Practice, practice, practice – bridge and tennis

February 4th, 2013  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

Ray and I loke this old joke.  A woman is wandering around in New York City and looks a but lost. She stops and asks a passerby, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The passerby looks back at her quite seriously and says, “Practice, practice, practice.”

When I was a child my parents organized piano lessons which I took from when I was about six years old and until when I was around fourteen. I liked the lessons; I liked playing; but I didn’t really like practising. 

My dad would put a clock on top of the piano. He would set a timer for half an hour. I was not allowed to leave the piano until the stop watch reached the appointed time. You can imagine how I felt about that.

Somehow I learned to play the piano anyway. But as I learn tennis I have a very different attitude. I want to practice every day. Practice isn’t always fun. I have attempted hundreds of serves and mostly failed at getting anything that remotely resembles one. But it is the only way to a good tennis game. Joe has commented on questions from students (or their parents) who have not improved after many tennis lessons. When he asks them he finds out that they have not practiced the new ideas at all between lessons  (or maybe even played.)  You can’t improve that way.

My bridge students all like to play if they can find a game. A few play at home and fewer still on BBO. There are other ways to practice too: Watching other people play and thinking about what they do, working through a bridge book and trying the exercises and examples, practice bidding with your favorite partner, writing down notes about what bids mean. Of course playing is great too, especially if you discuss and walk-through the hands after the game.

I have a friend at The Landings called Cynthia. She brings hands to show me after her duplicate games. We discuss them together. This is another way to learn. Think about what you did right and wrong.

You never really bmaster the game of bridge – there is always something new to think about and learn. That is part of why it is so much fun.

Do I like writing long notes about my bidding system? Do I like practising bidding with a partner? Do I like going through my mistakes and thinking about them? As I think about it I like it a lot more than I used to like practising the piano when I was a kid. I need to help my students to find good ways to practice and to like it too!

I Survived and what I learned about teaching bridge

January 30th, 2013  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I made it through my first tennis game. I was pretty awful but the group was supportive and I did make one terrific forehand that surprised them and me.  I also saw that each of them had their own challenges. This helped me to remember that just like at tennis, at all level of the game of bridge players have challenges.  The type of challenges may be different. But in a way they are not!

No matter whether you are an expert or a novice, you make mistakes, you have triumphs, and when you play in a game with your peers you feel the competition.

But the very first game that is different. You don’t know the rules. You don’t know where to stand or where to move (in tennis); you face unknown rules and conventions (in bridge). You are nervous. But you are determined. You will make it through!

I was very grateful for the support of my friends and I am even more aware of the need to be supportive of newcomers at bridge. It is easy to be impatient – PLAY FASTER, or to be critical or to look for infractions. But in the end, it is much better to be helpful, friendly and patient.

Joe, my tennis pro, asked me how I did. When I explained that I had got some of my serves in, he congratulated me and encouraged me. When I told him I didn’t know where to stand or what I was supposed to do a lot of the time. He simply said, “How could you? Don’t worry about it.” And then instead of the usual lesson he worked on the problems I had in the game.  We worked on how to get to the ball and position to hit it when it came, knowing I had a lot of time because the other players generally didn’t hit the ball hard.

As a bridge teacher I realized it was important to make my students feel comfortable in the games they would participate in. They need to be prepared to play with partners who were at there level. I needed to help them to be more comfortable at the table. I need to ask them what problems they were having and help them with those problems.

As a bridge player I vowed to try to be more patient with new players.

And the best part of my experience. The other woman asked me if I wanted to play every Monday afternoon in a regular game. I feel as if I am starting to belong.

My first real tennis game … your first real bridge game

January 25th, 2013  ~  linda  ~  3 Comments 

At this point I have not yet played a game of tennis. I have had lessons. I have hit balls from the ball machine. I have tried (not very successfully) to hit back Ray’s tennis shots. But I have never played a game (even without serving).

Why?

I am afraid. 

What am I afraid of? (mostly looking foolish, ruining the game for everybody else, who know?)

Many years ago I asked my mom who loves to play bridge with her friends to play bridge with me at the club. I made special provision for us to play in the novice game with out score being only notional.

My mother really wanted to but she was very scared. I convinced her to play. I could see her hands shaking and her voice trembling when we started. She calmed down somewhat during the game – although she tried to make sure I was on play. Afterwards she admitted she had fun, but the ordeal was too great and she never has played at a club since.

I never really understood why it was so hard to make the leap from bridge lessons to playing a game at a club. Now I do!  How wonderful are the teachers and club owners who know just how to help their students make that transition.

So as a teacher we are encouraging our students to play at home and I know we will also need to help them to make the transition to playing online and at a club.

When I told my intermediate class (who are really wonderful and very good) this story (my fear, mr mothers fear) they all immediately knew exactly what I meant.  And I now understand how hard it is to actually play that first real  bridge game. 

I will think of my students when I go out on the court. And if I double fault every serve or miss every backhand I will try not to feel too bad about it. Some day I will do better.

If my bridge students can put take the risk, so can I. 

Things I learned from my Tennis Pro about being a better Bridge Teacher – Part 1

January 21st, 2013  ~  linda  ~  1 Comment 

I have decided (somewhat surprisingly to everyone who knows me) to learn to play tennis. I have never played any racquet sport at all and am not know for my athletic ability. I am a pretty fast long distance walker and I can swim a stroke or two but that is about it.

But in the wonderful place that I live in during the winter in sunny Sarasota Florida the conditions are perfect to learn tennis. We are members of the association tennis club and we have access to the many excellent courts all day. We also have an amazing tennis pro, named Joe. Joe’s lessons are in great demand and it is obvious why. He is a natural teacher.

After I had taken a few lessons with Joe I started to realize that he was illustrating to me some valuable ideas that I could use to be a better bridge teacher. Some of them I already knew like patience and calm and good humor. I couldn’t do them as well as Joe, especially the humor part but I could try to do them better. But over time I saw that there were quite a few things I could learn from him.

The first one that occurred to me was the use of praise. Now you might think that “everybody’s know that.” I remember Ray went to a seminar where the speaker was suggestion that you train employees to do their job (or do it better) by praising them when they did well and never criticising or correcting. Ray suggested that this might not be the best  way to train an airline pilot on his first actual flight or two.

As I worked with Joe I realized that praise does have to be combined with correction. But correction isn’t the same as criticism. You can acknowledge incremental improvement, ignore errors or failures but provide correction for some aspect of the game you wish to improve. (More about that in the next blog.) Of course, as Ray pointed out about training a pilot, you can’t allow drastic errors that could threaten life or limb to continue.

So I started to look for the right time to provide praise. While I think that any praise may be encouraging I feel that praise around an improvement, doing something that you are trying to teach especially, reinforces the point and if you do this repeatedly the student is more likely to improve in just that way.

Not only that but praise and encouragement makes you want to do better and make you that you can do better.

I will likely never be much of a tennis player. My current goal is to be competent enough to happily play in the beginner game. Joe never says no, or that’s wrong or why did you …  And when Joe says “Excellent!” I know that I have done something right.  And I have to say I really look forward to the lessons.

And even though I have always thought I DID use praise, I now know what it is like to be a beginner, and I remember to make sure to say “Excellent” just like Joe.

Maybe the approaches I am going to discuss in the blog would also work with partners, I am sure praise would.

Bridge blogging and the IBPA

January 9th, 2013  ~  linda  ~  2 Comments 

If you are a blogger or in other ways use the new media  to communicate about bridge than you are a bridge journalist!

I never really equated what I was doing, that is blogging, with the likes of those who write for newspapers and other media. But, in the age of electronic communication it is all the same – we are all bridge journalists

If you do blog, or twitter or run a website about bridge consider joining the IBPA – International Bridge Press Association.  For $42 a year you can become a member.

Membership gives you recognition as a journalist.  This allows you access to the press room at international events and other privileges such as access to the closed room, and a full kit the same as NPC’s.  But even if you don’t go to international events there are other reasons to join. One of the best is that you get monthly IBPA bulletins mailed to you (and access to back issues).  There are dozens and dozens of interesting deals in each issue, from championships and other sources including wonderful deals from Tim Bourke in each issue that you are free to use (unattributed) in any way you wish.

In the January issue which just popped up in my mailbox there was a report on the World Mind Games in Beijing by Mark Horton with, the Gold Cup by Phillip Alder, and article by Ghassan Ghanem of Jordan about Sotos Christofides of Cyprus and some wonderful deals he played over the years, a report on the Bombay pairs tournament by Anant Bhagwat of Mumbai, an interesting deal from Bob PItts of Wales amd a report on the Senior Knockout from the San Francisco NABC by John Carruthers and more.  All of these wonderful deals for you to read and use from the top bridge journalists from around the world.

So if you are an electronic bridge write think about joining the IBPA and join me and many others.

Just go to the IBPA website and select the button Joining.  If you want more information email me at linda@masterpointpress.com

End of unpaid commercial!

Drumroll for “the Hog”

January 5th, 2013  ~  linda  ~  4 Comments 

It was January 5^th the twelfth day of Christmas, Epiphany, the end of this festive period.   I am having a quiet day today.  I am curled up with a book.  But it is one of my very favorite books, Bridge in the Menagerie.  I am reminded of reading the book more years ago than I care to say.  I loved all of the characters in the menagerie, the Hideous Hog, the Rueful Rabbit, Walter the Walrus, Papa the Greek and all the others.  The only recurring female in the menagerie is Molly the Mule who is rather stubborn.  I recognize some of the characteristics of these fictional bridge players in my bridge friends and even in myself but my bridge acquaintances are another cast of characters.  But, of course, I don’t have Mollo’s skill with humor to bring them to life.

As I reread this wonderful book which is finally being brought back into print this March, I once more am amazed at the humor and the lovely hands.  The book is as good as I remember it, in fact it is better.

Here is what I am reading right now.  H.H. is the Hideous Hog who wants to play all hands.  He plays with great skill but also loves a swindle.  The Rueful Rabbit is not a very skillful player but he has a way of stumbling into brilliant plays.  He is of course one of H.H.’s favorite partners.

Drum roll, please……………………..

***********************************************************************************************************

H.H. paused long enough to empty a couple of glasses of Batard Montrachet, noted the approach of Crepes Suzette, and turned to me: ‘While I do justice to these superb crepes,’ he said, ‘you might like to tell them about the hand that so thrilled you the other day, that fourth-dimensional three notrump with the Rabbit.  I would not impose on you in the ordinary way,’ he added, ‘but I know how carefully you watch your waistline.  And quite right, too, of course.  People eat far too much these days.’

Who Has What?

The hand about which H.H. was so exultant had come up the previous week.  I was sitting between the Rabbit, who dealt, and his right-hand opponent, the Doctor.

Dealer: North

Neither vul.

Against 3NT, the usual contract when H.H. was at the table, the Doctor opened the ♣ 4.  East, a Sound Performer from the provinces, who played straight down the middle, went up with the king and the Hog followed with the ten.  The sound performer returned the ♣ 3 to declarer’s knave and West’s queen.  A small heart was deposited from dummy.

The Doctor surveyed the situation.  What, he asked himself, was East’s club holding?  His return of the three proclaimed a four-card suit.  That meant that the Hog, too, had four, which in turn implied that his ten and knave — played to the first two tricks — must be falsecards.  It looked very much, in fact, as if the Hog’s clubs were J1098, leaving East with AK63.

It was obvious, of course, that H.H. could not have the ace, for holding AJ10x he would have naturally taken the king with the ace making sure of two club tricks, if not three, instead of allowing the defense to win three to his one.

Expecting to get the contract at least two down, the Doctor led his ♣ 7 to put partner in with the ace.  The Hog threw on it dummy’s ♦ A and won the trick in his own hand with the nine.  Then he produced the ♣ A — to the stupefaction of East and West alike — and discarded on it the ♦ K from dummy.  Six diamonds followed in quick succession.

This was the deal:

‘I have no wish to make too much of it,’ observed the Hog, chewing the last of the crepes.  ‘Brilliance comes to me naturally and I can claim no credit for it.  The point I want to emphasize is not so much the play itself as its smooth execution.  A pause, a moment’s hesitation and all would have been lost.  If the good Doctor had caught me in the act of thinking, he would have diagnosed at once that I had something to think about.  Then, one look at dummy and he would have realized that I was facing a hopeless unblocking problem.

‘It is sometimes more important to play quickly than to play well,’ he added sagely.

***********************************************************************************************************

So welcome back to the Hideous Hog, the Rabbit, Papa and all the others.  The twelve drummers are drumming. 

And we are at the end of our Christmas adventure.

Eleven Pipers Piping for Norm

January 4th, 2013  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

On January fourth I was playing with my student Norm on BBO.  Norm is from Israel and had to go through the recent shelling in the war with Hamas.  Both Norm and I were glad when that was over.  He is a keen bridge player who wants to play but also asks to go practice in the bidding room because he wants to learn.  On this day we played a set of boards together and had one of those wonderful, perfect sets.  I was thrilled with how well Norm played and I know he was very excited about the set.

I was impressed with our bidding on this deal.  Congratulations Norm.  You deserve it.

Norm held

He was in first chair white against red.  The opponents were silent through the auction.  Norm opened 1♣  and I bid 1♥ .  Norm has a very good 16 points and I think my heart bid strengthens his hand somewhat.  In any case he is good enough to reverse and so he bid 2♦ .

I bid 3♣  which established a game force while supporting clubs.  Norm now made the very good bid of 3♥ .  In this auction I think this bid should show heart support and therefore his 1-3-4-5 shape.  I bid 4♣ .  I don’t think this bid denies a spade control since he has already shown a singleton.  I think it marks time and leaves room for finding a slam.

Even though Norm has good controls he really has already bid his hand.  So he signed off in 5♣ .  The opening lead was the ♠ 6 and this was what Norm saw.

3NT is a terrible contract on the obvious spade lead.  5♣  was a much better contract.  It was Norm’s job to make it.  You are going to be able to eventually trump your fourth diamond in dummy so the only likely loser outside trumps is a diamond.  So the question is, what is the best way to play the club suit for one loser.   You could play the ♣ A.  If either the ♣ K or the ♣ J falls you are safe.  If both follow with the two small spots you play up to the ♣ Q and will be safe unless the KJx lies over the queen.  This works on all 2-2 splits and on 3-1 splits except when East has the KJx.  You can even pick up the suit on 4-0 splits when West has the clubs although you will then have to work for your eleventh trick.  As it turns out this is one of the best ways to play for one loser —  and even better, it worked!

Here is the whole deal

A great contract.  Had Norm had two club losers he still had a slim chance.  He may have been able to pick up the diamond suit for no losers, probably playing for the queen and jack in the pocket.  Notice that 3NT will fail on the obvious spade lead.

Out of 16 pairs only two others reached the best contract of 5♣ .   Pipers please!

Ghoulie Rules, as requested

January 4th, 2013  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

I am sure that Ghoulie is played with many different rules.  These are the ones that we use:

Sorting

Cards are dealt and sorted into suits.  The hands are then piled on top of each other and cut and dealt in stacks: 5, 5 and 3.

Opening the Bidding

a) You must open if you have 13 high card points or more.  You may always bid notrump OR you can bid a suit if you have four or more.

b) If you open and you have less than 13 high card points you have psyched.  Or if you open a suit and have less than 4 you have psyched.

Bidding Directly After an Opener

After the bidding is opened the next hand is required to bid 4NT or higher.  There are no requirements for bidding a suit. Only the opener will ever be considered to have psyched.

Subsequent Bidding

Each player thereafter can make a higher bid or pass.  Bidding ends with three passes.  There are no doubles or redoubles during the auction.  Remember the game is cut-throat.  At this stage you do not have a partner.

Bidding Ends

When three players have passed the bidding ends.  The last person to have made a bid is now declarer – it doesn’t matter who denomination  declared.

Picking a Partner

At that point declarer may pick any of the other three players as partner.  Players change places as necessary to make the picked player dummy.

Opening Bidder Announcement

If the opening bidder is declarer he  must declare if he was psychic as follows:

I am psychic as to points (I had less than 13 high card points)

I am pyschic as to suit (I had less than 4 in a suit I opened)

Or if both:

I am psychic as to points and suit

The opening bidder will still play the hand but it provides needed information for the chosen dummy.

Accepting or Rejecting Declarer

Dummy now can accept declarer or reject declarer:

If he accepts then he will get the same score as declarer; if he rejects he will get no score regardless of the outcome of the hand.

Dummy must also announce if he psyched but only if he was the opening bidder as follows:

I accept you pyschic (as to points, suit or both)

I reject you pyschic (as to points, suit or both)

If dummy has pysched declarer has the option of throwing in the hand and there is no score on this deal.

Doubling

At this point assuming the hand is to be played, the defender declarers left had the opportunity to double.  If they pass the other defender may double

Redoubling

If the contract is doubled declarer may redouble.  If dummy has accepted (and is therefore participating in the scoring) if declarer passes dummy may double.

Play

Play is normal with the player on declarer’s left making the opening lead.

I would be pleases to hear comments from players who know different rules.

Ghoulie led to a favorite saying in our circle.  The first hand to bid would normally psyche if they had a very weak hand.  (This was considered proper strategy).  Therefore if the auction had started with a pass and you were later considering who to pick as partner you remembered – “Who can you trust if not the first passed hand?”  You expected player in the first seat to have some values.

At Ghoulie we go a leaping!

January 3rd, 2013  ~  linda  ~  5 Comments 

Too many years ago, when I was in university my bridge friends and I used to like to play variations of the game of bridge.  We played no-peek (where you had to bid without looking at your hand) and things equally silly and fun.  My favorite game was Ghoulie.  I understand a lot of people played a variation of Ghoulie on commuter trains in the 1970’s and 1980’s too.

On January 3rd we decided to go back to those happy days and play a Ghoulies.  Cards are dealt, sorted into suits and then redealt in stacks of 5 cards, 5 cards and 3 cards around the table to produce really distributional hands.

Ghoulie as we play it is a cut-throat game – each player out for themselves. Whoever won the auction would pick one of the other players as his partner and that hand would become the dummy.  Figuring out who to pick was a crucial part of the game.

I was taking the role of chief kibitizer and drink fetcher. A long-time friend, Andy Altay, was sitting West.

Andy and I went to high school together, went on to university together and sometimes played bridge together.  Andy is a great partner.  One time I was declarer in a grand slam and missing only one trump, the king, actually finessed into it even though the onside hand had shown out.  Andy just smiled.  You can’t get a better partner than that!

Bill Milgram, the master of psychology at bridge (and a professor of psychology in life) was South.

Ray loves to play ghoulie but says he isn’t all that good at it. He was sitting East.

Fred Lerner was North. This was a pretty high quality game.

I was sitting behind Bill because I knew that he would be the center of a lot of action.

Bill was sitting in first chair and had this hand.

Bill opened 1NT.  This was considered a psyche not because he had a void and a singleton but because he had less than 13 high card points.  After the opening bid on his right, Andy was required to bid at least 4NT.  Andy bid 5♣ . Bidding 5♣  didn’t actually promise any clubs although players often had what they bid — advertising for a partner who could play a slam with them.

Fred bid 6♣ and Ray bid 7♣ .  There seemed to be rather too many clubs in the deck.  But Fred and Ray were probably hoping they could play opposite Andy’s clubs.  At least one of them might be saving.

Now it was back to Bill.  7♠  was not out of the question with the right partner.  He did have the ♦A which was probably going to take a trick against 7♣  but that was not all that much of a plus score.

What to do?

I was pretty sure that Bill would bid 7♠  and he did.  The players were pretty well out of bids so this got passed out.

The complete auction was:

Which hand to pick? Who would I pick?  Who would you pick?

Bill picked Fred (North).  I never heard his reasoning but I am pretty sure he thought Andy’s club bid showed a real suit.  If Andy didn’t want to show clubs he could have bid 4NT which didn’t show a balanced hand in this game!  So now Bill had to pick between Fred and Ray, and he went with Fred.  I don’t know how he made his choice but that is who he picked.

After he picked Fred, Bill had to tell everyone if he was psychic. (Remember that he only had 11 high card points not the required 13.) Now Fred could reject Bill or accept him.  Rejecting him meant the only Bill score on the hand – Fred would not go either plus or minus.  Accepting Bill meant that they would both get the score for the result of the hand.  At this point the chosen one, Fred, would normally change places to sit opposite Bill, but since he was already North no movement was required.  All he had to do was decide whether to participate in the hand with Bill.

Here is Fred’s hand

His hand does have some good features but Bill had to make a grand slam without much of a fit and with at most 16 HCP between the two hands.  Fred rejected.  Andy now had a chance to double and he did.  He led the ♥ A and this was the deal as Bill saw it.

In fact, Fred had a super hand for Bill!  Bill ruffed the heart.  He had to solve one problem immediately.  Should he finesse the ♠ K or play for the drop.  I think at Ghoulie the finesse is a much higher percentage Bill did too.  He finesse and was pleased when the finesse worked and Andy showed out.  Bill had only one way to go with diamonds and when Ray showed up with the stiff queen the hand was over.

Bill had made the grand slam with 15 HCP – only in Ghoulie!

Here was the whole hand.

Did you notice that Bill can only make the grand slam with Fred as his partner?

It wasn’t long before they moved on to the next freak hand and all the other players had their chance for revenge.

Nine A Dancing

January 2nd, 2013  ~  linda  ~  No Comments 

On January 2nd Ray and I were playing bridge together against Tom and Judy Dawson.  Tom and Judy are long-time friends who are not only bridge players but world-class collectors of playing cards.  Tom is also an amateur historian who knows a lot about  the history of bridge in Canada.

Ray and I have both taken a vow of silence.  By that I mean that no matter what, we won’t yell at each other.

I am sitting North with both vulnerable.  This is my hand

Ray is in first chair and he opens 3♣ .  We play that an opening 3NT is a minor-suit preempt and shows an eight-card suit with the quality varying based on the vulnerability.  So 3♣  at this vulnerability shows seven decent clubs. Judy on my right bids 4S and I am left to ponder my action.  I have an easy double.  I have enough of a surprise in trumps that I am certain I can beat this hand, maybe several tricks. It looks like I have good defense.  Ray is quite likely to have a club trick.  Tom passes and Ray thinks for a brief moment.

Whatever could he be thinking about?  Then he bids 5♣ .  What is he doing?!  Judy doubles this and everyone passes.   Judy leads the ♠ A.   I remember my vow of silence and when I put down dummy I do not say a word but I do scowl.   I have enough faith in Ray’s preempting skills to believe he has a reason for his actions.  Still, I can’t think of a reason for him to pull my double.

I am not surprised when Ray ruffs the ♠ A.  Ray lays down the ♣ A and seems untroubled when Judy plays the ♣ 3 and Tom shows out.  How many clubs does he have?  Maybe he started with eight to the ace empty and decided to treat it as a three-level preempt, vulnerable.   Or maybe Ray was playing a deeper game.

Next Ray cashes the top two diamonds and comes back to his hand with a spade ruff.  He leads a third diamond.  Judy ruffs in front of dummy with the ♣ Q.

It looks like Ray started with:  ♠  void ♥  xx ♦  xxx ♣  Axxxxxxx.  Judy seems to think so too and she plays the ♥ A.  Ray follows with the ♥ 3 and Tom plays an encouraging 9 and then Ray claims!

This is the whole deal

I was glad that I was a silent wife.  But I can’t resist saying, “I did have a great dummy for you.”

Tom and Judy take it in good spirits too.  Ray had fooled us all.  With a nine-card suit he decided to walk the dog.  It isn’t Ray’s style to preempt and then bid again.  I should have figured it out.  He had done the 9-card suit “two-step”.

While I might be able to figure out a hand that makes sense with this auction where I can defeat 4♠  and he is going down in 5♣ , when you have nine of them you don’t sell out to a game.

In later discussion he did say that he thought that the right action on his hand was to bid 5♣  in the first place but in honor of an old friend of ours who used to create auctions like this he thought he’d try it out.  Best wishes, Bambino.