Playing against bad players can be frustratingly difficult. How many times has this happened to you?
- The auction dies out at 2H, so you make a close balancing bid of 2S. The opponents wake up, and end up in 4H. You are so irked by the auction that you double. The declarer manages to blow an obvious ovetrick with inept play – yet thanks to the double the opponents wind up with a cold top on an otherwise flat board.
- The next hand, you try to make up some ground. White on red, you open 3D on a jack-high suit. Swish. What’s going on here? Sure enough, you’ve preempted partner who has a pretty decent hand, but who made a disciplined pass with a stiff diamond. Down 3 for another bottom.
- On the last hand, you and your partner reach a confident 6S. LHO doubles, and it comes back to you. After sweating it, you finally decide to try 6N. Guess what — 6S is cold, and 6N is down one. LHO doubled because she had a club mixed in with her spades.
Okay, I’m exaggerating a little. (And perhaps in one of these examples, I was on the “bad player” side…) But you get the point.
Here’s my advice:
- A certain percentage of the time you’re going to get fixed. Them’s the breaks. Deal with it. I don’t care if you’re Giorgio Belladonna, you are going to get a bottom if the opponents manage to stop in 2N with 29 points between them and only 8 tricks are available.
- The corollary of No. 1 is that you shouldn’t try for, or expect, a 100% game against bad players. Aim for a more reasonable 65% based on sensible bidding and play. If you get more than 65%, it’s gravy. (And if you get less, well, them’s the breaks…)
- Please, please, please don’t make bad bids and plays in an effort to mess with the opponents. Believe me, they will have no idea what you’re doing. The only person you will end up fooling (other than yourself) is your poor, suffering partner.
- Be very careful if you try to draw inferences from opponent’s play. Bad players tank in the strangest situations, and their carding is often downright mystifying.
- Avoid close penalty doubles. BTW, one great piece of advice I read in a book by Terence Reese is that as a general rule you should try to bid your own cards to their maximum level before thinking about doubling the opponents.
- Whatever you do, be unfailingly polite to the opponents. If they luck into a top, let them enjoy it. It’s painful, I know, but you’ll get through it. (If they give you a top through a hilarious mistake, save your chuckling for the car ride home.)
- Finally, get over yourself and relax! With few exceptions (and you know who you are), no matter how well you play, there are hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of people who play way better than you do. Treat your weaker opponents as you would want your stronger opponents to treat you.
Tags: Bad Players, Disasters, Getting Fixed, Giorgio Belladonna, Terence Reese