, then beat Mexico and got to play in the Bermuda Bowl. I remember one hand from back then, in residence...not the details.....Gord led low towards dummy's Queen and I popped the King. Later he complimented me on reading that if I had ducked, I would have been endplayed. I nodded wisely....and then went back to Five Weeks to try to figure out what an endplay was.

Similarly, when a NABC was held in Vancouver, where I was going to school, my partner and I entered a regional pairs....he had 6 mps, while I had about 3.

We placed overall! One hand we bid to a thin slam. I played trick after trick and in the endgame was surprised that my small diamond was a winner. Discussing with friends (who were better players), this hand came up and I proudly said that we had bid and made 6S. One of my friends complimented me on finding the double squeeze. That gave me something else to look up

I moved to a small town after university, in 1976, 500 miles away from the nearest Regional, and it wasn't until 1986 that I moved to a city where there were actual expert players, and I learned, again, that I knew almost nothing about the game, even though I was by then convinced that I was a good player (but of course was not).

I was fortunate in the 15 years that followed to play with some remarkable players, as partners or as teammates. By then I knew about endplays and squeezes

Finally, in 1998 I was on the winning team in a major event: the CNTC's.

One hand stands out.

We played an aggressive weak 2D opening, with frequent 5 card suits and, by agreement, often with a side 4 card major. We used 2H as a response to ask about a major, and 2N to force in hearts.

We were playing the semi-finals, and had just that morning discussed a wrinkle....if we opened 2D, and partner bid 2N, showing hearts, 3C showed a minimum but liking hearts.

A few hours later I picked up the best hand I have ever held: AKQJ9 AKJ9x A AK

Partner opened 2D!

Spades could look after themselves: what I wanted to know if whether he had the heart Queen, so I bid 2N.


He bid our new gadget: 3C! he liked hearts.

I keycarded and then asked for the heart queen. He showed the Queen with the diamond King, so I bid the safest contract: 7N

It rolled home, for a big pickup and a day later we won the finals.

Bridge has been very good to me. I have all kinds of stories, and many friends, but the best part of the game is that it led to my meeting the woman who is now my wife

[rmnka447]

I grew up in a family of card players, but we didn't play bridge. I recall playing Rummy at about 4-5 and then graduating to Pinochle, but I was interested in all card games. My introduction to bridge was through my older brother who started playing it while in college in the late 50s.

Fortunately, our local library had a couple books on bridge that have influenced my bridge career to this day. The first was Watson's book on play. That book along with a dog-eared paperback by Goren given to me by my brother, and Sheinwold's 5 Weeks to Winning Bridge were the basis of a solid foundation for learning bridge. The second book from the library was How to Play Winning Bridge by Edgar Kaplan and Alfred Sheinwold. It outlined the Kaplan-Sheinwold bidding system (weak NTs, 5 card majors, 2/1, weak 2 bids, etc.) which included lots of stuff virtually unseen in the Goren is God environment at that time. As a brash teenager, it not only seemed neat, but made a lot of sense. So I recommended to my brother that he read it.

He did. He liked it so much that he got his college mates to adopt it as their bidding system of choice. That group had a lot of success playing in tournaments in the Midwest while completing college and for a while thereafter. Life intervenes with other priorities. Yet the group still got together occasionally to play in tournaments. Several have remained very close friends and teammates to this day.

My brother and I started player as partnership in the late mid 70s when he moved to Chicago. Life stepped in again and we didn't play on a regular basis til the 90s. In the interim,, I got an excellent bridge education in after the game rehash of a local game with excellent, excellent Chicago area players. So when we picked up playing again, we played well and decided to get our friends to play serious bridge with us.

My favorite stories relate to helping newer players achieve some success.

In the late 90s, my brother and I were going to play in a Cleveland Regional with our friends, but business obligations prevented him from coming in before Friday night. I had scheduled some vacation so went into Cleveland early deciding to try and play with a pickup partner on Friday. So I signed up at the Partnership Desk. A gentleman approached me saying "I'm looking for someone who is a C player to play with me and two ladies in the Open Swiss. My partner got sick and couldn't make it today. They have only about 150 MPs between them." He ran a game in the Pittsburgh area and had brought the ladies who played in his club to get some tournament experience and maybe win a point or two. So we played.

The ladies played solid and we played well winning the first 5 matches including a match against the teammates my brother and I would have the next day. At that point we were second overall in the field. In the 6th round, we lost to a team of really top players but not too badly. My partner told me that the ladies were nervous playing against them and struggled a bit. In the last round, we lost again but only by an IMP or two. We ended up still finishing 4th overall resulting in an experience that the three other players will never forget.

Likewise, my brother asked if I would play in a Swiss with him in a Kalamazoo Regional Swiss event with two newer players from the club he ran. It ended in a very similar result. The other pair played solid bridge and we played well. In the 6th round, I struggled against Canadian Berry Harper and we lost. We won the final round, finished something 3rd or 4th overall, but won the B strata. I think the really gratifying thing is seeing newer players start to realize that doing well in team games is about playing really solid bridge rather than being all over the place.

[el mister]

Getting better at declarer play is, as we all know, very easy - you just count winners and losers, make a plan at trick one, remember the bidding and pay attention to discards. Right? So why is it that so many of us are completely, obdurately resistant to heeding this advice? I had a minor eipiphany when this was explained to me, for the nth time, but by an expert, for the first time.

I know one expert in real life, actually an ex-expert, as he made international level in his early 20s, but then made the decision not to pursue the game professionally and he quit serious bridge, but the game is in his DNA. He's a friend and will occasionally play a club game with me, we usually do OK but never great. Afer one of these disappointing evenings he came to see me the next day and simply said 'Do you know what it would take for me (him) to get better at bridge? I'd need to find another genuine expert in this area who wanted a partnership and who I was compatible with, spend 100s of hours on system and practice (which would negatively impact my work), and then after all that time I might, maybe, be a little bit better than I am now at this game.
You on the other hand, would literally be 100% better, tomorrow, if you just counted your winners and losers, made a plan at trick one, remember the bidding and paid attention to discards.

I know that sounds trite but it was just the obvious truth of it that only sunk in because of who was saying it, that when you're a beginner / improver it is so so easy to make huge gains that become harder and harder to achieve as you progress. It was like I was squandering a huge opportunity, so either take it and get better or you may as well just stop playing.

[mikeh]

 el mister, on 2019-March-01, 08:03, said:

Getting better at declarer play is, as we all know, very easy - you just count winners and losers, make a plan at trick one, remember the bidding and pay attention to discards. Right? So why is it that so many of us are completely, obdurately resistant to heeding this advice? I had a minor eipiphany when this was explained to me, for the nth time, but by an expert, for the first time.

I know one expert in real life, actually an ex-expert, as he made international level in his early 20s, but then made the decision not to pursue the game professionally and he quit serious bridge, but the game is in his DNA. He's a friend and will occasionally play a club game with me, we usually do OK but never great. Afer one of these disappointing evenings he came to see me the next day and simply said 'Do you know what it would take for me (him) to get better at bridge? I'd need to find another genuine expert in this area who wanted a partnership and who I was compatible with, spend 100s of hours on system and practice (which would negatively impact my work), and then after all that time I might, maybe, be a little bit better than I am now at this game.
You on the other hand, would literally be 100% better, tomorrow, if you just counted your winners and losers, made a plan at trick one, remember the bidding and paid attention to discards.

I know that sounds trite but it was just the obvious truth of it that only sunk in because of who was saying it, that when you're a beginner / improver it is so so easy to make huge gains that become harder and harder to achieve as you progress. It was like I was squandering a huge opportunity, so either take it and get better or you may as well just stop playing.

Do you ever have the opportunity to play with 3 friends? If so, and if they are interested in learning: deal, bid and play a hand and then each of you review the auction and the play before dealing the next hand: maybe take turns going first.

Most declarer play, even at the expert level, is based on habits. Once one has the habit of mentally reviewing the auction before trick 1, and watching the cards played, it becomes automatic.

Then until it becomes automatic, make a mental note to yourself as you sit down for a new session. Heck, if you keep a regular CC with usual partners, write a reminder to yourself on the inside.

If your club gives you hand records, set aside 20 mins or so after the game to go over the hands and recall the auction and the order of the cards played. You'll find soon enough that this becomes almost unconscious.

This is important because none of us have infinite cognitive resources at the table. The more effort you have to put into remembering the auction and the cards, the fewer resources, and shorter time, you have into picturing the play, into drawing the inferences that are the essence of skilled declarer or defender play.

The other essential part of learning to play cards as an expert is to read, read, and read again. Unless you are an unusual player, you will never work out unusual situations at the table unless you've seen then in print.

When I played seriously (for example, in a partnership where we did spent literally hundreds of hours on systems and carding) I would always read a Kelsey book before every major event. I'd also read Love on Squeezes before any major event, and often review my copies of a very useful series of short, and grossly over-priced, books by Reese and Trezel published in the 1970s,

Why? Because although by the early 2000's I'd read them many times, they got me thinking and focused.

Bridge is a game in which one gets back what one puts into it, assuming a reasonable level of ability. It is also a game where the beauty, and I use the word advisedly, becomes ever more apparent as one's knowledge improves.