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CHAPTER ONE
Scientists exploring the mysteries of human memory have coined a word to describe a related phenomenon. I cannot recall what that word is, but if I were to hear or see it I am sure I would remember. Researchers use the word to describe exactly this situation where one has seen or heard something before, but can not recall it until the event, object, or situation recurs. Suddenly the mind responds and the particular memory returns.
I have played competitive Contract Bridge for almost 50 years amongst players of all standards. I have concluded that one of the main reasons that some players are more successful than others is not because they are necessarily intellectually superior, but because they recognise a situation they have seen before. This is exemplified partly by the relative proportions of prodigies in Chess and Bridge.
In Chess, in theory, you can work out the exact best move at the table in every position, familiar or not. Youngsters can sometimes do this well with minimal experience because "all the cards are on the table" so to speak. In Contract Bridge, at best one can usually only work out what would probably be the most successful play. For this it helps significantly to have had years of regular experience that will enable you to see, at least probabilistically, through the backs of partner’s or opponents’ cards.
The purpose of this book is to describe many simple classic situations which occur regularly, and a few not so simple that occur not so regularly. I wish to help those contemplating learning how to play Contract Bridge, or those who have just begun, to gain experience vicariously. Thereby I would hope to increase their confidence, and hasten their success.
A novice declarer staring at 26 cards often cannot see the wood for the trees. The correct strategy will be to devise an overall outline plan for the play of the whole hand, then to execute it stage by stage, considering the potential distribution of all 13 cards in each suit. Yet if you have no "card sense", as many claim to lack, such advice falls upon stony ground. I shall be working one step back by considering just three-card situations, tiny pieces of the jigsaw. These can be easily assimilated, and hence more easily recalled at the table, because you will have seen them all before, here.
I fully realise that in playing a hand at the table, either as declarer or defender, you should consider the play of each card in the context of the hand as a whole. For example, one would consider the words in a poem not only as themselves, but also in their context. Nevertheless, if you do not recognise the words themselves, it is difficult to fit them into any context. The situations I shall be demonstrating represent "words" in a Contract Bridge player’s dictionary. Their meanings will vary with their context. Once you have learnt them, it will be up to you to write the poetry in your play or defence.