Table feel - Part 5   (July 2018)

You open 1D and partner responds 1S, both opponents passing. What’s your rebid holding

   (1)   ♠J93  ♥AK72   ♦KQ83  ♣72 ?

   (2)   ♠10  ♥KQJ6   ♦K9753  ♣A104 ?

   (3)   ♠K  ♥Q754   ♦AQJ42  ♣KJ5 ?

There’s no perfect rebid with any of these hands, so you have to choose from imperfect alternatives. How much time did you take to make each decision? How quickly would you choose your bids at the table?

In an ideal auction, the only knowledge your opponents have about your hand comes from your actual bids. Being human, however, we often give away extra information by our body language, facial expressions and other behaviors. Your opponents are allowed to use their “table feel” to interpret these clues and make inferences about what type of hand you hold.

The most frequent and valuable contributor to your opponents’ table feel is your bidding tempo. If you took more than 5-6 seconds to decide on a rebid with any of the hands above, you’ve revealed you had a problem. Your opponents will know that whatever your choice, you won’t have the classic hand for it.

With Hand (1), you may judge that raising spades is better than rebidding 1NT. A slow raise to 2S suggests one of two problems: Only 3-card support or a hand with almost enough for a jump to 3S. There’s a natural tendency to value up when raising partner’s suit, so the 3-card raise is more likely. If your opponents read this correctly, they’ll know not to make an aggressive balance and it may help them on defense.

With (2), a hesitant 1NT rebid is usually based on a distributional flaw, and your opponents will have a good guess about what it is.

On (3), it may take some time to decide on the least of four evils: 2C with a 3-card club suit, 2D with just five cards, a skinny reverse to 2H or a heavy 1NT. Much of your thinking time, however, may be consumed by regrets that you can't back up the auction and open 1NT instead of 1D.

If you want to neutralize your opponents’ table feel, you need to make these decisions smoothly. The best way to do that is to make them early, before your first bid. Get in the habit of taking a few seconds to predict the auction and plan your rebid, focusing on the most common and problematic developments:

Table feel - Part 6   (August 2018)

An asset for all bridge players is the ability to make decisions smoothly, without giving away hints that they were considering other choices. There will always be situations where you need time to think – even robots slow down when they have extra information to process – but the more of these breaks you can avoid, the more unreadable you’ll be to your opponents.

One of the best ways to reduce thinking time during the auction is to anticipate problems and have solutions ready before they occur. As discussed in the previous issue, if you can plan your possible rebids in advance, you won’t have to stop to think – and contribute to your opponents’ “table feel” -- at your next turn. Here are some other strategies that will help you improve your tempo.

Create a steady tempo.  Get into the habit of pausing for 2-3 seconds before every call, even an “automatic” Pass.  If you can maintain this consistent, deliberate pace when making easy decisions, you’ll have an extra – and unnoticeable -- second or two to think when you have more difficult ones.

Use idle time to think.  Try not to give any signs that you have a difficult choice when on opening lead. If the opponents are doing all the bidding and you have no critical decisions, use your “passing” time to plan ahead. Create a mental picture of the bidders’ hands, adjusting it as the auction develops, and begin forming a plan for your opening lead and defensive strategy.

Don’t interrupt your opponents’ auction.  Unless you need the information to make an immediate decision, wait until the auction is over to inquire about the meanings of opponents’ bids. Even innocent questions may provide clues about your interest in specific features of their hands.

Some players believe they can avoid drawing attention to any one question by asking about every single bid. This is not a good solution. The frequent interruptions waste time, annoy the other three players and may be seen as an attempt to break the opponents’ concentration.

What about skip bids?  Although bidding boxes no longer have Stop cards to enforce a break, you are still required to pause after your RHO makes a skip bid. The rules state you should wait 10 seconds before making your call, but that can seem like an eternity. Five seconds or so is usually sufficient.

During that time, don’t gaze at the ceiling or act bored. Just look at your hand, then make your call. Intense study isn’t necessary or ethical if you aren’t considering a bid, but don’t make it obvious that you didn’t need time to think.

If you do have a problem:  When you stop to think, the other players’ attention naturally goes to you. Take care to control your facial expressions and body language. Don’t put your hand anywhere near the bidding box until you’ve made a decision.

What is not allowed:  It’s legal and desirable to pretend you don’t have a problem when you do – to make an in-tempo call when you actually had something to think about -- but the opposite is not ethical. You aren’t allowed to mislead your opponents by hesitating when you don’t have a legitimate reason to think.

You may encounter players who try to mask their tempo problems with a blanket disclaimer:
    “I huddle at random times. My partner takes no inference, and neither should you.”
Unless the player has a disability that causes him to bid slowly, this is not an acceptable excuse. Bidding and playing in tempo is a bridge skill, and those who haven’t mastered it (which includes virtually everyone) can’t demand that you ignore evidence that they had a difficult decision. How you interpret an opponent’s hesitation is at your own risk, but you’re entitled to honest behavior.
 

 © 2018  Karen Walker