March 2006 - 12

Playing against better teams

A good amateur basketball team
would have no chance against five
Shaqs. If you spot your opponents
10 inches and 100 pounds, you cannot compete. But a good amateur
bridge team can beat four pros simply by minimizing their own errors.
Bridge is a game of mistakes. To
paraphrase Bob Hamman, the very
best play poorly and the rest of us
are awful.
Zeke Jabbour: I would tell them:
Make them beat your best game.
Forget stealing. Forget heroics.
Barry Crane made a living off
would-be heroes. Don't try to win
it; try not to lose it. Hit ground
strokes. Don't be intimidated or
distracted; stay focused. If you play
your best, you will be hard to beat,
especially if they don't play their
best. Sometimes they don't. That's
when you must
take what's given
you. You can win,
but you must at
all times stay
convinced that you
can win. Focus on
that.
Bill Pollack:
(1) Just sit back,
be focused, convince yourselves
that "you can
beat these guys,"
hope for the better
of the luck, and
hang in there! (2)
Take a few small
chances - nothing
extreme: a close
penalty double, a
dangerous lead, a slightly anti-percentage action. No psychs, craziness
or random events - that won't help
you learn, and it's "not bridge." (3)
Show no fear! (4) When numbers
1-3 don't work, remember that you
can't learn how to win big events
before learning how to lose them.
Bob Hamman: The opponents put
their pants on one leg at a time.
Play hard with the assumption that
if you play to the best of your
abilities, the problem becomes the
opponents' problem.
Kit Woolsey: Simply play their
normal best game - don't try to do
12

anything unusual.
Bart Bramley: The way to
graduate from "up-and-coming" to
"been-there-done-that" is to act like
you've done it before, even if you
haven't. If you play a wild style you
may annoy the
opponents by
landing a few
shots, but they
will relax and
wait for your
strategy to
unravel. You
have a better
chance by
showing them
that you know
how to play;
nothing unnerves experienced players more than to see their unknown
opponents refusing to roll over.

Don't kowtow to the opposition.
Don't discuss bad boards with
partner or the opponents. If you
want to ask questions about "what
would they have done," wait until
after the match. Don't mope after a
bad result. Being a tough opponent
is something that everyone can do.
It is a psychological skill, not a
technical skill, and you can practice
it every time you play.
3. If you get a bad result, forget it
and play the next hand.
Larry Cohen: Aside from the
"usual" strategies that are well

known, I would select this item to
focus on: you will have some bad
results. How you react to them is
crucial. Anyone can play well when
things are going right. It is how you
react to adversity that is key. When
you get your inevitable bad boards
you have to shrug them off and dig
in for the next board. Don't argue
with partner, don't get discouraged,
just clear your mind and focus on
the next deal.
Mel Colchamiro: Two not-to-beviolated rules for the up-and-coming
team: (1) At the table, no talking.
(2) If you win 12 IMPs on a board,
move on and play the next one. If
you lose 12 IMPs on a board, move
on and play the next one.
Ralph Katz: Play your best and
don't let your first mistake turn into
two or three mistakes. Even if the
other team is better, you can still
outplay them. If
you lose, let it be
because the other
team played great.
4. Enjoy the
experience.
David Bird: Play
your normal game
and enjoy the
experience. Do not
allow yourself to
be rushed. It is a
hopeless tactic to
deliberately play
against the odds,
hoping to gain a
swing. The most
likely result is that
you will throw away IMPs needlessly and perhaps kill off a good
card from your teammates. Even if
your opponents do play better than
you, there is enough luck in bridge
to give you a chance of winning,
provided you do not throw points
away.
5. Learn from the experience.
Karen Allison: I would tell them
that no one expects them to win,
so they should relax and enjoy the
experience. The pressure is on the
better team.
Bobby Wolff: Above all, be loose.
Bridge Bulletin
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2006
