March was defined by the NABC in Memphis—preparing for it, playing it, reviewing it. In all, the tournament was so-so. It’s always good getting to spend time with Greg and other friends. We had some great meals, most notably Chez Phillipe and Flight. And BBQ of course. Memphis isn’t a great city to host an NABC, particularly the area where the convention center is located, which is a bit run down and doesn’t have a lot of restaurants nearby. The ACBL arranged for food trucks to be outside the convention center most days at lunch, which was a great idea. But they were slow and inefficient, so the lines got quite long.
Results-wise, the tournament was disappointing. The highlight was making the finals of the Mixed Pairs with my student Marla. Greg and I played well in the Jacoby Swiss Teams and made the finals. But we didn’t qualify in the other events we played in. We’ve spent a lot of time reviewing these results, and haven’t come to any real conclusions about what went wrong. We didn’t play great in a few sessions, but we weren’t terrible. We had some bad luck. That’s a good recipe for a bad matchpoint session.
My next tournament is the US Team Trials—technically the United States Bridge Championships. This is the event that selects the teams that will represent the USA in the Bermuda Bowl. It’s one of my favorite events of the year. It’s all played electronically—everyone is on a laptop, using the LoveBridge software. You play in a hotel room with one opponent in the room with you. It makes for a very social event—you can talk and joke around, with no one else to bother.
I’m playing with Anant Rathi, and our teammates are Phil Clayton and Danny Sprung. It’s a pretty good team, but this event is full of good teams, and we are the 15th seed (out of 16). So we face the second-seeded Fleisher team in the first round. Each round is a two-day match of 120 boards. Plenty of time for the cream to rise to the top. It’s a double-elimination tournament, because the US gets to send two teams to the Bermuda Bowl. So if we lose, we’ll move into the second bracket and play another 2-day match.
You can watch on VuGraph. The USBF also usually broadcasts the matches with expert commentary on their Twitch channel. The event starts April 24. Be aware that it’s in Chicago, so it’s in Central time, and the VuGraph is delayed, usually 30 minutes or so, for security purposes. (So you can’t get a glimpse of the board you’re playing.)
I did get some culture in between all the bridge. The highlights were Fidelio at the Met and Othello on Broadway, starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal.
I hope you’re enjoying the Leveling Up Podcast. This week’s guest is Boye Brogeland. Upcoming guests include Ribs LaMothe, James Holzhauer, and Larry Cohen.
My Monday "Expert Thought Process" and Thursday "Thinking Through Declarer Play" classes are on their regular schedules until I head to the Team Trials at the end of the month. You can get information about both classes here: https://learnbridgeonline.com/adam-parrish/
Upcoming topics in my Monday class are (schedule always subject to change if things take extra time):
April 8 Defense April 15 The Box Principle April 22 Balancing April 29 Declarer Play
I’m so excited that my Leveling Up program is sparking a conversation and motivating people to work on their game. So many people came up to me in Memphis to share their stories. And I’ve gotten a lot of emails and comments from people. I love it! Please keep the emails coming!
Psychs. Yuck. They scare a lot of newer players.
Hi, Adam,
I don't know if this is a great subject or not, but it is surely getting to me the last couple weeks playing online. I had never heard of this before. Hopefully, you can explain a little bit.
Last week my opponent opened 1♠. I don't know whether it was a misclick or not, but she had only one spade. We ended up taking a bottom board because spades was our best suit. The director said even if it wasn't a misclick, a psych bid is legal.
Last night I had an opponent open up 2♦. It turns out he had only 2 points. I doubled, but my partner and I did not communicate well because 3 NT was basically a laydown. Hard to find after the preempt opening. I called the director because their card clearly states 5-10 points for a preempt. Again, I was told this is a psych bid and perfectly legal.
My question is why have a convention card when you can bid something else seemingly without a penalty?
Psychic bids are part of the game, though they are quite rare. They are annoying, and occasionally can be quite successful, but usually they blow up in the psycher’s face. I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about them.
As far as what the rules are regarding psychs, your opponents are entitled to know your agreements, but you are free to deviate from those agreements. You can't do them so often that partner starts to expect them; they have to be a real deviation from expectation. If your partner is as much in the dark as your opponents are, it's fair game.
In your example, if their partner was expecting 5-10 points for the 2♦ opening, and that's their agreement, they're allowed to deviate from their agreement.
As far as when to psych—don’t. Until you have a lot of experience, you’re going to get yourself into trouble most of the time if you don’t have your bid. In terms of etiquette, you should never psych against newer players—only against experienced players who might be able to handle it. You don’t need to do anything crazy to get a good board against new players. And things like psychs scare people away from the game. Just play normal bridge!
Adam
Bridge is so hard to learn. That’s part of what makes it great, but it’s also what holds people back from learning.
Dear Adam,
I am a novice player trying to understand how the game is played. What are the strategies to remember the cards already played during the game? I read a book on memory, but find it to be of limited use. What would you recommend?
I wish there were an easy solution, but that’s what makes bridge great—you get out of it what you put in. When it comes to counting and remembering cards, I find it easier to “count down” rather than “count up.” If you have eight trumps between you and dummy, most newer players draw a round of trump and count the two trumps they see from the defenders as “nine, ten.” It’s much easier is you start with “The opponents have five trumps” and count down. So you draw one round, they both follow suit, and you say, “Three left.” It’s also really important to start thinking in terms of shapes. I have a 5-3 spade fit, the opponents have 5 of them. The trumps are either split 5-3-3-2, 5-4-3-1, or 5-5-3-0 around the table.
Also, don’t try to do too much. You almost never need to remember all 52 cards in a bridge hand. Usually there’s one suit that matters—maybe two. Training yourself to remember 13 or 26 cards is much easier than trying to hold onto 52. Pick one suit on each hand and focus on that. It might be the trump suit, or a long suit you want to run. And think in terms of shapes. I have 5 opposite 2. I’m hoping they split 5-3-3-2, but it will likely be 5-4-2-2.
For remembering specific cards, try to think in terms of winners and losers. If you have Axx opposite KQx of diamonds, and you start by thinking, “I have no losers” or “I have three winners,” now if you play the ace early on and later are staring at the KQ in the dummy and trying to remember if they’re high, you can fall back on that—I said I had no losers in diamonds. I must have had the ace.
Another practical strategy: when you have touching honors, play the low ones, keep the higher ones. Say the opponents lead a club and dummy has ♣ AKQ2. If you win the ace, leaving the king-queen in the dummy, you have to remember that the ace has been played and the king-queen are high. If you win the queen first, you’re left with ace-king in the dummy—no memory work!
Adam
My seminar on doubles was a lot of fun. This was a follow-up question.
Dear Adam,
Thanks for the doubles webinar today. A last question: Does a double by opener always show 3-card support? Even if responder bid at the 2-level, e.g., 1♦ (1♥) 2♣ (2♥) X? Or if RHO’s bid is higher ranking than responder’s suit, e.g., 1♦ (P) 1♥ (2♠) X?
Support Doubles only apply when responder bid at the 1-level. A 2-level response shows a 5-card suit, so it’s not necessary. If responder has made a game-forcing 2/1 response, doubles are penalty.
The standard agreement for Support Doubles is that they only apply through 2 of responder's suit—so we can stop at the 2-level. Above that, I like to play that double is an Optional Support Double—it still shows 3-card support, but it's not mandatory, it shows extra strength as well. So in the auction you gave—1♦ (P) 1♥ (2♠) X—the double would show 3 hearts plus extra strength.
Adam
That's all for now. I encourage you to send me questions about my column or anything else at adam@adamparrishbridge.com. Maybe they'll end up in the next newsletter!