[athene]

Hi,

When I thought of this question I thought it wasn't very interesting because it seemed a "no-brainer" to me, but then I asked two people and between us we covered all three possibilities, so I guess it's not so clearcut

Imagine you are going to play with your regular partner in a big teams event.

You can have any pair in the world you like to substitute in for you in ONE area of the game:- bidding, declarer play, or defence. The rest of the time they sit out.

So if you choose bidding, they bid the hands then you have to play them (or defend them), etc.

What area would you choose? Feel free to name your preferred pair if you like although that's not so important.

[gwnn]

Of course it is defence. Many people say they are bad defenders but most of them have never played with me before to understand the true meaning of bad.

[spotlight7]

Hi:

Defence. I think that it is the hardest part of the game.

Kaplan said that playing against Meckwell defence is like playing against the 'in theory' best defense. His choice is my pick.

Regards,
Robert

[jjbrr]

well defense is the obvious answer because it requires two people instead of just one like with playing.

it's really tempting to have the ability to take more tricks than everyone else, but that's a skill that should be the easiest on that list to learn.

opening leads might be another consideration if i could "get them right more often" than just have someone share my workload with.

[Fluffy]

for beginners it might be declarer play

for intermediate-advanced players the real answer is bidding, that's where they leak the most points.

For experts it is defence for sure

[helene_t]

I voted defense because it is my own weakest spot but it also depends on partner of course. With one of my club partner's I think defense is our strongest spot.

[glen]

I picked answering forum posts as it is the most workload of all

[Rossoneri]

I pick defence as most of the time I'm getting scolded for defensive errors when I'm partnering an expert.

[Codo]

Fluffy, on Mar 16 2010, 08:01 AM, said:

for beginners it might be declarer play

for intermediate-advanced players the real answer is bidding, that's where they leak the most points.

For experts it is defence for sure

I make the most mistakes declaring, so I am a beginner....

[Free]

- Declarer play is too much fun, so I wouldn't pick that.
- Bidding depends on your own declarer play skills. If you have your stars bid perfect slams on too advanced play techniques, you won't have an advantage anyway.
- Defense is something on it's own, so they can have that

I think it's obvious to pick defense. Bidding and declarer play are linked somehow, so either you let them bid+play, or you let them defend.

[helene_t]

If one pair plays methods that the other pair doesn't understand, it may be a problem to have one pair bidding and the other pair defending. What lead did that double ask for? Can I trust my partner's overcall or should I lead my own suit? Have I shown my exact count in this suit during the bidding or do I still need to give count?

OK, just a minor issue of course.

[paulg]

I reckon that, in high-level competitions, 60-70% of the IMPs are gained or lost in the auction.

Although defence is the obvious answer as we are all so bad at it, I think we should be getting them to bid for us.

Paul

[nige1]

cardsharp, on Mar 16 2010, 07:29 AM, said:

I reckon that, in high-level competitions, 60-70% of the IMPs are gained or lost in the auction. Although defence is the obvious answer as we are all so bad at it, I think we should be getting them to bid for us.

Agree with Paul. If winning is paramount, you would get a better pair to substitute for you in the Auction. Variation in expertise accounts for more imps in the bidding than in play or in defence. Also, you have a principal role in roughly ...

• 100% of auctions.
  
• 50% of defences.
  
• 25% of declarations. (i.e. only one of your substitutes would be active at a time, so you are wasting their combined rapport).

[helene_t]

cardsharp, on Mar 16 2010, 01:29 PM, said:

I reckon that, in high-level competitions, 60-70% of the IMPs are gained or lost in the auction.

Yes but large parts of that are close decisions where the world class player makes a choice that is marginally more likely to gain than the choice made by the advanced player, isn't it?

I have no evidence to back this up. It is just my feeling that when I make a bidding choice that turns out badly, most of the times it could easily have turned out well. Same with opening leads.

While when I make an inferior play, whether as declarer or as defender, usually my choice has no merits at all. Like unnecessarily discarding winners because I failed to count. Or failure to apply an elementary safety play.

[gnasher]

They can look after dummy while I go to get coffee if they like. And I wouldn't mind a bit of help with putting the scores into the Bridgemate. Apart from that, I've paid my table money and I'm happy to go on making my own mistakes.

[CSGibson]

Can I have them in the post-mortem?

[nige1]

gnasher, on Mar 16 2010, 10:20 AM, said:

They can look after dummy while I go to get coffee if they like.  And I wouldn't mind a bit of help with putting the scores into the Bridgemate.  Apart from that, I've paid my table money and I'm happy to go on making my own mistakes.

CSGibson, on Mar 17 2010, 01:54 AM, said:

Can I have them in the post-mortem?

Lesser teams would respect the Gnasher/CSGipson team for hiring Meckstroth and Rodwell as waiter and score-keeper