Spades Geek

In The Cards -- Bridge documentary about 2 young talented players rising to the top

2011-11-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

USA II in Finals of Bermuda Bowl!

2011-10-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

So USA II defeated USA I to make the finals of the Bermuda Bowl -- a huge accomplishment. This team was very underestimated. In the other semi-final, the Netherlands defeated the favorite to win the event -- the Italian Blue Team.

After the first 3 sets of the Finals, the Netherlands is beating USA II by 22 IMPs. With 5 more sets to go (80 boards), this lead is not much at all and I expect a very tight match. Justin mentioned his team played pretty much its worst Bridge in this first session, so I expect them to come back strong tomorrow.

Here was the 2nd set of the Finals.

USA I vs USA II Bridge Bermuda Bowl Semi-Finals

2011-10-25T18:15:00.001-07:00

This is a vugraph video of the first set of the Bermuda Bowl semi finals -- USA I vs USA II. The table image you see on the left is generated by an operator who sits by the actual table and enters the cards, bidding, and play as it proceeds so that we can view it online in real time.

United States Bridge

The US is the only country to have 2 teams represented in the Bermuda Bowl (because of its enormous depth). One of the rules of the Bermuda Bowl is that if both US teams qualify for the semi-finals, they must face each other. Since both US teams did in fact get to the semi-finals, their match began last night, and this video covers the very first set.

The legendary Italian Blue Team is the heavy favorite to win the gold, and both US teams are considered contenders.

USA II is the youngest American team to ever qualify for this event, and one of my friends Justin Lall plays for them. They are still relatively green and very unproven in international competition. To win this event is the highest award in Bridge. For them to make it this far in their first Bermuda Bowl is a huge accomplishment in itself.

Justin's team plays an extremely aggressive modern style. Similar to how Poker has evolved in recent years, Bridge is evolving on a similar path into a much more aggressive auction. USA II illustrates this evolution better than any other team (in particular, Lall/Grue "Grall"). This extremely aggressive approach is a thrill for spectators to watch and provides many high variance deals. This team is already being called the future of American Bridge.

Here is a bit more about Justin's Team

About The Bermuda Bowl

The Bermuda Bowl is the main world team championship in Bridge and is held every 2 years. It is an incredibly difficult feat to just to make it there -- especially for a team as young as USA II (young for Bridge standards).

There are 22 national teams in the field, who represent the eight WBF (World Bridge Federation) zones. Each zone gets a designated number of teams allowed. Below are the countries that qualified this year for each zone.

Europe: Italy, Poland, Israel, Iceland, Sweden, Netherlands, Bulgaria —1st to 7th in the European championship
North America: Canada, USA 1, USA 2
South America: Brazil, Chile
Asia & Middle East: India, Pakistan
Central America & Caribbean: Guadeloupe
Pacific Asia: China, Japan, Singapore
South Pacific: Australia, New Zealand
Africa: Egypt, South Africa

The first stage is a single round-robin (21 rounds of 16 deals each at three rounds per day), scheduled in advance. The top 8 teams from the Round Robin qualify for the second stage which is a single elimination knock out format.

To qualify and become USA II, Justin's team had to beat both the past Bermuda Bowl champs (The legendary Nickell team -- Meckstroth/Rodwell, Hamman/Mahmood, etc. who have been in every Bermuda Bowl since the 90's winning 4 of them), as well as the Rosenblum Cup champions (the other main world championship in Bridge). Because of the very deep talent in the US, it is extremely difficult to qualify. The competition is nearly as difficult as the Bermuda Bowl itself.

Team Bridge

To give a brief summary of how competitive team Bridge works, there will be a team of 4 playing against another team of 4. Justin's team is actually 6 people, so not all the team plays at once. Two people from one team play against a pair from the opposing team, and another pair of your team play against a second pair from the opposing team on a second table in opposite directions.

So, if you and your partner sit N/S, your teammates will be sitting E/W at the other table. The same deals are then dealt to each table so that each team will see all 4 hands on any given deal.

So for example if Justin and Joe play two Italians, the Italians at the other table are given the same cards Justin and Joe get, and Justin's teammates get the Italians' cards. Your score is based on how well you did compared to your opponents at the other table (sitting in your seats). Scores on any hand range from -24 to +24. 5 is considered a decent score, 10 is a big score, 15 is a gigantic score, 24 is a once in a lifetime hand. At this level of play, most deals are "par" results or "no score".

This match is 96 boards (hands) total, broken into 6 sets of 16 boards each. The first day they played the first 3 sets, and today they will play the final 3 sets. If you are a spades player, you might wonder why they can't play more than 48 boards in one day. Bridge at this level is played much slower than Spades (about 8 min per hand), and requires A LOT more thought and concentration (literally each card played is critical). Also because the bidding auction is more than 1 round, it is much more involved/takes longer than Spades. Playing this many boards per day quickly fatigues a player which is why each team has 3 pairs for rotation. These guys have been playing the highest level of World Class Bridge for 10 days straight now at 48 boards per day. Because of that, they're pretty fatigued and unfortunately we likely won't be seeing their A games. If you're a baseball fan, this is similar to having your ace pitch on 2-3 days rest continuously.

Updated scores can be viewed here: Bridge Winners. After the first 3 sets, USA II leads USA I 112-61. A nice lead, but not overwhelming -- this is easily surmountable with 48 boards to go.

Why don't more Spades players play Bridge?

2011-06-06T08:31:00.001-07:00

Why aren't more Spades players making the switch to the king of all partnership card games? In my opinion, Bridge is the greatest card game ever invented.

Is it because of the complicated bidding? Or is the perception that it's an LOL (little old lady)game? Maybe people aren't aware you can play professionally and make a comfortable living. I admit Bridge at first seems pretty overwhelming to learn, and getting a new player through that initial phase is the hardest part.

When my dad tried to get me into Bridge when I was 15, he would take me to the club and it was filled with 65+ yr olds. This obviously made it difficult for me to get into the game and I decided to stick with Spades. I regret not getting into the game at a younger age, as now I have a lot of catch up to do. Fortunately during those years I decided to read a lot of bridge books knowing eventually I'd make the switch.

Spades is really the ideal groundwork to prepare for learning Bridge. The card play in Bridge takes years to become proficient in, but Spades players have a nice head start. Bridge experts will tell you that defense is the hardest area to get proficient in, and Spades players are already playing "defense" on every hand. This is a huge asset Spaders bring when they start out.

Contrary to what most think, the bidding is probably the easiest area to become proficient in even though it seems foreign and hard to grasp when you start (like any new language).

Last week I was playing Spades with one of the top professional Bridge players in the country (Justin Lall) and we were discussing this subject. He started playing Spades many yrs ago at a very young age, and now plays professional Bridge. He had said many times that Spades is the ideal primer for Bridge and is what got him started.

Here is a post Justin Lall made on this subject (under JLOGIC)

Is Bridge Dying?

STAT and UDAT

2011-04-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of improving the game, I'd like to propose that we incorporate a "standardized" carding system for the game of Spades. This will provide 3 major needed improvements to the game:

1) Play of the hand will improve with added information (from both sides).
2) You will be able to play with a number of different partners without having to discuss signaling and carding methods in detail.
3) Disclosure to opponents will be easier.

Note: Currently, spades doesn't require disclosure of carding methods because very few pairs have agreements and it would confuse average players. As agreements become more mainstream, disclosure will be not only needed, but it will help to elevate the game.

I will be making a video which will cover the basic system
-- STAT (Standard Attitude and Trump Signals)

The same system with reversed carding will be
-- UDAT (Upside down Attitude and Trump Signals).

The system is as follows and applies to non-bagging hands:
-----------------------------------------------------------
STAT Standard Attitude and Trump Signals

Leads

* Top of sequences AKx KQx QJx J10x KJ10x
* Low from Strength Q82 K73
* Top-of-Nothing 976 102

Attitude

* Standard Attitude (high = encouraging, low = discouraging) applies when we lead a suit for the first time.
* If Attitude is obvious, standard suit preference is next priority.

Trump

* When the opposition leads for the first time, we signal trump length. High = good trumps Low = bad trumps
* Subsequent leads we signal standard suit preference.

Conventional Spades Signals -- Suit Preference

2010-09-23T08:43:00.001-07:00

Conventional Spades Signals -- Leads

2010-09-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

Conventional Spades Signals -- Attitude

2010-09-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon

2010-09-09T15:46:00.001-07:00

I'm putting together a series of videos on card signaling. These detailed videos will cover a complete conventional signaling system that I recommend for any advanced-level regular partnership.

This is a subject sorely lacking in any spades literature, and if you are an advanced+ level player, you'll want to add this to your team's arsenal.

Addicted To Bridge

2010-09-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, if you've been wondering why I haven't posted for a long time, well it's because I've been playing Bridge over the past 6 months and I'm extremely addicted. If anyone hasn't tried Bridge, please give it a try. The game is endlessly fascinating and there is a huge online base of players on www.bridgebase.com. The site is set up extremely well, and best of all it's free. It records every hand you play, and you are able to replay it and view how others played the same hand. Feel free to send me an email and I can help you get started.

Bridge was never a big online game which is why I hadn't played it in the past much. Now it's absolutely huge online -- much bigger than Spades ever was even in its peak.

I'll be creating a bridge blog in a couple of months.

The 3 Most Common Spades Mistakes: Number 2 – Poor Trump Management

2009-04-08T11:27:00.001-07:00

Proper trump management could potentially take several hundred pages to fully cover, so I will only point out the most basic and damaging errors made.

A) The Opening lead. With a hand containing a long spade suit, many average-level players will lead their short suit first in order to break spades. This is a play that works against your hand, as it weakens your spade suit. In fact, your opponents would do well to continue leading that suit to force you to use up your spades.
Your goal with this type of hand is to use your spades as leads rather than as cuts. You hope that someone else will open the spade suit for you (either partner or an opponent), and then use your spades as leads later on. By leading your longest suit instead, you hope to establish winners in that suit early on and prevent yourself from being forced to ruff. Save your short suit leads for when you have poor spades (“runts”) or when you want to get to the spades suit early for partner when he has a strong spade suit.

B) Leading partner’s void. I see this error all the time and it is closely related to the above. The hand with the long spade suit is leading spades, and partner runs out of spades to return back. Without a spade to lead, he decides to lead into his partner's void side suit. This further weakens the strong spade suit holding, and ends up destroying the hand in most cases. You are now a third opponent when you make a lead like this as that would be a good strategy for the opposition (leading into the long spade holder’s void). This is a great way to kill your partner’s timing and control of the hand.

C) Leading 3 rounds of spades. Another common error is leading too many rounds of spades. In general (80% of cases), two rounds of spades is correct. A third round can be damaging in most cases. Assuming your side has the majority of spades, normally one opponent is out of spades by the third round -- and in general, when one opponent is out of spades, it is bad economically to lead spades as you are killing 2 spades for every 1 you “pull”. Even worse, the opponent left with a spade may have the boss and now you have really hurt your prospects. Even if the opponent with a spade doesn’t have the boss, it can still be very damaging to lead a third round of spades. Your side may need an additional spade later on, and the player can pull the last spade at a later point in the hand. Of course, there are situations where a 3rd round is necessary and makes sense (when your side clearly has the boss – and the opponents have no other prospects), but these are the exception. Another exception isO when you are in a situation where your partner is the short spade holder, and the spades are split evenly among the opponents, this is a good opportunity to lead a third round and kill 2 spades with 1 of yours.

The 3 Most Common Spades Mistakes: Number 1 - Leading Aces

2008-11-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

This series of blogs will cover the 3 most common errors made by average-level players.

Average players very commonly lead aces because they deem them “safe leads”. In actuality, the ace lead is a very unsafe lead and I will explain why.

The ace is a very powerful card for many reasons. When an ace is led, it loses every one of its advantages. Here are the advantages of holding onto your aces:

a. Your side may capture an enemy honor card.
b. Your side may win the first round of the suit with a lesser card.
c. You retain an entry for later in the hand.
d. You maintain control of the suit (i.e. a “Stopper”)
e. You make it difficult for your opponents to win unsupported kings.
f. You make it difficult for the opponents to read your hand. By refusing to lead aces, the opponents have less ability to use the count card principle.

To sum things up, by refusing to lead these aces, you will have a better chance of developing extra tricks -- which may either gain a set, or prevent your side from going set!

You will make things hard on the opponents. They will grow frustrated with losing many of their counted king tricks due to you refusing to show the ace. This frustration will lead to underbids later on. These underbids will then lead to bags and cause even more frustration. This kind of pyschological frustration that great players cause is an extremely valuable weapon.

Entry Cards -- How They Affect Tempo

2008-02-13T19:48:00.001-08:00

One of the most important components of Tempo is putting the right person on lead at the right time. We must keep the lines of transportation open when possible, such as in this example.

East, knowing that North always covers queens, placed South with the ♣K and inserted the ♣A. East followed with the ♣5 to South's ♣K. South swithced to the ♥J to West's ♥A. West, observing the fall of the ♣10 from South on trick 1, switched to diamonds. After cashing the ♦A and ♦K, West continued with the ♦4.

From this position, we see there is only one line of play for North/South to set East/West. North must ruff with the ♠10, lead the top two spades, and finally enter South's hand with the ♠2. Then South can cash his diamond winners while North throws off his heart losers.

How does North correctly deduce this line of play and correctly unblock spades?

Let us examine the previous plays. Since East/West only need one more trick to fulfill their bid, North must recognize the only possibility of a set is if South has diamond or heart winners to discard his losers. North thus realizes he needs an entry to partner's hand after running spades. He quickly deduces that it is unlikely his partner holds the ♥K since he had led the ♥J earlier. Since West covered the ♥J with the ♥A, East's last count trick must be the ♥K. Thus, the most likely candidate for an entry to South's hand is the spade suit. A brilliant deduction by North allowed them the set by keeping the lines of transporation open and making a key unlbocking play to allow the right player to be on lead at the right moment.

The Forcing Defense -- Disrupting an Opponent's Tempo when on Defense.

2008-02-04T12:45:00.000-08:00

Most spades players don't ever consider their roles during a hand as "Offensive" or "Defensive" positions.

This is a mistake, as each role requires much different Tempo strategies. Realizing when you are on Defense, for instance, is the first step to developing the right strategy to disrupt the opponents' Tempo.

West started the hand with the ♣A and continued a club to North's ♣K, two plays that helped North/South establish clubs. South's clubs were now sitting perfect.

North switched to the ♦4; East inserted the Ace, South trumped and switched to the ♠2. On lead with the ♠J, what is East's best lead?

If he leads a spade, heart, or club, the opponents win and continue spades. After two rounds of spades South is left with the last spade plus three established clubs. East/West would be held to one club, two spades, and a possible heart trick.

A diamond return by East disrupts South's Tempo. He can trump and play the ♠A and another spade, but West wins this trick and South is out of spades. East/West then run diamonds. Or South can refuse to trump. However he has no useful discard and East/West will get their bid.

On East's diamond return, South did trump but abandoned the idea of leading spades. He simply cashed out his winners; both sides finished the deal fulfilling their bid. East's forcing play in diamonds being the key to disrupting South's Tempo.

The Hold-Up -- Cutting off an Entry to Disrupt Tempo

2008-02-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

The hold-up play is used when you hope to thwart the tempo of the opponents by refusing to take your ace on the first round.

A play very seldom used, it is highly effective and assumes only a small risk. It should be used more often by the so called "experts".

West led the ♥K, North following with the ♥4 and East with the ♥9. South, knowing West lacked entries due to his bid, figured a hold up with a favorable distribution might kill East/West's entries and followed with the ♥2.

West continued with ♥Q, and this time South took the ♥A. East now had no way of reaching West's hearts.

North and South switched to clubs and then diamonds. When East took the ♦A he could not reach his partner's hand to discard a loser.

With East forced to ruff hearts on trick 9, he was endplayed and his side could only win 3 spades, 1 heart and 1 diamond.

Had South not held up the ♥A, East could have led a heart to his partner. Hearts by West fulfills their bid.

Tempo -- An Illustration

2008-01-31T20:16:00.000-08:00

Here is an extreme example of how tempo can be greatly mismanaged.

When West decides to make a conservative lead -- the ♣2, North/South will gain the tempo advantage by switching to hearts, clearing East's stopper and later continue the suit. Now with South's tempo advantage in hearts, East can no longer clear the spade suit and must end up giving South 3 spades.

On the other hand, we can clearly see that the ♦A followed up by the ♦6 is the best line of play. This gives East/West the tempo advantage by establishing diamonds while weakening South's spade position. Once South ruffs, East will push three rounds of spades and later cash his established diamonds. This line limits North/South to 1 club and 2 spades.

The loss of tempo on trick 1 in this case greatly affects the outcome of the hand.

Where is West's clue to guide him to the right lead? The 8 bid. As West on opening lead, he must try to find partner's long suit. The most likely candidate? Diamonds of course.

What is Spades Time?

2008-01-29T17:55:00.000-08:00

If there is a unified theory of Spades, then it is Timing.

It's a strange fact that the concept of Timing in Spades is rarely mentioned in articles and is never given treatment in any of the published works. Of course the classic books on Bridge all cover this important theory in great detail. But it is this very concept that is at the heart of all spades strategy. If you want to master this game, first become very intimate with the concepts of timing.
Truly at its heart, Spades is a battle to win more time. Ruffing, suit establishment, the 5-5, the hold-up, endplays, squeezes, trump management, nil defense, nil coverage, - what is the underlying theme here? Timing.

But what the hell is "Spades Time"? I imagine you have a vague and muddy understanding of this strange concept, but clarity usually eludes even the "top players". It is thus important for us to break the concept into pieces. Only then will we be able to fully appreciate and later utilize the concept to its full potential.
A hand is divided into thirteen units. Each unit is a "time unit" and is controlled by the person on lead. Thus, when the opposition is on lead, you have lost a time unit. The reason we describe the units with the term "time" is because a spades hand is greatly affected not only by how these units are played, but when they are played.

There are two general categories of Timing to consider -- Trick Establishment and Trick Avoidance.

A team has a limited amount of time (13 tricks) to win additional time units, which become tricks. Time units can be gained or lost during a hand. There are many variables that affect time such as the cards you hold, the skill of each player at the table, who has the opening lead, and luck.

The essential thing to remember is that both teams are battling for more time.

A simple Timing example: You hold a singleton heart, and you hope for a 2nd round ruff. If the side suit is led twice, a ruff is available and you gain a time unit. However, if that suit is not led twice before spades are led, a potential time unit (the ruff) has been lost.

An opposing example:
♠ Axxxx
♥ --
♦ xx
♣ KQJxxx

If hearts are led to force you to ruff, it will become increasingly difficult to later steal time units with established clubs. On the other hand, if clubs are led early, it will become more likely that your established clubs will win time.

The underlying factor in each example is when each suit is played. Time is either gained or lost based on the timing of each lead.

Terminology:

Spades Time: The concept that a spades hand is divided into 13 time units. The manner and order in which each unit is played affects the time units available to each side.

Time Unit: 1 trick.

Time Management: The art of managing one's cards in order to maximize the amount of time units available.

Captaincy: Some hands allow one player of a partnership more information earlier about the correct line of play. This player must take control as he will know how to steer the tempo. It is critical for the captain's partner to quickly follow his lead. Keep in mind that most hands do not have a captain as everyone is trying to find the correct line. But sometimes, a player will gain a quicker insight on a particular deal and needs to steer the ship. Most "good players" are over confident of their abilities and want to control every hand, and thus never recognize when their partner should be steering the hand.

Two Categories of Timing Approaches:

Defensive Timing: A timing strategy implemented when a team lacks captaincy.

Offensive Timing: A timing strategy implemented when a team holds captaincy.