Quote:
Originally Posted by Hackdeath
Kudos to you for never pointing out your partner's or team mates's errors, that must be quite difficult sometimes. I try and have the dynamic with my friends to encourage mistakes to be discussed, but it has to be with the intention of being constructive. I guess you don't need that at top pro level because its obvious to everyone what could have been done.
I remember in one of Galfond's training videos for poker he said that the worst mistakes a player makes are one's that he doesn't realise are mistakes, and that's the best value coaching can provide to point these out. I had that recently with my regular partner pointing out to me I was over competing in some part scores spots at IMPs, but I was a bit blind to it until I tried to analyse and understand why it was a losing strategy. It would be a shame to not have this kind of dynamic imo because opportunities to improve one's game might get missed.
For sure talking about your hands and mistakes is the most important way to improve.
I'll give you some more concrete examples of what happened after the last set. The first hand my partner and I talked about was a hand that we actually won a bunch of imps on. We missed a very good slam, but meckwell got to 7 and went down. This was definitely the most important hand to talk about because something clearly was lost in the translation of our auction to miss a 90+% slam.
The auction was 1C(strong) p 1H (8-11 any shape less than 5 spades), p 1S p 2D p 3C X 3S p 4S AP. My hand was AQxxxx AK --- KT8xx. His hand was Kxx Jxxx AKT87x --.
My thinking was, with the double of clubs on my left, my hand is extremely bad now since I have no tricks, dummy will get overruffed etc. change one of his hearts into a club for instance and slam is very bad on a trump lead, and that is a good 11 count with a third spade.
When I said "with a third spade" he realized I did not think he promised 3 spades, and could be on a doubleton. He thought he would always bid 3H with a doubleton spade (like 4th suit/punt whatever), whereas I thought something like KJ doubleton of spades and nothing in hearts would bid 3S, and something like Jx of spades and Qxxx of hearts would bid 3H (since that hand shouldn't bid 3N immediately but should leave it in the game). When we have a known 8 card fit, we play that 3N would be a non serious slam try, so since he thought he had shown 3 spades, he thought we had a known 8 card fit, and thus my 4S bid was a really strong signal that I hated my hand (which must be a LOT of club wastage, and only 5 spades). I, thinking he could have a doubleton spade, thought 3N was in the game and that I'd often have 6 spades (or 5 good ones of course).
I also thought he might bid 4C over the X of 3C with his actual hand (not an agreement since this auction has never come up, but was logical to me), so we discussed that, and also what the implications of him PASSING the X were (we both agreed that would just be leaving open the option of 3C XX being a contract, but not being able to demand it). So that cleared up the system part of that hand and that was the most important thing for us as a partnership.
Whether or not he should start with 1H or 2D is a judgement thing, and obviously either can be right, IMO it is not my job to offer that opinion unless I have a strong feeling or he asks.
The hand I talked about most after having done system work was a judgement thing, one which I had no clue which is right and thus I want to ask as many people as possible what they thought. I held xxx KQxxxx xx xx. It went (1D) 2S (3N) and I was on lead. My thought process was, I can play for them to have 1 spade stopper and partner to have a minor suit entry before they have 9 tricks, or I an play to run hearts (Ax or Axx with partner), with the back door of Jx or Jxx which at least gives us time to get some tricks in then perhaps shift, or if hearts are 2-2, if we can get a minor suit trick and run hearts.
Which is percentage? the auction 1D 2S 3N is a strong favorite to contain 2 spade stoppers. However, when you hold 3 spades and you hold 6 hearts, that makes 1 stopper hands somewhat more likely. They won't be able to make a neg X (less than 4 hearts) more because you have 6 hearts, and they will be shorter in spades than normal since you have 3. They won't want to cuebid 3S with a fit and a spade stopper sometimes because there isnt a lot of room. Still, they would probably bid 3 of the other minor with length there and 1 stopper in spades.
I made the lead that lost (a heart), and of course it cost 12 imps to lose by 11 haha. But really I just want to make the percentage choice next time something like this happens or learn, so I asked a bunch of world class people to help me audit my thinking on this spot, and my choice. This is akin to talking to your partner or teammates or network about hands that youre not sure of, and you should be doing that always. Anything that comes up that youre unsure of and think you can learn. But it doesn't have to be your partner or teammate that you talk to about these, the more the better, and in fact sometimes your teammates or partner will be too impartial or alternatively want to be nice and supportive if its a spot like this haha (that is def not the case with my partner, he is super objective).
I think most people considered my lead anti percentage but reasonable, a few considered it percentage. I do keep in mind that there is old school bias to "lead your partners suit because you cant get yelled at/look stupid" haha, its what we all learn when we start playing and its silly, but thats why you need a lot of opinions.
I am lucky that currently I have a whatsapp group of some really close friends, mostly young guys, and between us someone is always playing so we talk about hands every day and can all learn from each other. What I noticed most about that is that europeans have a lot of different ideas from americans so we can all become much better by crossing over our ideas and taking the best of each. Thomas Bessis just sent a message that he thinks a spade is clearly right, but he thought a heart at the time, and he had some new thoughts on it so there is discussion again.
So I would say if youre serious about improving always be talking about spots etc, and with as many people as possible. I always play national pair games with a different person because I like learning everyones system ideas and styles and what theyre doing also, so I'd say playing with lots of people can expose you to things. Obv have your main partner but try and be exposed to lots of ways of thinking, it can only make you better.