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Weekly updates from Kit Jackson offering hints and tips for the modern Bridge player. Enjoy!

Thursday 2 February 2012

STAR WARS - TRUST THE SYSTEM

As the starship sped through a galaxy of 53 trillion stars, Obi Wan turned to the Princess Leia:
"What were you thinking before you bid that last hand?"
"Whether to bid 1S or 1H."
"Why?"
"They were my options."
"No, I mean, why were you thinking about it? You must have taken at least 2 minutes to decide."
"Surely I should always think about my bid shouldn't I, Obi Wan?"
"Bridge is quite taxing enough on brain power as it is. I don't see why you would expend two minutes of quite valuable intellectual energy on a foregone conclusion. You finally, & correctly, bid 1S on this hand:
Kxxxx
AK10xx
Qx
x
The system is clear on these hands: with both majors 5 - 5 you open 1S: the fact that H's are stronger is irrelevant. There is nothing to think about. Save that brain power for genuinely difficult hands. If you try to imagine the universe of possibilities with every hand, your brain will rapidly become an exploding Death Star. Luckily you don't need to: there is a system that takes care of all the common, repeatable situations just so you don't have to waste your brain thinking about it. Ancient and wise heads have sifted all the myriad possibilities and decreed there is a pattern in the universe of chance that Bridge encompasses. The Force in the system is unbreakable and if you trust the Force so may you prevail."

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