Bridge ‘is not a game of perfect’ any more than golf is ...

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Bridge and golf are two of my major passions and they are horribly similar … obsessive, time-consuming and totally impossible to conquer.

As a result, both games have spawned countless books covering nearly every aspect of the two sports, but there are few bridge books that actually address the broad mental approach to the game as opposed to bidding and play specifics, whereas there are a number of great books about the mental side of golf.

Bob Rotella has written a number of these, his classic being ‘ Golf is not a game of Perfect ‘ … and oh how this applies to bridge!

Players get too wrapped up in trying to bid to the perfect contract and in the process clog their brains with so much useless material that it affects all areas of their play. This then spills into the declarer play and defence and before you know it there is no space left in the head for clear thinking.

This fairly simple hand came up at the end of a long session and West was clearly not thinking clearly !

Board 7. Game All. Dealer South.

S-KJ653

H-none

D-K1052

C-10754

S-AQ97 S-10842

H-764 H-K95

D-763 D-A984

C-A93 C-J8

S-none

H-AQJ10832

D-QJ

C-KQ62

South opened 1-H, West passed, North bid 1-S, East passed and South closed the bidding with a 4-Hbid .

West had an easy lead. Spades had been bid behind him, hearts were trump and he didn’t want to lead from a club suit headed by the Ace so he led the diamond 6 - a “MUD” lead, middle-up-down. East won the Ace and switched accurately to the jack of clubs. West, however, grabbed his Ace when South played the queen and returned a club and the defence was dead. Declarer won, played Ace and another heart, ruffed the spade return and claimed … contract made.

As Andrew Robson, who covered this hand, asked: “Is it called Bridge because partners need to maintain a bridge between their two hands?”

West must clearly duck the first club, encouraging with the 9, and hope partner has a trump entry. Partner does, and when he gets in with the King of Hearts he returns another club, gets his ruff and the contract is defeated.

You might ask whether West should know that partner is more likely to hold a doubleton Club instead of a singleton. I think so … if partner has a singleton it would mean that South would have a club suit of KQ862 and that is hugely unlikely on this bidding. West should therefore be patient and play for the most likely distribution, and that would have paid off handsomely.

Patience, lack of panic, and the acceptance that you might sometimes get it wrong … all of that will lead to success in Bridge ... and golf!

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