Bridge and Logic

V N Ramamoorthy

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Is 'Logic' the panacea for bridge woes?

Even after knowing the logic, you do illogical things and that is Bridge!

Those of you who were students in the class of "Logic" ( I was one) would have learnt about illicit Majors and Minors. But does it help on the Bridge table?

Quite often, one goes by one's own intuitions rather than logic, however illogical that may be 🙃

The other day we were defending a game bid in Major. My partner led an Ace and I put the deuce. He thought for a while and continued with another Ace in a side suit. This time too I contributed the (God given) deuce!

Now he thought more deeply and played a Trump! The declarer gleefully collected the rest for +1 😭

Where did the logic go? If only he could follow the logic and switch to the third suit (of course he held the K in that), as was evident by my signals, the contract sets!

I don't know about people from other countries but in India we never follow the signals - whether it is Bridge or Traffic!

We find a reason (without any reasoning that is) for NOT following the Logic 😇. However illogical that may sound!

Another bit of golden advice which I read in Alfred Sheinwold's bridge tips - is confusingly simple. He says " Mistrust the obvious! "

When a declarer or a defender does something, very obvious but not logical - just don't trust him!

Feels like a heavy dose early in the morning eh? Well I will research more and give you more evidence as we go along.

Moral? Bridge is definitely a game of logic. If only one takes pains to think through the logic for every bid and play, you will have more gains than losses ☺

There is no cure - all vaccine in Bridge. But logic is next best to a panacea, if you may like to reason it out.

Happy & Logical bridging,

Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.