My 500 Top 10

I play best with partners who use the same conventions that I use. Although the conventions below apply in most situations they won't apply to all. Remember, most hands are won or lost in the bidding round. Good partnerships win more games by working well together in the bidding round. Feel free to comment:

1. The Score dictates the bidding. Always look at the scoreline before starting your bidding. Always!! For example, if you are near the back door it is often best to call strength at 6. Also, if you don't wish to fight a game-winning misere or open it is usually prudent to undercall or pass and live to win another hand. Partners who know when to "close-down" the bidding are worth their weight in gold.
   
   
2. Call your aces and bird at 6 - sometimes call aces before the bird. Let your partner know your no-trumps strength but calling your off-suit aces at 6. This will provide your partnership with a strong foundation for successful 8 bids. If the scoreline tells you that the bidding will go high then call your bird after your ace so that you can get a feel of the table's strength. As long as your partner is still in the bidding your bird call at six must be honest. However, if your partner has passed, you can then use a six no-trumps call to set-up your misere call or block your opponents.
   
   
3. Call your strength at 7. There are times to pass and times to bid - the scoreline tells you what time it is. Too many partners pass when the partnership's back is to the wall. A good partner will call their meagre strength at 7 so the team can put up a fighting defense. If you don't have any aces but have a strong hand then call your strength straight up at 7. Going straight to 7 tells your partner your strength but that you have no aces.
   
   
4. Avoid using misere / open codes. Using 7 spades straight-up to signal your wish for misere or 9 spades to signal your wish for open may work well against inexperienced players but a good opposition will use these calls against you. If you can't beat an open and your opponent has called 9 spades straight up then don't pass but call open yourself before the opposition does or call your strength to your partner. Of course watch out - top players will try and bluff you into overcalling with a 9 spade push.
   
   
5. Call into your partner's hand. Try to understand and use your partner's calls. Think of your two hands as one. If you have bird and your partners change your strength from hearts to diamonds (for example) consider passing into their strength or upping their call. Then lead to their bauer before playing your bird.
   
   
6. Leave your partner on an ace call if necessary. In general it is best not to leave your partners on their ace calls as they do not indicate their strength. However, there are times, such as when you cannot defend against a game-winning misere call or when the ace call represents your weak strength, that it is prudent to leave your partners on their 6 calls.
   
   
7. Avoid negative scores especially on the first hand. Being underwater places your team in a very vulnerable position. A good opposition will exploit your negative posture with aggressive pushes and bluffs. It's often better to allow the opposition to win a small 7 bid than risk a negative score.
   
   
8. Block whenever necessary. You are always only two good calls from victory so stop your opponents from easy wins by utilising blocking calls. The best block often steals your opponents call.
   
   
9. Make friends with the PASS button. Compulsive bidding is a disease - cure it! You will win as many games letting your opponents back door themselves as you will by bidding yourself through the front door. Compulsive bidders more often than not feed their opponents the misere or open calls they have been angling for.
   
   
10. Every bid should convey some information. Avoid guesses and hunch calls. Try always to tell your partner something every time you bid. If you know your partner will be forced to call open then call your low cards at 9, if you know your partner will be forced to a difficult 9 or 10 call then call your aces (or even your kings) at 8 and 9.
    

When I started playing at Julianne Giffin I just called the strength in my hand immediately at 6 and tried to get to misere and open whenever possible. I was a classic misere junkie and for well over a year I yo-yoed up and down the rankings and my win/loss percentage was in the low to middle 40s.

After a while I started to realise that most of the top players were calling differently. They represented only a small percentage of the members but they were always to be found in the top ten or twenty. They were using a variation on the system published by Bryce Francis. They called their aces at 6 and then their strength at 7. They used a 7 spades bid to indicate either their wish for misere or to indicate that they had no particular strength.

I started using this system and my game immediately improved. When I first achieved #1, with my tongue in my cheek I published “The Lord Daff’s 10 Commandments” on the forum and refused to partner players unless they used the system. Within two months most of the membership was following my stolen commandments and the top ranks became much more competitive.

I kept using this system for about year but gradually became dissatisfied with it for several reasons. The main problem was the confusion trying to understand what a 7 spade call actually meant. Did it mean “I want misere, partner, or “I’m just calling you of your 6 call, partner,” or did it actually mean “My strength is spades, partner.” I got tired of typing, “Sorry, partner, I wanted misere!” Too many contracts were going south because of this confusion.

In the past eighteen months my personal calling conventions have evolved from this system to what Gus calls, “Call your hand, partner.” It’s still evolving, but my game and my rankings have improved significantly since I started using it. I am not saying this system is any better than any other – but it is the system that is working best for me.