[AL78]

Another near record low score for me at the club. Hands like this contributed to it (I was East):

---

That was -790 and a bottom. The double made no difference as no-one else was in game. Two pairs played in 1♠ and the third pair played in 4♥-2. Somehow one of the pairs in 1♠ only made eight tricks. Time to take a break from bridge .

[mw64ahw]

Perhaps if you bid 4♥ partner is less likely to X?

[Cyberyeti]

 mw64ahw, on 2023-September-27, 13:21, said:

Perhaps if you bid 4♥ partner is less likely to X?

5♥ not impossible at this vul

[pescetom]

 Cyberyeti, on 2023-September-27, 14:21, said:

5♥ not impossible at this vul

But 4♥ by E was automatic for many of us at this vul and would have clarified hand to partner, as mw64ahw suggested.

[smerriman]

 pescetom, on 2023-September-27, 15:01, said:

But 4♥ by E was automatic for many of us at this vul and would have clarified hand to partner, as mw64ahw suggested.

.. and AL78 would still have gotten a bottom; the concept of trying to play your best and ignoring results you can't control seems out of reach.

[AL78]

 mw64ahw, on 2023-September-27, 13:21, said:

Perhaps if you bid 4♥ partner is less likely to X?

Perhaps, I thought about 4♥ but I would rather have a bit more shape than this.

[mikeh]

 AL78, on 2023-September-27, 11:55, said:

Another near record low score for me at the club. Hands like this contributed to it (I was East):

---

That was -790 and a bottom. The double made no difference as no-one else was in game. Two pairs played in 1♠ and the third pair played in 4♥-2. Somehow one of the pairs in 1♠ only made eight tricks. Time to take a break from bridge .

Results like this, when they arise during a session where little seems to go right, are subjectively very irritating. You did nothing wrong (if opener is bidding 4S over 3H, he’s definitely bidding 4S over 4H and, as you noted, nobody else bid game, so whether partner doubles after 4H is irrelevant)

However:

I’ve probably had many hundreds and probably well over one thousand of these ‘we got fixed’ bottom boards in my life….having played roughly 100,000 boards of duplicate, and yet we won club games, sectional and regional pair games on a regular basis. Indeed, unless one is lucky enough to play nothing but top level bridge (where the opponents are too good to do weird but lucky things more than maybe once every couple of years), everyone has to deal with them, and these sorts of results even out in the long run.

I strongly suspect that, were we to look at each board you played that session we’d find a lot of unforced errors by you or your partner. It’s human nature to react most strongly to the fixes but that’s not the way to improve. Nor does ‘quitting bridge’ improve your game😀

It’s been said, repeatedly, that your posts show that you play with weak partners who make very poor decisions. You need (and I know this is easier to suggest than to do) a partner who is willing and able to put in some effort. It’s almost certainly unrealistic to get coaching, even online, and it’s not always easy for a non-expert player to recognize who might make a good coach anyway. But it’s still possible to learn through reading!

Imo, recognizing that I’m pretty old and my habits formed many decades ago, very few people have the ability to learn without either or both playing with/getting coaching from a better player or reading. Since it’s unlikely (based on your posts) that there are good players in your locale, reading is the realistic path…but it does little good for you to read if your partner doesn’t! In fact, it might make things worse since your partner won’t understand what you’re doing.

If you can’t find someone who wants to get better, and is willing to put in some effort, then either find another place to play (online?) or accept that you’re playing for purely social reasons.

Meanwhile, frustrating though it is, learn to distinguish between truly unlucky results beyond your control, good decisions that work out badly, bad decisions that work out well, and bad decisions that got what they deserved.

Every session is likely to contain at least one of each.

There are some excellent books and, imo, if you can get your hands on old Bridge Worlds starting from about 1975 onwards, you’d learn a lot. BW bidding is based on NA practices, and even so has changed significantly over the years…however….The Mastersolvers Club has international participation and it’s, imo, the single best resource I’ve ever seen for ‘how to think’ at the table, mostly during the bidding but with an opening lead problem every set. How to think is more important than the details of any bidding system, which is why Strong Club players, for example, are often excellent contributors despite being forced to answer in a non-forcing club system.

More ‘locally’ you’d do well to find as many Kelsey books as you can….share with partner, and discuss. Again, the emphasis is not on the methods used (which in Kelsey books are antiquated and UK-centric) but on ‘how to think’.

[AL78]

Thanks Mike for the solid response. I wasn't necessarily thinking of quitting bridge completely, just taking a break from it. Almost every session I look forward too but frequently come home feeling dejected and low. This is not good for my mental health hence why I think it might be a good idea to step back from the game. I also have the desire to start playing chess at the local club again which clashes with one of the two bridge F2F sessions I can play in, so is another reason for reigning in the bridge somewhat. Whilst I haven't played chess consistently for decades, at least when I lose it is because I blundered or was outplayed, it is not because of what was going on at the other X number of tables in the room.

I should look at the result after and try to analyse objectively how we could have made better decisions, although I will have to swallow my pride first, facing a ton of angry red coloured scores on screen is never fun . I am confident my defense is sub-par as I can often feel myself in a brain fog maybe because of fatigue, but I am unsure what to do about that.

[akwoo]

 AL78, on 2023-September-28, 11:03, said:

Thanks Mike for the solid response. I wasn't necessarily thinking of quitting bridge completely, just taking a break from it. Almost every session I look forward too but frequently come home feeling dejected and low. This is not good for my mental health hence why I think it might be a good idea to step back from the game. I also have the desire to start playing chess at the local club again which clashes with one of the two bridge F2F sessions I can play in, so is another reason for reigning in the bridge somewhat. Whilst I haven't played chess consistently for decades, at least when I lose it is because I blundered or was outplayed, it is not because of what was going on at the other X number of tables in the room.

I should look at the result after and try to analyse objectively how we could have made better decisions, although I will have to swallow my pride first, facing a ton of angry red coloured scores on screen is never fun . I am confident my defense is sub-par as I can often feel myself in a brain fog maybe because of fatigue, but I am unsure what to do about that.

I think we might be a good match for coaching, and it'd improve my game too to analyze more hands that I haven't actually played. I would think we'd look at a dozen hands you've already played two or three times a month. But be forewarned that I'm at the point where I'm trying to improve my play by keeping track of more cards and thinking more, not by improving my autopilot so I can think less. No money. I'm not an expert or even close.

I have a feeling that part of the reason for your results is that you aren't taking full advantage of your opponents' mistakes - when they discard the wrong thing or make a dumb lead you're not finding the play for the extra overtrick. Playing at the kind of club you're playing at I tend to have just as many bottoms as you're getting but a lot of tops.

Also, with the kinds of partners you're playing with, if you want to maximize your results, you have to do some amount of hand hogging, bidding for them, and otherwise masterminding. For example, suppose you hold ♠AQxxx ♥KJx ♦xx ♣Axx, and the bidding goes 1S-(2D)-2S-(3D), all white. With a competent partner you'd pass and let them decide whether to compete further. With a less capable partner who is going to basically always pass (and proceed to defend by rote), you bid 3S, especially against weak opponents who aren't going to double you and will defend by rote.