My Bridge Philosophy

  1.     I play Bridge not for money, not to qualify for the Bermuda-Bowl, not for reputation. I play Bridge just for fun, entertainment and to train my brain.
  2. More important than technique are
    1. Politeness to partner and opponents
    2. Cheerfulness, kindness and politeness
    3. quiet and social atmosphere at the table
    4. Table presence
    5. Bridge-technique
  3. Good judgement in the bidding is much more important than very specialized gadgets and bidding-sequences.
    1. You can bad bidding equalize by excellent play but not vice versa..
    2. Bidding is only of secondary importance. The most important is to play the hand and to defend.
    3.   I need most of my brain to memorize cards, count points and distribution.
    4. You defend twice, while you once play a hand. Therefore defense is the most important but also the most difficult issue in bridge. And you'll only become a good defender, if you are a very good declarer.
    5. The art of defending is first to count and imagine and second signalling.
  4. Mistakes
    1. I’ll try to avoid, but nobody is perfect
    2. I’m only concerned about misunderstandings in bidding or signalling. These have to be discussed after the session.
    3. I’m worrying only about my own mistakes. Partners mistakes in defense or declarer play are of no interest to me. I discuss them only, if partner asks me to do so.
  5. Impressed by Edgar Kaplan in the early sixties and later by Marty Bergen in the nineties and Anderson/Zenkel with regard to preempts I try to follow this rules:
    1. General approach
      1. Hard struggling in the part-score battle.
      2. Aggressive bidding games
    2. Conservative slam-bidding
    3. Destroying opponents bidding is of equal importance as bidding your own contracts.
      1. Very light coming in after opponents opening with a good suit.
      2. Very light opening distributional. Hands
      3. Preempt at once as high as you want to go.
      4. Never bid again after you preempted aside from partner forces.
    4. Important
      1. No fit no bid.
      2. Points schmoints (in suit-contracts)
      3. With flat hands when in doubt bid one less.
      4. With distributional hands, when in doubt bid one more.
      5.   Follow the LAW (LOTT)