DON'S TIPS TO WINNING BRIDGE

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Here are some common sense bridge tips by Don Stack.

1. Don’t forget the reasons that we play bridge.
a. It’s fun - when it ceases to be fun then try another game and never
detract from another person’s fun.
b. The social aspects of bridge - being with people and making friendships.
c. Mental challenge - intellectually exercises the mind and keeps us young.
d. Competative challenge - every hand whether pairs or teams.
e. Achievements - become better player, masterpoints, section tops, life master, overalls etc.
f. Very goal oriented - easy and fun to set goals and try to achieve them.

2. Set goals for yourself that are achieveable, then work to accomplish that goal.
After you attain your goal then set higher goals. Examples of goals are:
a. Improve an area of your game such as bidding, declarer play, or defense by
reading a book, interactive software, lessons etc.
b. Evaluate your results and try and eliminate one mistake each session.

3. Build partnerships - play with someone who is a friend and has similiar goals.
Have partnership notes. Review every area of convention card so there
are no misunderstandings.

4. Review results to see what you could have done better.

5. Measure your progress - its never a straight line up.

6. Deal with the frustration of losing, bad plays, bad results. They are going
to happen. NO one wins all the time or makes the right play all the time.

7. The BIG TWO things that I believe are the most important qualities that
a good bridge player possesses are:
a. CONCENTRATION:
Focus on the business at hand, don’t be distracted, remember the bidding,
remember cards played, remember opponents body language, gather
all possible information.
b. JUDGEMENT:
After gathering all the information you must judge what to bid or play,
sometimes dozens of times in one hand.

8. Be a good partner and teammate - no criticism, only encouragement.

9. Show no emotion when dummy appears.

10. Detach emotions from previous hands, its over lets go on.

11. Think about and plan the play at trick one as declarer.

12. Bid and play in an even tempo.

13. Don’t let the opponents see your cards.

14. Don’t be intimidated.

15. Be a tough competator - act decisively - achieve a reputation.

16. Adhere to your system - no free lancing that partner will not understand.

17. Don’t lose interest when holding a bad hand.

18. Do not teach or preach to partner or opponents during the session.

19. Develop a positive mental attitude and a killer instinct.

20. Never let the opponents know that you are in trouble.

21. Draw inferences from cards played and from the bidding. Build a picture of partners
hand and declarers hand when defending. Build a picture of the opponents hands when
playing the hand.

DON’S IMP STRATEGY.
1. Aggressive approach to game bidding. Non vul = 45% and Vul = 38%.
2. Slam bidding is rewarded equitably according to the chance the slam will make.
3. Assess the quality of your opponents - if you have the best team then tighten up a bit.
4. Compete aggressively for part scores but stop when you feel that you can defeat the
opponents. Don’t go for the biggest plus score.
5. Be disciplined. Don’t do anything rash. Don’t try and create swings out of thin air.
Overbid or underbid a little but don’t try and kill the opponents on every hand.
6. No speculative doubles.
7. No silly slams.
8. The state of the match is where you think you are in the match, either plus or minus
imps. Don’t swing unless you are sure the match may be lost. A bad result may
be duplicated at the other table. Don’t do anything silly because of one or two bad
results. More bad results can bury the team. Give your partners a chance to have
a good game.

# of Cards	Break	Percent
2	1-1	52
	2-0	48

3	2-1	78
	3-0	22

4	2-2	49.7
	3-1	40.7
	4-0	9.6

5	3-2	67.8
	4-1	28.3
	5-0	3.9

6	3-3	35.5
	4-2	48.5
	5-1	14.5
	6-0	1.5

7	4-3	62.2
	5-2	30.5
	6-1	6.8
	7-0	0.5

8	4-4	32.7
	5-3	47.1
	6-2	17.1
	7-1	2.9
	8-0	0.2

DON'S TIPS TO WINNING BRIDGE

THATS ALL THERE IS FOLKS