Hanoi5, on 2013-December-20, 16:57, said:
Yeah, I was actually surprised at how accurate he was. And not only in this topic, the 1NT-overcall-and-penalty-double-and-partner-bidding-3♦ one also got a pretty similar-to-what-happened description by him. Either I'm thinking like him or he's reading me too well.
I don't claim to know you at all. But I do like to think that in at least some situations, it is possible to form a reasonably good picture. I think it was Reese who said that there is no such thing as a blind opening lead, only a deaf opening leader (in the days before bidding boxes or online bridge).
Another writer once brought home to me the importance of realizing that the other players will be making decisions based on their hands and views of the auction, not your cards....a point I think the club leaders on this thread need to internalize. This sort of thing isn't magic or psychic reading of players or cards, and it is fair to admit that the reliability of this approach is directly proportional to the reliability of the other players.....if they are a lot better than I am, then I may miss inferences that they got, and if they are a lot worse, then I may be misreading their actions by assuming that they knew what they were doing. Here, for example, while I got the shape right (and wasn't at all surprised), I personally wouldn't have bid 4
♠ as North....of course, I probably would have raised to game as South so the end result would be the same. Whether that makes N better, worse or just different from me doesn't matter.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari