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Not Quite A Full Deck! |
Not Quite A Full Deck is a monthly column written by bridge enthusiast Bill Nash. The column will attempt bring the lighter side of bridge to its readers from the perspective of those wallowing in the world of "Non-lifemasterhood". Any comments are welcome at wnash@sympatico.ca. |
"Patience is a virtue". A boss of mine once had that as his vanity license plate. I don't know if he really knew what that meant, but I'll leave that opinion for discussion some night over a beer. As bridge players, patience is something we deal with all the time. Whether it is sitting in the wrong direction at the wrong time never picking up a hand with more than 5 HCP's or biting your tongue while a novice player continually makes the same nervous mistakes, patience is something we all have to express at some point. Patience is something I think I have a lot of, but sometimes even I feel pushed to the limits. When playing against experienced players, I sometimes feel hurried to make a bid or play a card. While the experienced players do play in tempo, they seem to have no problem in selecting the proper bid or playing the proper card. In this situation a novice player should develop at reasonable tempo to play their game as to allow themselves a reasonable amount of time to make important decisions against the "Big Guns". This isn't to say they shouldn't always play at a tempo that allows them to do this, but developing good habits will improve your play when playing against all calibres of opposition. New players often feel their side should be the declayer in every hand. Probability will tell you that you should expect to be on defence in half the bridge hands that you play. Sometimes you get lucky and get to play more than your share of hands as declayer. We don't seem to remember those good times, but seem to remember and dwell on the unfortunate nights when we seem to always be on defence. This is where we have to show patience, and accept the fact that we will be on defence, and not force the bidding where we get a slew of bottom boards. Defence can be fun, .... because a successfully defended hand resulting in a top board for your side is not only gratifying, but it is interesting to listen to your opponents talk about all the "ifs & ands" that that could have happened to give them a top board. Too bad for them, ..... congratulations! Patience is definately needed when playing with a new partner. It is exciting to find a new partner that seems to "click" with you. The potential for a successful, long-time partnership leaves you dreaming of enough masterpoints to sprinkle on your cereal in the morning! But regardless of the ultimate success of your new-found partnership, the initial game or two ( or three, or four, or five .....) can result in poor results that may be discouraging. Be patient; .... at the end of the day, your ultimate goal in bridge is to have fun. If you are having fun playing with your partner, maybe success isn't as important. If your lack of success seems to be on your shoulders, be happy you have a a partner that can put up with you. If your partner seems to not play as well as you would like, enjoy their company and save your expectations for other days. I have no problem being patient most of the time, but sometimes when I play with my wife I get the feeling, ".... how much patience should I have?...". But then again, outside of bridge, she has shown more than her share of patience with me, ...so I guess I should count my lucky stars! Until next time ..... |