Rodwell Chapter 4 – Would Reading It Have Made All The Difference?

Before I went to Regina to play in the trials, Ray sent me a word document with a copy of the fourth chapter of the Rodwell Files.  He said that the defogging questions at the end of the chapter were terrific and it would be very useful when I was playing (or defending).  Unfortunately I was too hepped up to read anything and I am now reading this chapter for the first time.  Since our team narrowly lost the final I have to ask myself if reading chapter 4 BEFORE the event would have made up the difference.

I blame lack of mental toughness which led to lack of sleep for most of my failings but perhaps … ?

The first few pages of Chapter Four finish up the concepts around making a plan.  This first part is a bit disappointing because it lacks depth but a few of the hands are quite lovely and since it doesn’t take long to read I enjoy it.   The idea of assuming that when forced to discard an opponent will make the easy discard first (thus throw a small one from a five-card suit) would be more interesting if illustrated in reverse – you should plan your discards early on and if possible save an easy discard for later on.   In the example shown from the 2001 Venice Cup D’Ovidio’s first discard was her fifth heart.  This allowed Daniela von Arnim to deduce that she had heart length.  Since D’Ovidio knew she had to make two discards, why not pitch something else first, and only then the heart. Would that have changed the course of bridge history?

I would have liked to see more in the next three sections: make a map, go over the basic options and analyze.  Given that the book is about 400 pages I can understand the need for brevity.  What I felt like saying at the end of those sections was “More please”.  I see all the ideas are there and the examples are fine but maybe more examples or even a summary that put it all together would work better for me.

So I do it — I make myself a summary chart.  There is nothing wrong with making the reader work a bit.  It is part of learning.  When I write all the concepts down it works for me.  Of course it is just an outline of a much deeper process, a process which I assume unfolds as I read the rest of the book.

Now come the defogging questions – the section I have been looking forward to.  Eric saved the best of chapter 4 for the last.  And yes, it is terrific.  I wonder if I can learn to go through this process when I am stuck on a hand?  I remember the deals where I just didn’t know what to do.  Finally I played something, hoping that things would clear up.  But now I have this whole toolkit of questions to ask myself.  And I love to read some of the deals Eric has described.  It isn’t only the big points but the little tidbits he throws at us along the way.

Here is an example of a defogging question I might not have thought of:

“Is there one card I can place in one of the unseen hands?”  Sometimes if you can place one important card than it will simplify things.  Here’s a deal from the 2011 Spring NABC. The auction was swift.  Partner passed.  North opened 1H and you ovrecalled 1S.  South closed the auction with 3NT.  Partner led the ♠7 (third best in partner’s suit) which goes to the ♠J, ♠ K and the ♠A.  Declarer leads the H8 to dummy’s ♥Q and your ♥K. How would you defend now?

North ♠ J3 ♥ QJ9654 ♦ Q3 ♣ AJ8
	East ♠ K9842 ♥ K3 ♦ K92 ♣ 1076

Eric goes into a lot more detail but the gist of it is that you can deduce that declarer has the ♠ AQ10x (from South’s bidding) and that partner has the ♥A (from declarer’s play).  If declarer also has a third heart then he has nine tricks very soon.  So you need to set up your tricks, which have to be in the diamond suit.  To beat the hand you place the ♦A in partner’s hand and lead a diamond.  But which diamond?  Eric likes a small diamond rather than the ♦ 9 which will only confuse partner.  Since partner has an entry with the ♥A you don’t have to worry about blocking the diamond suit.

Here is the whole deal.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ J3 ♥ QJ9654 ♦ Q3 ♣ AJ8
West ♠ 75 ♥ A107 ♦ AJ87 ♣ 9542		East ♠ K9842 ♥ K3 ♦ K92 ♣ 1076
	South ♠ AQ106 ♥ 82 ♦ 10654 ♣ KQ3

What I really like about this deal and many of the deals in the book so far is that when Eric describes what he did on a hand he doesn’t just illustrate the specific point, he also talks about other ideas (like leading a small diamond and not the ♦9 in the example above.

So in Chapter 4 Eric has definitely given me my money’s worth and yes, Ray, reading that chapter before I started to play a serious bridge session would have been helpful.  I might print out a copy of the defogging questions and take them with me to read just before I play in a serious event.