Counting the Cards in Bridge with Graeme Tuffnell - Part 3

[@marysharp9635]

thanks Graeme, great to put that into practice, good to know what the ops are holding, including their strength so to speak…. cheers, Seasons greetings to you😊

[@TheSuzberry]

These are terrific. Thanks.

[@fshafly2]

Thanks so much for taking time to educate us unwashed masses! I will try to adopt the shape technique.

[@Skybridgeclub]

Takes some rewiring of the brain before it becomes natural. Stick with it for a while and see how you go. 😀

[@ellakouzmenko4240]

Amazing channel, thank you 😊

[@Skybridgeclub]

Thanks for your encouragement, I really appreciate it!

[@olivia8979]

So Helpful! I have seen you in other videos ... I am your student in LBO. I have never really grasped how you know what everyone else at the table likely has. This is so helpful to me. You may have other techniques as well, but just this alone is a game changer. That said, I play in a neighborhood group and I know for sure that there is at most one person (our leader) who understands how to do the opening bid. So I won't be able to use parts of this technique with them. I can't count on them to bid the 4th higher or top of a sequence - at least not yet. But it will definitely help me keep track of what has been played and come up with some reasonable theories about what they probably have.

[@Skybridgeclub]

Thinking in terms of hand shapes takes some work but it really is a game changer, like you say. Here to help if you have any questions about it all.

[@olivia8979]

@@Skybridgeclub you are right that it isn't easy at first. But I'll get used to doing it for the trump suit (or longest/best suit in NT) first and then add in a second suit. I am not sure if I could ever keep track of all four, but we'll see. Thanks for responding to my question in LBO class this week :)

[@ivanpetrovic295]

Thanks a lot, Graeme! Mastering this technique would mean playing completely different game. I am familiar with hand shapes for very long time already, but have never tried to follow them for all four hands. The most I can do is to count declarer's shape, but not always. In order to apply your approach well I would appreciate a few more pieces of advice. Do you think writting down the shapes would help forming the image of hand shapes in the head in the long run? If this is so, do you see them as 5314 or xxxxx xxx x xxxx? At what point I should start sticking high cards to these shapes or do you recommend taking count of HCP as a separate process? BTW, I tried to practise at the turnament and got headache. I led into obvious duble void and made few more silly mistakes 😄

[@stevegolfman2739]

geez, this is brilliant - so much easier than counting. I feel like an idiot for all the brain cells I wasted doing it the hard way.

[@Skybridgeclub]

Still takes a bit of work but once you get the hang of thinking in shapes it does make things much easier.