Priya Balasubramanian
The Land of Bridge: Partnership Matters
Partnership is a serious business in the Land of Bridge.
Having a good partner is the difference between being a Duke or a fluke. So, you can imagine; considerable hours have been devoted to understanding what makes for a good partnership.
Polygamy was rampant in the Land of Bridge. But everyone knows monogamy is good for health; health of master points that is. So the Queen of the Land of Bridge instituted several policies that rewarded long run partnerships as everybody knows a long running partnership is an important ingredient in the recipe for success.
Does capability determine the success of partnerships? The bridge capability test that judges your card read, card play, bidding sense was administered and people with equal scores were matched as partners.
But unfortunately, this experiment was not a success. It resulted in pairings such as that of Genghis Khan and Atilla the Hun. In some cases, the fights of one-upmanship and contentions of who knew better became so deafening that tourneys had to be halted mid-way.
Then it was felt that maybe a partnership would work better in a relationship of unequals. Here too, some experts roared at their partners with such venom that it resulted in a mass exodus to Rummyland.
It was concluded largely that maybe the question of matching for an optimum partner was more of an art than science. Kundli matching, psychology testing, reading of tea leaves and tarot cards all sprung up with different levels of successes.
Other companies that mushroomed included partnership counseling and grief counseling for dealing with broken partnerships. The grief counseling helped the player through five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
- In the denial stage, of course, every error was attributed to rogue partner. An expert went through all your deal records and painstakingly pointed out your errors. This was the toughest stage.
- Next, your righteous anger was stoked up, by going through the errors of your partner.
- In the third stage was bargaining with the expert to see who was more at fault - you or partner.
- In the fourth stage, you finally accepted that this was a pointless exercise anyway as the partnership was dead and you grieved at how long it would be before you met your true partner.
- In the fifth stage, you accepted the need to move on and signed up on apps such as Splinter.Splinter is an app that promises a major fit and provides the tinder so you can set alight your singleton status.
While Lord Sheinwold's “Three Weeks to Winning Bridge” is the official bible in the Land of Bridge, reading of epics of all types is also encouraged to relax, open and grow the mind.
A celebrated author in the Land of Bridge, Devdutt Pattnaik, famously classified the heroes and the anti-heroes of the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as shown here.
He contended that Rama in the Treta Yuga was unbending and followed both the letter and spirit of Law. By the time it came to Dvapara Yuga, Krishna was sagacious enough to bend rules. Shown alongside are some classical heroes and villains mapped into this matrix
A similar matrix can be applied to these along the axes of capability and agreeability (as shown to the left).
Further studies have added other metrics to the grading system - > willingness to work and goal orientation. If you scored high on all four axes, then you never wanted for partners.
If you are a rookie at bridge, you have to keep away from the disagreeable and the capable. You will otherwise bear scars for life. Of course, a partner who is disagreeable has his positive points- he will push you to apply and play better. Even with such clear methodologies, some partnerships that worked defied logic. Despite best efforts, the field is not formulaic and has yet to become a science.
In the next edition, we will share with you the Bridge Compatibility Quiz. Do keep your eyes peeled for the same!
We, at the Journalist Times, would welcome your views on partnership matters because they absolutely Matter.
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.
View Comments
There are many good partnership which has no real bidding system but are doing fairly well..
But I genuinely feel that the structured bidding system does give an edge to anyone, person with good card sense or otherwise..
I so agree with Priya that partners bidding which one day has one meaning and another time another...leaves you frustrated for sure