March 2020 - 47

Newer Players

Startup Bridge
BY LYNN BERG

lberg@cfl.rr.com

Do the hard stuff first
Years ago, I was playing with my
mentor and we had just come in first
in a game. I was feeling elated when he
made a comment that surprised - and
unsettled - me: "You need to tighten up
your game, Lynn, and play better than
you do!" Wow, I was shocked. I thought
coming in first was validation that I
was doing just fine. But my mentor,
Jack, thought his job was to urge me
into new territory, not just to help me
win in a local club game.
My reaction was to challenge him,
along the lines of, "Oh yeah? What do
you expect exactly?" You can imagine I
was feeling defensive and a bit truculent. Jack proceeded to give me great
advice which I now pass on to you: If
you are beating up on the novices, play
in an intermediate game. If you are
placing a lot in a limited game, go to an
open game. If you are winning a lot locally, go to tournaments if possible and
give yourself tougher competition.
There are lots of valid reasons to
come to a duplicate game, and the
mental challenge is only one of them.
It's a place to see friends, a reason to
get out of the house, even a place (in my
local club at least) to get great snacks
and treats. Not everyone comes for the
mental challenge. But if you want to
improve your game, tougher competition can really help.
I had the luxury of a great partner -
way better than I - who took the time
to mentor me and to encourage my
game. He didn't yell at me, but was

an excellent teacher. And watching
him play was an education in itself.
He would take the most unpromising holding and make something of it.
One day he held these diamonds in his
hand, playing notrump: ♦7 6 3 2. In the
dummy, the uninspiring ♦9 8 5 4.
But Jack led the suit. He won the
opponent's return and led diamonds
again. He got back in and led diamonds
yet again. He knew that the most likely
way for five outstanding cards to break
was 3-2, so he played the odds and
developed a diamond trick. If he'd held
♦9 7 6 3 2 opposite ♦8 5 4, he might
have had two good diamonds after the
same process.
What did I learn?
⦁ He recognized the potential of an
eight-card fit, any eight-card fit.
⦁ He wasn't afraid to lose the lead.
⦁ He took his losses early, while he
still had controls in the other suits.
Playing pairs for matchpoints - the
form of competition most of us play in
clubs and even at tournaments - getting that extra trick is so important if
you want to win. Jack didn't just settle
for the easy tricks anyone could see
to take. His motto, which I share with
you, was, "Do the hard stuff first."
One of the major objectives we learn
about bidding is the importance of a
major-suit fit - but that doesn't teach
us what to do once we have it. Frequently, it's a 5-3 fit: You open one of

a major and partner raises. There are
two big questions you have to answer
in this situation.

❶

Is there anything I need to do before I draw trump? And the allied
question,

❷

Is there any way to use those three
trumps on the short side separately, before they disappear as I lead
trump from my hand?

Here comes the hard part. Picture
this dummy when spades are trump:
♠9 6 5 ♥8 2 ♦K 9 4 2 ♣A 8 7 3.
You opened 1♠ and partner raised
to 2♠.
Here's your hand:
♠A Q J 8 4 ♥A 6 4 ♦Q 10 8 7 ♣9.
You get the ♥K as an opening lead,
and you have decisions to make. You're
only in 2♠, so you can afford five losers and still make your bid. You have a
possible spade loser, two heart losers, a
diamond loser or two, and the only club
loser in your hand is covered by the ace
in the dummy. You can eliminate the
second heart loser if you ruff a heart in
the dummy, something you can't do if
you've already drawn three rounds of
trump. Win the ♥A and lead a heart.
Then you will be able to ruff the third
heart and eliminate that loser.
Don't be afraid. Toujours l'audace! ◾

March 2020 Bridge Bulletin

47
March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2020
