Playing to Trick One
James Marsh Sternberg, Danny KleinmanOne often hears an expert say "I’ve seen this hand before”. What does he mean? No, he hasn’t seen the hand record; he recognizes the hand type. After all, there are only a finite number of hand types in bridge. For example, second suit hands, cross-ruffs, ruffing in dummy, a simple finesse, an elimination, a dummy reversal and a couple of others. You can’t reinvent bridge every time a hand comes down. If you recognize the type, then you have some idea or plan of how to go about trying to make your contract.
But one of the biggest mistakes non-expert players make is playing to trick one, then looking around and deciding what to do next. And in many cases, it’s already too late. The key to the hand was trick one. But sorry, no mulligans in bridge.