[Dragaera] I think I'll go re-read Orca...

[David Dyer-Bennet]

On 2011-12-15 18:27, Howard Brazee wrote:
>
> On Dec 15, 2011, at 4:25 PM, A. Craig West wrote:
>
>> This reminds me of a basic principle I learned playing Bridge, which I
>> suspect maps to poker fairly directly. If you are playing a hand, and
>> the only possibility there is of winning is to assume the a particular
>> player has the King of Hearts, play as if that player has the King of
>> Hearts. Of course, in Bridge one does not have the option of folding,
>> so I don't know think the concept is as strong in poker :-) Vlad
>> rarely has the option of folding either...
>
> True.    But we do have an option of folding - which comes with its costs as well.    Sometimes it is better to take a small loss instead of a larger loss.    For instance, if assuming wrong will allow the opponents to run a long suit with a penalty greater than the gain for making your contract.
>
> Losing small should be considered as an option.

In competitive bridge, that's less of an option.  You're scored 
basically against the other players playing that hand that session, 
rather than against any absolute standards.  Thus, if you arrive at the 
same contract as everybody else but fail to make it, while the other 
partnerships make the contract, you get the worst score for the hand. 
Regardless of whether you fail by one trick, or by five.

There is still a certain amount of guessing what the right risk is; a 
completely insane wild-ass attempt at something stupid *does* sometimes 
work, but really not very often.

The term is "playing for tops or bottoms" -- taking risks which other 
partnerships won't, so that if they work, you'll get the top score for 
the hand, but if you fail, you'll likely get the bottom.  If you're 
behind and desperately need to catch up quickly, it's the only way to do 
it.  Would you rather have a safe middle score for the session, or would 
you rather have some chance at a high score?

Scoring low doesn't cost you master's points, but scoring high does earn 
them :-).

-- 
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net; http://dd-b.net/
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