[FrancesHinden]

MickyB, on Jun 11 2008, 07:27 PM, said:

Someone said to me that, when you've been unemployed for a while, starting to work full time messes up your bridge for about three months. I guess this is the same thing.

three months?
working full time messes your bridge up permanently.

(That's possibly true even if it includes working full time playing bridge.)

[jonottawa]

LOTRO

[bhall]

Justin's question has another side: If you are serious about improving your game, where do you start?

I would say, categorize the types of errors that you make and then try to identify which situations trigger them at the table. Hopefully, you can go on from there to recognize these situations and exercise more caution when they arise or eliminate the conditions that cause them.

[Simpleboi]

I suck due to
Not consistent enough
Unable to concentrate or focus fully when needed to
Unable to analyse deeply into the hand while playing.. usually at the end or post mortem will realise mistake
Bad habits like following too fast sometimes without giving further thought

and many more i guess

[helene_t]

matmat, on Jun 10 2008, 01:35 AM, said:

I think if you suck at bridge, you know you suck.  To me the definition is based on honest self-evaluation. When I look at a session i've played and can point to a laundry list of elementary mistakes i have made. I can safely wallow in my suckitude. 

Funny, to me it's the opposite. I think there is a positive correlation between the number of mistakes I make and my results. Presumably because the more alert I am, the more of my mistakes I notice.

If I after a session think "gee, I can't think of a single wrong decision I made" then I know I sucked more than usually.

[Jlall]

I no longer suck.

/thread

[Fluffy]

at bridge you mean, at replying to beginner's posts you can improve

[PeterGill]

I suck at bridge because I have never formed a strong long term bridge partnership that functions efficiently. I am working on this problem.

Another very good Aussie player sucks because he cannot avoid getting upset at the table. He tries not to.

We are all different; we all have different weaknesses.

I think the chapter in Zia's book Bridge My Way on why everyone, including Zia sucks at bridge is illuminating. Zia points out that everyone, no matter how good they are at bridge, has bad patches where they cannot do anything right. He says you simply cannot play bridge in Zone 1 all the time. I quote Zia from memory, not having the book handy.

Justin , you most certainly do not suck at writing about bridge. I was talking to a guy who sometimes plays in Australia's National Open team the other day about bridge writers, and he rated Terence Reese and Justin Lall as the two best bridge writers ever, because both use words well and clearly, both choose fascinating material to write about, and both have great expertise which they happily share.

I think bridge writing is a less variable skill than bridge-playing - it doesn't come and go in patches like bridge-playing success does.

Justin, I ran into Stephen Hughes the other day - remember, the guy you played bridge with in France in 1998. He says to say hi.

Peter Gill, Australia

[Flameous]

My main area to suck at is defending, which is mainly due being lazy. I can always think about ways of signaling my partner perfectly of my hand, yet I never read my partner's signals well enough or think them through. I also can't visualize hands or think of the end situations right in the beginning of the deal.

I actually think I don't suck (atleast much) at bidding, but my bidding style is quite out of mainstream, and it's hard for me to adapt to others' style. I rather make people bid my way. That's why I often totally suck with anybody who I haven't played a lot with.

[Phil]

Jlall, on Sep 8 2009, 02:35 PM, said:

I no longer suck.

/thread

Heh, I still suck and so does pclayton.

We continue to work on our game on a daily basis.

[gwnn]

thanks Helene for the necro. great thread. I'm a little sad because I see no inaccuracies in my post written 1.5 years ago

[quiddity]

Just in case this thread gets revived again next year.. currently I think I suck due to excessive optimism in bidding, excessive pessimism in play, a tendency to be over-active in all aspects, a tendency to be lazy about visualizing the unseen hands, and slow/inaccurate counting. But I also think I can see signs of improvement over the past year.

[mtvesuvius]

Phil, on Sep 8 2009, 04:55 PM, said:

Jlall, on Sep 8 2009, 02:35 PM, said:

I no longer suck.

/thread

Heh, I still suck and so does pclayton.

We continue to work on our game on a daily basis.

You two should play bridge together sometime with each other... You'd make a good partnership

[dlbalt]

Jlall, on Jun 7 2008, 01:20 AM, said:

What causes you to suck at bridge and keeps you from being the best?

I find the terminology offensive. To Suck should not mean To Perform Badly.

Sucking can be quite a positive experience. It all depends on what you're sucking, and who it belongs to.

[Phil]

dlbalt, on Oct 3 2009, 11:29 PM, said:

Jlall, on Jun 7 2008, 01:20 AM, said:

What causes you to suck at bridge and keeps you from being the best?

I find the terminology offensive. To Suck should not mean To Perform Badly.

Sucking can be quite a positive experience. It all depends on what you're sucking, and who it belongs to.

No one laughed the last time this was posted.

[crazy4hoop]

1.) I don't play enough.

2.) I don't have the time to work on a regular partnership, i.e. one that has a chance to play together at least once a week (some would argue more than that is needed, fine, no argument from me).

3.) Lack of concentration, which often stems from the vast majority of my playing coming as a playing director filling in to avoid a sitout so my mind is not always at the table at which I'm currently playing.

4.) An extreme inability to let a bad result go, especially one where the hand should have been "easy." I do have an easier time letting a bad result go when either the hand was tough or my opponents deserve the credit for playing/defending properly but I get really angry at myself when the errors/bad results are self-inflicted, especially on a hand where my dog would have found the right play.

There are probably way many more reasons than this but these are the only ones I can think of right now.

[MattieShoe]

Mainly because I play for fun, not money. I'm never going to be a pro and that's totally okay with me. I still want to improve, though

I think my biggest weakness is paying attention to other players carding signals during play and incorporating that into plans.

[pooltuna]

MattieShoe, on Oct 4 2009, 04:48 PM, said:

Mainly because I play for fun, not money. I'm never going to be a pro and that's totally okay with me. I still want to improve, though

I think my biggest weakness is paying attention to other players carding signals during play and incorporating that into plans.

This is a valid skill just has to be with care

[billw55]

Failure to appreciate the opponents plan during the play.

[Phil]

I just stole..er, borrowed Kelsey's Advanced Play at Bridge from one of our clubs.

I haven't read it in at least 20 years, and not only do I remember nearly all the hands, I remember a lot of Kelsey's comments when he gives the answers.