POKER SKILLS IN BRIDGE ARE ESSENTIAL.........................( Article by Professor Hu Chi Ku Chi )

To be a top class bridge player you must possess an analytical mind, a damn good memory, oodles of technical ability, plus a load of other equally important skills. One of these embraces a grasp of the maths involved in the scoring, but in the main it is the ability to play bridge like a professional poker player. Allow me to provide you with a couple of examples:

East/West have been dealt the following hands: (West holds Kxx....32....Qxxxx.....AKx while East is sitting with AQ9xx....void.....AKJ874....Qx) leaving you with only a good fit with partner in hearts. With both sides vulnerable West opens 1D, which partner overcalls 1H. East cues bids 2H to show game going values and a good fit in diamonds. You bid 3H which is followed by a forcing pass, and a simple pass from partner. East then steps in with 3S, which West raises to 4. East sensing a slam somewhere now bids 4NT to ask for Aces. So with your 4-5-0-4 distribution and 5 HCPs it is imperative you re-enter the bidding with 6D !! The poker player in you would make such a call, for it now becomes impossible for your opponents to make a correct judgement. Doubling 6D would enable you to escape to 6H, which if doubled earns E/W a paltry +800 for three off. If passed out the penalty inflicted is 12 off for a tempting +1200. To bid 6S could be a risky gamble to gain +1430. To bid 7D to net +2140 requires too much courage having to bid it blind, after being denied the bidding space and opportunity to find out more about partner's holding. This hand actually cropped up during an international match, where 6D undoubled was passed out. This earned North/South a magnificent result, especially when their team-mates came back having bid the diamond grand slam.

In my second example West holds: AQ10x....QJ10xxx....AQx......void, and having opened one heart, your partner makes a pre-emptive overcall of 4c, but East comes in to bid the vulnerable 4H game. With a hand full of garbage except for four clubs to the queen, what do you bid ? Well, the poker player in you would always stick in a double !! What is West to do ? Redoubling would only cause his opponents to retreat into 5C. Bidding on carries certain risks, especially if partner had stretched to 4H ? Moreover, 4S doubled tick with a possible overtrick looks very tempting indeed. Well, at the table the penalty doubled was passed, and when dummy came down it was too bloody good. Thirteen tricks were there for the taking, and so +1390 turned out to be a very poor reward indeed for E/W. This bogus penalty double in bridge parlance is known as Striped Tail Ape Double. It is designed to steer opponents out of bidding slams. Redoubles will only lead to rapid retreats, which these apes are renown for. But more importantly, these doubles cleverly tempt opponents into taking what appears to be a wonderful gift, when the reality is the gift is going in the other direction.

In both the above examples, the poker skill also involved recognising situations where there was nothing to lose but everything to gain. One might argue that in each case you need good judgement to know that the opponents had rock-solid slams on, but there will be occasions when you and your partner recognise the genuine slam potential of the opponents' hands before they do........and that is the time to make these poker-type bids, which always completely put the opponents on the spot.........often bamboozled and fixed . This forces them to make extremely difficult calls, which in many cases they will get wrong.