Part 1 - SHAPE SOLVING

If you are like most of my students, you feel very confident that you will never be able to count a bridge hand like an expert. You may be so confident that this skill is beyond your abilities that you don’t even attempt this seemingly impossible feat. If this sounds like you, I can confidently tell you that you are completely wrong! Absolutely anyone can count a bridge hand, even you!

Now, this skill won’t magically develop overnight. In this article I will give you the tools and strategies that you will need to start figuring out the shapes of the missing hands and then I am going to give you a month to practice!

Now, you may be thinking some or all of these;
“I can’t remember all this stuff!”
Your bridge memory will develop naturally while you play and applying the methods in this article will hasten this development.

“I only have so much time per hand, how can I do all this?”
The more you practice the faster and better you become. I will show you ways to practice where you can take all the time you need.

“I’m not smart enough”
Stop! YES YOU ARE! This is not about being a super genius. This is all about focusing on the information out there and using common sense.

So, let’s hit the ground running and count a hand together. I am going to give you some facts and ask you to tell me the shape of one of the hands. Let’s dance;

You are sitting south and west (your left hand opponent) opens 3S and that gets passed out. 

Your partner leads the Ace of hearts and takes the first 3 heart tricks with the A, K and Q with all players following.

Partner now leads a club and dummy takes the next 3 tricks with their A, K and Q with declarer discarding a diamond on the 3^rd club (all others follow).

What was declarer’s original shape?

Did you come up with 7 – 3 – 1 – 2 ?  Assuming normal actions this is declarer’s shape.  Congratulations on counting this hand!

Now let’s count the same hand again and establish some rules as we go. You are sitting south, and west (your left hand opponent) opens 3♠ and that gets passed out. 

• Start counting during the auction: When a player bids, put those cards in that player’s hand. On the above auction we would immediately assign west 7 spades. Your partner leads the Ace of hearts and takes the first 3 heart tricks with the A, K and Q with all players following.
• Analyze the opening lead: What does it mean? Why was it chosen?
• Pair the dummy with your hand: This will narrow down the possibilities for sure.
• Pick the hidden hand you want to count: This is usually the hand you know the most about. On the above hand West would be the easiest to count.
• Start finding the hidden suit lengths: Start with what you know and fill in the blanks. We start with 7 spades and after trick 3 we know declarer started with 3 hearts.  So, now there are only 3 cards left to find. Partner now leads a club and dummy takes the next 3 tricks with their A, K and Q with declarer discarding a diamond on the 3^rd club (all others follow).
• Keep finding the hidden lengths until you solve the shape: Continue to fill in the blanks in your target hand. In our example we now would know that declarer started with 2 clubs and one diamond.  That’s 13 cards that we know about.  7S – 3H – 1D – 2C.  Shape Solved!

Our example hand shows the power of information when trying to solve the shapes around the table.  We were granted a lot of information in the auction and the play was informative early.  It will sometimes be this easy to shape solve but can and will be much harder.  The more information you have, the easier it will be to solve hands.   This brings up a good question for you.  In general, which players will have the most information to shape solve with, declarer or defenders?

Defenders will almost always have the most information to shape solve with.  This is because of the simple fact that as defender, you always have some auction to go on!  Sometimes an auction is short and sweet, providing little information and other times an auction is involved and revealing.  But, as defender you have always “heard” something.  As declarer you will frequently have no bidding to guide you.  The more information you have the easier it will be to find what’s missing. 

Let’s solve one more hand before I give you some homework.

Only the opponents bidding:
3NTW - Opening Lead: ♠2

What is declarer’s likely shape based on the auction and the hand above?

• Start counting during the auction: Sounds like West has 5 or more diamonds and 5 or more clubs and 1 or 0 hearts.
• Analyze the opening lead: That looks like a classic 4^th best lead.  Which means partner has exactly 4 spades.
• Pair the dummy with your hand: This is especially helpful with the spade suit.  Now we can determine how many spades declarer is holding.  (2 based on our information)
• Pick the hidden hand you want to count: Obviously West.  They’ve revealed so much already. Start finding the hidden suit lengths:
  • We solve spades on the opening lead – Declarer has 2 exactly
  • We solved most of the minors in the bidding – at least 5 of both
  • Solving hearts requires more thought.  Would declarer offer 3NT with a void in partner’s best suit?  This is usually really bad!
• LIKELY SOLUTION:  Declarer’s shape is 2S – 1H – 5D – 5C

Notice I gave the “likely” solution.  It’s important to recognize that sometimes people do weird or just bad things during the auction or the play.  For example, what if this was the time partner accidentally lead 5^th best instead of 4^th best.  Or, maybe declare does in fact have a heart void on this hand.  So, while we can really dial in a hand and think we’re right, people can surprise us.  The important thing is to keep counting and paying attention to the hand.  Soon enough you will just be watching to confirm all that you already knew by counting early 😊.

PRACTICING THIS NEW FOUND TALENT:

I know this is not easy and even the above may seem too much for you but, you just started.  This takes time and effort to pick up but once you pick it up, and continue to practice, it can eventually become second nature to you.  So, here’s how we practice. 

• Focus: It is important to recognize that this is already a really difficult task.  So, don’t make it more difficult by allowing yourself to be distracted.  Turn off those notifications on your phone, mute the television and focus on just the task at hand.  Lose yourself in it.  This is how you give your mind the space and time to perform.
• Robots are amazing for practice: The BBO Robots may do weird things from time to time (like the rest of us) but, they are extraordinary tools for myriad practice activities.  This is especially true for the type of practice I am setting you up for.  The robots will wait as long as necessary for your decisions.  So, for those of you worried about taking too much time at the table, the robots are perfect for practicing counting.  Start a table with 3 robots or jump into a tournament and start trying to solve those shapes.
• Get it wrong a lot: Your practice with this skill shouldn’t be about achieving perfection on every deal, it should be solely about the exercise itself.  It’s important to get these reps in whether they produce the correct answer or not. Try not to get frustrated when you don’t get it perfect… and never give up 😊.
• When you’re shape solving, forget about the rest for now: When you’re practicing shape solving, I want you to forget about everything else.  I don’t care if you give up 6 extra tricks during the play, if you solve the shape correctly that’s a victory!  One thing at a time.  The more comfortable you get with counting the more your mind will expand to the full game …. and that’s when it really gets exciting for you (and your lucky partner)!

BBO Practice Suggestions

• Start a table with 3 Robots: You can find this from the front page of BBO by clicking on “Robot World” and then in the lower left region of that page clicking “Start a table with 3 Robots”. 
  At these tables you will sit south and see random hands with 3 robots.  I like practicing with random hands because we will be defending way more often than if we were to play a “best hand” event.  As discussed above, we will find it easier to shape solve as defenders as we will always see at least some bidding.  Take all the time you need at these tables and don’t worry about the score. 
• Any non-best hand event: If you need to see a score and compete every time you play (I get it 😊), then try to confine yourself to non-best hand events.  This will also see you defending more often than usual.
• Anything else that seems fun to you: Seeing hands is seeing hands.  So, whichever way you prefer to experience the game, the important part is to get to a table and start making decisions and solving those shapes.  Solving shapes as declarer is just as fun albeit it can be a bit more challenging when the opponents don’t bid.
• You may forget: Even expert players forget to “do the work” on every hand.  Don’t worry if you do, but when you realize you’ve stopped doing it, focus on starting again the next hand.  Also, if you’re having trouble remembering what you already know (a common issue for beginning players), feel free to use a piece of paper at the beginning of your journey to record the information you find out.  But get to brain only attempts as quickly as you can.

HOMEWORK: Get to a table and practice this as much as possible.  Focus just on shape solving at first and take your time with it.  Try to get one of the hidden hands solved every time.  Extract as much information as possible using the steps I’ve outlined and don’t worry about results.  Solving the shape is the only thing that matters.  See you for the next article.

About the Author

Rob Barrington is a professional bridge player and world renowned bridge instructor. He is the founder of bridgelesson.com and teaches large online courses on that site and through his popular YouTube channel. Rob resides in West Palm Beach, Florida.