Not as much since they started limiting the amount you can play the mass field free dailies

I still play a decent amount

Would be cool if we could get some pog team games going

After several false starts over the years, I'm trying to make a serious effort to learn this game. I've browsed this thread off and on for a while, and I have a few questions. Right now, I know the rules and basic bidding (SAYC) and card play principles. And in case it's relevant, I'm a decent chess player (~2000 elo) and pretty experienced with other trick-taking card games (hearts, spades, euchre, etc).

Questions:

1) As a chess player, the idea that all bidding calls/card plays must be made quickly and in tempo is very strange. How do you guys make these complicated decisions so quickly? Is it considered acceptable as declarer to think for a little while (~30 seconds) after the opening lead?

2) Related to 1, I've been playing a lot of solitaire bridge against the BBO robots because at least for now, I don't feel like I'm learning anything if I'm not taking my time with decisions. But is this counter-productive? Should I be playing with BBO randos instead?

3) Right now, the only bridge resources I have are The ABCs of Bridge, this forum, and BBO. Are there other books I should buy/articles I should read?

4) I have a general sense of how doubling and vulnerability affect scoring, but I haven't memorized the values. Should I do that? Are precise calculations necessary during gameplay? I imagine they might be for sacrifices/penalty doubles.

5) I still suck at counting cards. Any tips on this? Do you guys count from 0 as the tricks are played, or from however many cards have been revealed (e.g. 8 spades between declarer and dummy, so count the remaining 5 as opponents play them).

6) Does anybody want to play some teaching games on BBO?

1) In tempo is fine. Tempo doesn't HAVE to be super quick, though it should be as consistent as you can make it. What's "acceptable tempo" varies some by the situation -- if the auction goes 1S-2H-4S to you it's expected you'll take a little longer to act than after three passes. Note that thinking is never ever an offense, you sometimes get complicated decisions and need to work through them -- taking advantage of partner's thinking to infer what he has is the problem. It's actually recommended that declarer take a bit of time before playing to trick one -- you should want to do this as declarer, and it's also courteous to the defenders. I don't know that 30 seconds is necessary unless you're in a high level game, and sometimes a hand is just super obvious and you can just play. I tend to play very quickly though.

2) Some of each. Beware that some BBO randos are paragons of Dunning-Kruger and think they know what they're doing. Robots aren't very good (and for instance don't signal on defense).

3) For beginners who aren't sure about bidding and basic card play, I'd recommend http://www.kwbridge.com/ as a free, super basic resource. There are a lot of different books out there that I might recommend depending on what you're curious about.

4) There are times when it definitely does matter, notably when deciding whether to save over an opposing game or slam -- knowing about what that's worth, and what your save might cost, is vital. Down three doubled against a game might be good, or it might be very very bad, depending on vulnerability. Having a sense of that is vital, and while I don't know that 'memorizing' the table matters, being able to calculate it is a good idea. That's not too hard.

5) I personally count down from the missing cards, but both ways are acceptable. Do whatever's easier. To start, count important suits (trumps, and suits that you plan to run or score long cards in). There's a fun little "flash card" type game somewhere that I can't find online that's nice in terms of establishing hand patterns -- which is even better than counting. You've got X, dummy had Y, and as soon as someone shows out they had Z, which leaves # for the fourth player. If you play enough bridge those numbers become second nature.

6) I'm certainly willing; evenings US time are best. Post 1 of the thread contains a bunch of BBO nicknames including mine. PM me here if you want to discuss setting something up.

this?

Yes, that's it! It's (well, to me) surprisingly helpful in getting your brain ingrained in hand patterns, which is great both for bidding inferences and for card play/card counting. If those numbers are automatic/second nature, it's almost not even counting any more, it's just assimilating.

Fred himself programmed that game. Quite useful.

There is nothing wrong with thinking about a bid or a play. The problem comes lets say it is clear I am considering bidding 6 spades or 7 spades. After thinking about it for a minute I bid 6 spades. Partner thinks because you were close to bidding 7, decides to go ahead and bid 7. THAT is illegal

Thanks everybody for the responses! (and sorry for abandoning the thread). The counting app is very useful. On thinking too long, I was more worried about card play than bidding, and more worried about my opponents getting annoyed than the ethical implications (which, unless I'm missing something, don't arise as much in card play as they do in bidding).

I've been playing a decent amount on BBO. I'm daldrich00 there if anybody wants to play.

I'm also working my way through The ABCs of Bridge by William Root. Any suggestions on a book to tackle after that? At this point I feel like it would be most useful to learn about declarer play, but I'd welcome suggestions on anything.

They can occur in card play as well particularly on lead. A classic example would be if the auction goes 1C on your right, 1S on your left, 4S on your right. If your partner doesn't try to tempo his leads, there is a clear difference between a 1 second club lead, and a 20 second club lead.

But really when you are starting out tempos aren't something to be too concerned about. Also don't worry about annoying opponents, they will get annoyed regardless.

I'd recommend looking into books by Bird/Bourke for some play problems that I liked when I was fairly new at the game. Just went through my bookshelf and found one called "Safety plays" and another called "Deceptive play". Not sure if this is too advanced but I would not think so. The latter may not be the best choice to begin with, but the series of books is good. Look for one that is appropriate for the type of problems you want to focus on.

The way the books are written make them very good for learning card play. You are presented with a play problem and can basically treat it like a hand at the club. Then check the solution for it and see how you did and how to approach the problem.

Another author I read a lot of books from when learning the game was Mike Lawrence. Some good books were "How to read your opponents' cards", "Hand evaluation" and "Balancing". These may be too difficult if you are really new so maybe a few months down the road.

Can confirm that Lawrence's stuff is awesome and, even if 35ish years old, still very very very relevant.

Do not bother with deceptive play. First you must try and evict the glorious blunders from your game.

Haha, this. Your normal plays will be extremely deceptive to anyone paying attention.

987654
432
KQ
KQ

AKJT
AQ8
432
432

Bernasconi hand (maybe from bridge world?)

1S (dbl) redbl (p)
p (1NT*) 4S AP

*no 5-card suit

Queen of spades lead. Be very, very specific.

Heh, problem is trivial if the heart suit is AQ9. AQ8 is a head scratcher.

Since it is bernasconi I assume this is some sick squeeze on both hands and if they duck an ace theres an endplay or something. I legit don't understand these hands, they're like magic :P

since the minors are the way they are, it's a bit more trivial, but yeah, 1 suited squeeze in hearts

Double dummy problem

http://www.bridgebase.com/tools/hand...9%7Cmc%7C10%7C

Can you find the setting lead? Feel free to click GIB to see the answer.

(yes I talked to partner about the auction afterward)

easy enough problem (double dummy obv, no shot at single)

A little birthday present I received this weekend:

Dummy:

KQx
Kxxx
AJ7
ATx

My hand:

J9xxx
x
Q4
KQJxx

LHO dealt. IMPs, I think NV/NV.

(1D) X – (P) 2S
(3D) 4S (all pass)

LHO led the ace of spades and continued a low spade...

This was two hands after I got to play a double trump coup. Just an overtrick, but still.

You hold

QJx K9xxxx Ax AT
Partner opens 1S.

1S-P-2H-P
3H-P-??

Do you bid 3S for the double fit? How is trump agreed upon in these sort of double fit situations if you were to bid 3S?

In this spot bidding methods are relevant
Would partner ever bid 3H with 6S/3H?
What would 4H have been?
Is it possible partner has 4H or is this always 3H?
If I jam 4NT here and hear 5S (2+Qh) can find out if partner has Ks (that would be grand slam!)

I think I like 4c in this spot, setting hearts. You don't really need to show the double fit, you can always correct to spades. If partner shows off in 4H, I bid 4S, which assumably is not to play, but shows a spade feature.

My partner and I have the agreement that 3S here sets spades. Can sometimes bring hearts back into the picture with 5NT pick a slam on hands where it's right.

I am pretty sure this is not good. I like the agreement, but there should not be any pick-a-slam bid available, you need the room too much for slam research, asking for key features.

If 3S sets spades, then go with it. That avoids very expensive misunderstandings.