Aggression

"The most noticeable difference between the bidding of an expert pair and that of an average pair is the experts' ability in competitive situations. Experts are able to hop in and out of the auction on a high percentage of the hands and rarely get caught. Average players are much less aggressive in competitive situations and when they do butt in they frequently get punished." (Bid Better, Play Better: How to Think at the Bridge Table, Dorothy Hayden Truscott, 1998, p. 74.)

How true. And how frustrating it is when expert players steal our bid or push us to a level where we go down. And even worse, because the result is usually worse, when we try to do the same and it just doesn't work out. However, we are getting better at doubling when our bid is stolen and we are working on disrupting the opponents' bidding without getting "punished."

My hard-learned lesson this week was on the need to be more aggressive, whether there is competition or not. Twice on Thursday afternoon I had a ton of clubs. Instead of diddling around I should have just bid 5 clubs. Once I thought my bid was forcing and my partner thought it wasn't, and once I bid to show points and length instead of a different (forcing) suit. In both cases, my partner passed and we were in a partial contract. I think my hesitation comes from past games when bold bidding often led to disaster. But I've learned a lot in the past few months, and it is time to trust of my evaluation of the situation. So what if it doesn't always work out, it's just a game. Right?