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Been playing Bridge for a couple of years now. Have improved in bidding, strategy and other stuff. But one place where there is no improvement is counting and visualising.

At best, I can keep track and visualise trumps in opp hands. Becomes very difficult to do any more than that. If I try anything else - i.e. tracking/counting a 2nd suit, visualising opponents hands etc, I lose even the trump count. Basically, my mind just can't visualise and juggle these things. I have tried all standard ways to improve. But of no avail. Anyone have any radical methods to help with this?

I am looking for people for who this didn't come easy.

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Can you describe what you tried? ("Standard" ways, might be different for different people) – Aryabhata Aug 21 '12 at 15:38
Tried 1) memorising different distribution patterns eh 4-4-4-1, 4-3-3-3 etc - all possible combinations 2) Tried visualising a distribution of each suit or of each opponent at the beginning based on distribution and keep adjusting - but the brain is just not able to juggle so many things. The moment I think about strategy everything else goes out of my mind. 3) Counting up, Counting down - anything else given in books/websites. – user93353 Aug 22 '12 at 2:09

2 Answers

Counting trumps is a good start. If at least one of the opponents has bid a suit, you can count him/her for at least five of them (except for a short minor). By looking and your holdings and dummy in this suit, you can get and idea of what the fourth person has.

The other thing is that if one opponent has bid/overcalled and you are in game (less so in a part score), you can expect the bidding opponent to have most of the outstanding honors. This is particularly true if non-bidding opponent has played an honor or two early on.

Likewise, if neither opponent has bid, you can expect outstanding honors to be SPLIT, meaning that if one opponent plays a bunch of honors early, the other probably has the remainder. And probably neither opponent has a six card suit, and possibly not a five card suit.

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I can count one suit. But if I start thinking about a 2nd suit, I forget my strategy and the first suit count. I know all the theory about splitting etc, but it doesn't help. – user93353 Aug 22 '12 at 2:11
@user93353: One world class expert, Terence Reese, advised people to focus on TWO suits (not four). Most people look at two many. But if you can look at only one, that's probably "too few." As a practical matter, if you "know" three suits, the fourth is pre-determined. Knowing two gets you a long way there; knowing one does not. – Tom Au Aug 22 '12 at 15:14
I am not sure how it is for an expert - but for me, even if I manage to remember three suits, the mental jugglery of calculating the 4th suit from the three will make me forget something else - i.e some count, or my strategy for the hand etc. This isn't because I am weak with calculations - I think I am pretty good at it. But because I am unable to multitask between so many things. – user93353 Sep 25 '12 at 12:36

There are many books written on this subject; Ron Klinger's 'Improve Your Bridge Memory' was the one I used, but I imagine your public library or bridge club will have a selection. The problem is that nobody but yourself knows what methods work for you.

Two examples from Klinger, one easy and one harder; you don't need to count how many of your own trumps (or other important suit) have gone, so long as you pause at the beginning of the hand, say to yourself 'I have four trumps and dummy has three; that means they have six between them', and then count each time one of the six is played. And secondly, always try to make up a mnemonic for a principle: playing Roman Blackwood, 5H shows two aces the same colour, 5S either two major-suit or two minor-suit aces, and 5NT two either hearts and clubs or spades and diamonds. That's hard to remember, but if you think of clubs and hearts as both a rounded shape, and remember C for colour, RA for rank and SH for shape, C-RA-SH should be enough to remind you what your response should be. (You make up your own mnemonics based on what helps you to remember, of course).

Personally, I found the second tip useful and the first counter-productive; but only you can tell what will work for you, and only after hard work both in finding methods and in practising. (Don't believe anyone who says 'it just comes naturally'; usually they have been playing for thirty years, and have forgotten how long it took before it all came together.)

Edit: I gather the real problem is remembering everything at once. In that case, try to build up your memory gradually, and try to separate the problems. So don't try to remember the exact probability of every possible distribution, start with '3-1 is 50%, while 3-2 is 60%'; you can add more, and refine the numbers, as you get better. And having made your plan based on the assumption that trumps will split 2-2, you don't need to remember why you came to that conclusion, just to count how many have shown up.

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I don't have problems remembering bidding conventions. – user93353 Aug 22 '12 at 2:15

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