Work was relatively quiet again this week, so I got a lot done. VuGraph and robot games most weeks. I have really been getting a lot out of going back through Bridge Master. I’m about halfway through Level 3; I hope to go through Levels 3 and 4 before Memphis.
Greg and I did a lot of system work this week. It’s a slog, but it’s important. One of my takeaways from my conversation with Brian Platnick was that we need to go through and make sure the things we think we play are written down and both of us think we play them. And we’ve been going through a lot of followups to things we’ve had on the card for a long time, or that are just fairly standard.
Here’s an example of one that came up during practice on the CueBids app.
2NT – 3♣, 3♥ – 4♣
We know that 4♣ is natural—4 spades and 5 or more clubs. But now what do opener’s bids mean?
In some similar auctions we play 4 of a minor as Optional Keycard. But that doesn’t really work here, because we need 4♠ to be natural: opener can be 4-4 in the majors and we have a spade fit. 4♥ makes sense as natural as well—opener could have a fifth heart.
So we agreed that 4♣ was just natural and game forcing. Over that 4NT and 5♣ also need to be natural. What about 4♦? Is it natural? Does it agree clubs? If it agrees clubs, is it a keycard ask, or just, “I have a good hand for clubs”? When 4m agrees the suit, we generally play the next step is a keycard ask (Kickback). But 4♣ here doesn’t agree clubs, and we generally don’t like the same bid to agree the suit and ask for keycards.
My instinct in these auctions is to show the good raise, while Greg’s is to bid naturally. Opener could have 5 diamonds and responder is 4135 and that’s our fit. But when opener has shown 4 hearts, the hand with 5 diamonds is very rare—2452 that didn’t reverse.
It’s complicated! And this is just standard bidding!
It gets even more complicated when it goes 2NT – 3♣, 3♥ – 4♦ and we don’t have the extra bid at the 4-level.
We decided to prioritize always having a “good with your minor” bid. Even though opener is quite narrowly defined, we want to be able to show slam interest and ask for keycards. But bids that need to be natural—particularly in the majors—need to be natural. So the cheapest bid that doesn’t need to be natural is our “good with your minor” bid.
Here’s how it ended up in the notes:
Now, our priorities are:
We always have a “good with your minor” bid; it’s the cheapest thing that doesn’t need to be natural
Now S1 is RKB
Natural, focusing on majors
Minor only natural (6 cards) if you have denied majors
Looking for 4-3 fit in responder’s major
Some examples
2NT-3♣, 3♥-4♣
4♠ and 4♥ are natural, 4♦ is “good with clubs”
2NT-3♣, 3♥-4♦
4♠ and 4♥ are natural, 5♣ is “good with diamonds”
2NT-3♣, 3♦-4♣
4♦ is natural (6), 4♥ is “good with clubs”
2NT-3♣, 3♠-4♣
Neither 4♥ nor 4♠ is natural (opener has shown exactly 4 spades) [We play that a 3NT response to Stayman shows 5 spades. A good agreement—it’s just an idle bid.]
4♦ is “good with clubs”
4♥ is suggesting 4-3 fit
This is a lot, especially for auctions that come up quite rarely. In the past, our philosophy had been to keep things simple, keep the notes short, know the basic bid, and then sort of wing it, relying on general principles. But sometimes my general principles are different than Greg’s! Good partnerships have these things ironed out and written down. We want to be that level of partnership. This is what it takes.
So it’s been a slow slog through the notes. We changed some fundamental things, including part of our raise structure after a 1M raise. It’s nice that we can make the change and then plug the stuff into CueBids and get some practice in.
It’s hard to believe the NABC in Memphis is just two weeks away! I’m really excited (and a little nervous, honestly) to see how the work I’ve been doing translates to at-the-table performance. It’s only been a few months, so I’m not going to chide myself if my results aren’t great. Bridge is often a “one step back before two steps forward” endeavor. But it would be great to play really well and have some good results.
I’m giving two lectures in Memphis. I hope those of you who are at the tournament will stop by and say hello!
Monday, March 17, at 9:15. Topic: Modern Defensive Thinking (literally wrote the book on this one!)
Friday, March 21, at 9:15. Topic: How to be a Good Partner (Greg always likes coming to this one!)
I hope you enjoyed the first episode of my podcast this week. Thanks to Brian for a great conversation. Next week will be a conversation with Fred Gitelman, one of the creators of BBO. I’ll be dropping a new episode every Tuesday.
Here’s what I did this week:
VuGraph
I studied three more segments of the 2024 USBC. Working through Bridge Master took some priority this week. Loving the mix of both.
Robots
One of you introduced me to a new type of robot tournament this week—the Zenith. It’s a daylong with a $2 entry fee that doesn’t pay ACBL masterpoints, but the top finishers get money back—often more than you put in. So it’s a good way to lower the overall cost of all these robot tournaments—if you can win! The first one I played I won $6, and I was like, “This is going to be easy!” I didn’t win any money back in the next two I played, so I’m back to even. It’s a tough event. It’s not a “best-hand” tournament like the normal robot games—South doesn’t always have the best hand at the table. So there’s less silly “I know my partner has at most 12 points, so I’m not going to try for slam” stuff. And you spend a lot more time on defense. It’s also 16 boards instead of 12. I’m liking it a lot. There’s only one each day, and I’m trying to play it whenever I can.
It’s a little tricky to find. Go to “Competitive” then “All tournaments.”
Play
I played one duplicate game with a student this week and practiced with my partner for the Mixed Pairs in Memphis. Greg and I played a Speedball and did a pretty thorough review afterwards. We spent about 30 minutes going over the game. That seems like a decent ratio—1 hour of play to 30 minutes of review. I still need to review a couple of duplicate games I played with students. I haven’t prioritized this enough, but it really is important.
Reading
I finished Method Bridge. I will be sharing my thoughts later this week. I’ll be starting Thinking on Defense by Jim Priebe this week. I finished The Inner Game of Tennis, which I adored, and started reading The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive. These books about physical sports only apply somewhat to bridge, but I’m still finding them useful. Maximizing your physical performance is not so relevant to bridge, but quieting your mind and concentrating fully to get the most out of your potential is exactly what I’m trying to do.
Partnership
Greg and I spent around six hours going through the notes. (See above!) There’s still a lot to do before Memphis. We’re going line by line, making sure everything is still relevant and makes sense, and adding followups where needed. We’ll be playing on Thursday night at 7:30 ET—check it out on Twitch. You just need to click this link.
Beyond Bridge
I still haven’t found a gym. Letting that be an “after Memphis” project. But I’ve been out walking everyday, and getting in meditation twice a day. Overall I’m feeling great! Let’s see how that translates to the table.
I encourage you to share your progress in the comments. We’re all in this together!!
Have a great week.