“Discards, Knee Jerk
Responses”
Jay
Tomlinson
Reflexes are used to protect the body automatically. They get
us away from objects that might hurt us, before they hurt us. For example, if
you put your hand on a hot stove, you immediately remove your hand before the
message, "Hey, my hand is on a hot, burning stove," gets to your
brain.
The knee jerk reflex is one that
you may have had tested at a check up at the doctor's office. In this test, the
doctor hits your knee at a spot just below your kneecap and your leg kicks out.
So why am I talking about
reflexes and knee jerk responses? The
answer is quite simple actually. We’re
all victims at one time or another to our body’s responses. Our audio video physiology protects us and
we have 0 control over it. In our
spades games we suffer this same ailment, but we have options.
We can 100% control what cards
we play. This is not a physiological
response. It might be psychological but
not physiological. As players sitting
at the table we tend to react to what we see automatically, and many time
without really thinking. We see an
opponent do something that scares us a bit and we react.
Discarding is one area where
this occurs. This happens time and time
again. When we see an opponent taking a
pitch in some suit we go bonkers, immediately thinking, “Oh my God” our tricks
are vanishing. Our reflexive response
to this action is to immediately table a card at our first opportunity in the
suit the opp pitched.
Is this a well thought out
action? It’s very possible that a shift
in that suit could be right, but my take is this. Probably the opponent has pitched a loser, the damage is already
done to our side. Before I get nutty
and allow my psychological side to immediately play a card in the pitched suit
I must consider other options. It is
very possible that a shift to some other suit will yield a far greater profit.
The scenario is all too
familiar, either you or your partner makes some lead that allows one of the
opponents to make one or several quick discards. It can be that the lead was perfectly normal but yet the opps are
getting those discards while you panic on each one.
Take this example:
J102
AQ10
73
J6432
BIDDING
South West North East
6 1 4 2
The game is close and N/S must bid 10 to finish ahead of
E/W. Bags are not an issue!
Your partner leads the Ten of
clubs on opening lead, which North wins with the ACE, you following low. South follows low also. The King of clubs is
led in the North hand and South discards a small heart as your partner and you
both follow with low clubs. The Queen
of clubs is led by North and South discards yet another heart.
North now leads a small heart
and you rise with the ace, South plays another small heart and your partner the
8. Nine players out of ten will suffice
to the knee-jerk reflex at this point by leading another heart!
Think for a moment! All the damage that can be done has occurred
and leading a second heart at this moment has very little to gain. It is quite possible that you can garner a
spade trick with the Jack or Ten. If
this is the case you must act now and lead a diamond before you’re tossed in
the lead with a spade. Granted we’re
not sure of a spade trick but one thing is for sure it’s a sight better play
than continuing with a knee-jerk heart continuation.
Let’s view the entire hand:
Looking at all four hands it is
easy to see the devastating effect playing the Ace of hearts and returning a
heart has. The heart can be easily
ruffed, then ACE of spades and small spade to the King and the last heart
ruffed. At this point South should note
that East bid two holding the ACE/Queen of hearts and a spade trick.
How do we know this? Consider what hearts have been played, and
consider the opening lead. A heart
would have been led if the King/Queen were in West’s hand. Also, a heart Ace/King might be played with
an Ace/King holding in the East hand.
This tells us the heart honors are split. Now South should consider the distribution on this hand. At this point in the hand it is almost an
open book.
Hearts were 4/3/3/3 with four in
the East hand. Spades appear to be
5431. Clubs are likely to be 4441 or
5431.
Considering the cards in the
East hand we know that East held at least 3 clubs, 3 hearts, 3 spades. We know 9 of East’s cards.
In the West hand we know that
West held at least 3 clubs, 4 hearts, and only one spade.
By simple deduction we arrive at
a min. of five vacant spots for the King of diamonds to reside in the West
hand, and 4 vacant spots in the East hand.
Using this information and playing the role of Sherlock Holmes we place
the Queen of diamonds on the table and endplay West. Any card he plays after winning the King of diamonds is
disastrous.
He submits to a ruff-n-sluff or
leading from the Jack of diamonds.
What lessons can be learned from
this hand?
- A
heart lead wins the game easily from the West seat. Was it an easy lead to find? “NO!”
Did the club lead appear to be normal? “YES!”
- Did
East succumb to the reflex-knee-jerk coup after seeing a couple of heart
discards on top clubs? “YES”
- Was
N/S still settable if East relaxes and leads a diamond back instead of the
reflexive heart? “YES!”
We are all victims of this urge
and or reflex, especially if caught up in a very fast paced tempo during the
game. When you see an opp make one or
several discards during any hand don’t assume the worst. This also applies to NILS. How many times do we shift to a suit we see
the nil bidder discarding high cards in?
In many cases as a nil bidder I
toss cards in my most protected suit rather than telegraph my worst suit. I do this because I know so many players
fall victim to this reflexive coup lol.
Best regards,
Jay Tomlinson
Email ruffnit1@aol.com
