Bridge players love the game because it requires them to think, so it’s normal for the flow to be interrupted by pauses for thought. Whether they’re long huddles or momentary hitches, these breaks show uncertainty and allow your opponents to use their table feel to make inferences about what you were thinking.
Hesitations during the auction tend to communicate information about your hand type. During the play, they can expose your holding in a specific suit. Here are tips to help you deny the opponents information from your tempo:
Lead now, write later. The hardest leads for declarer to read are those that appear to be routine. Start planning your lead during the auction and place your card on the table as soon as the bidding cards are removed.
Remember that three people are waiting for you to start the play and declarer is paying attention to how and when you choose your lead. Don’t put it off by recording the contract in your private score or the electronic scorepad. Although most people believe they’re good at multitasking, no one really is, so those who claim they’re using this time to think are just delaying their decision.
Look ahead on defense. As soon as dummy comes down, identify the suit where you expect to have a critical decision. Will you fly with your ace, split your honors, cover dummy’s honor? A good declarer will often try to force this decision early in the play, so have your play ready.
If you aren’t ready, a hesitation -- or even a slight balk -- may reveal your holding. In close cases, it’s better to make an immediate decision, even if it happens to be wrong, than to tell declarer you have a problem.
ABC for easier discards. Defenders can give away the whole layout by their tempo and mannerisms when choosing discards. The best way to avoid these problems is to follow the experts’ mantra: ABC (Always Be Counting). When declarer starts running a suit, use your count to plan all your discards before making the first one. If you know in advance you’ll have to unguard a suit, you’ll be able to do it smoothly.
Adopt a rhythm. To build consistency into your tempo, make it a habit to pause for two seconds before playing to every trick. Don’t let the opponents rush you.
Decide before detaching a card. Take time to think if needed, but don’t emphasize your doubt by fingering multiple cards or holding a card in mid-air, as if you’re still deciding if it’s right.
“No problem?” If you happen to hesitate on a trick for no reason, you can correct your mistake by saying “No problem”, but it must be true. You can’t, for example, use this excuse if you fumble and then duck your ace when declarer is leading toward KJxxx in dummy.
“Time-switching”. This is the term the late Edgar Kaplan used to describe huddling over a play where you have an easy decision, but want to plan what you’ll do later. Kaplan called it a deception because it conceals your actual problem, which will come on a following trick. His view was that if you can’t make an in-tempo decision when the real problem arises, your opponent is entitled to the information from your hesitation.
You can pause to think ahead at any time, most commonly at trick one to study the dummy and plan your defense. To avoid the time-switching issue, you can say “No problem to this trick – just thinking about the whole hand”. Your intent will be clearer if you play to the trick and leave your card face-up while you think. This allows partner and declarer to do their thinking without being in suspense about the outcome of the current trick.
When you’re declarer:
Always pause for at least 5-10 seconds before calling a card from dummy. Besides
giving yourself time to plan, this gives third hand time to decide on his play.
This can help you avoid situations where RHO’s fumbling and indecision provide
unauthorized information to his partner.
My friend Dennis is concerned about a problem he has at the bridge table. He has long been aware that he has a habit of folding up his fanned cards when he has no intention of bidding or when he believes the final contract has been reached. He knows this communicates information that his partners have to ignore, but his opponents can use to their advantage.
Poker champions make their living by analyzing other players’ behavior. Your bridge opponents do it, too, and they’re entitled to use the inferences to make their bidding and play decisions.
Tics, tells and other non-verbal clues often appear when a person is feeling stressed, which explains why they’re so commonly seen in bridge players. Not all the signs are readable, but they’re easy to spot. Once Dennis had identified his problem, he started paying attention to how other players handled their cards. He was surprised to find how many had the same card-folding reflex he was trying to overcome.
You probably know players who have similar idiosyncrasies. My friends and partners over the years provide some typical examples:
Bob always kept his fingers touching his played card when he had a finessable honor or had led from a dangerous holding.
Fred’s posture gave away his hand strength – with a weak hand, he slumped and held his cards low, sometimes way below his knees.
Clare often started humming softly when she held a big hand or good support for her partner’s suit.
Ted would swing his knees in and out when he was impatient, usually with his partner’s bidding and play.
Lila would casually drop her 1C or 1D bidding card on the table if she was opening a 3-card suit. With a long minor, she put the card down very deliberately, pressing her thumb on top. She did the same when making a penalty double.
None of these mannerisms was intentional. These were all ethical players who didn’t realize they had such “quirks” until they were pointed out to them. Like Dennis, even once they knew and tried to change, they kept lapsing back into their old ways because the habits were so ingrained.
Unconscious behaviors provide the most reliable tells because they’re truthful, natural responses. To suppress them, you have to first know they exist. Ask partners and friends if you have any mannerisms that reveal information about your mood, thought processes or the cards in your hand. If you’ve observed any in your partners, tell them.
Even if you don’t have obvious or chronic habits to fix, your opponents may be picking up on subtle clues from your body language. Try to identify what triggers changes in your posture, facial expressions and overall demeanor. These often occur when you’re concentrating on a bridge decision, but they can also be reactions to fatigue, nervousness and emotions. Knowing why they happen makes them easier to predict and control.
The best way to limit your opponents’ table feel is to aim for consistency in everything you do at the table. Choose a comfortable sitting position and try to avoid leaning in or slouching back in your chair. If you know you have a problem with your tempo or manner when playing your cards, practice at home to develop new habits. To suppress physical reactions to nervousness, take a tip from poker players and focus on taking deep, slow breaths to return to a relaxed state.
And perhaps
most important, always conceal your emotions. More about this in the next issue.
© 2018 Karen Walker