As I look back over the many years of playing locally in the club games, and traveling all over the U.S. I am amazed at my success with new partners. Just recently I witnessed several solid wins by pickup pairs in a world-class event! I myself have picked new partners, or had them assigned to me at tourneys and played two solid sessions without the first mistake or misunderstanding.

Maybe you would resist by actually setting up some hypothetical experiment with two experts! Maybe you would then suggest that data would prove without a shadow of a doubt that two seasoned experts would prevail over pickups? Could this really always be the case? You might even slap me with something like, "Well Jay, you are a fine player and it is quite obvious that when these scenarios occur you have landed a super pard!" Nice try, but what about those 25 years of club game wins that involved first-time partnering?

What is this unshared deep, dark secret to success with a first-time and/or pickup partner? The answer is really not that complicated, actually it is very simple and most of you would agree that when we pard someone for the first time a mutual respect for each other exist. We bend over backwards to keep things simple. We do not assume partner can read our exotic bids. We definitely do not make a $5.00 dollar bid with a 50-cent pard. I do not mean this in some negative way but I do mean that you should not assume the other guy knows the conventional meaning of your exotic bid without first checking.

We really tend to exploit the good things and overlook the negative ones in pickup partnerships because each person is going out of his or her way to make it easy on partner. We take nothing for granted.

I realize we can have an equal number of disasters with first time partners so don't assume I am ignorant to this outcome as I pummel you with advice on playing with new partners. I am merely trying to offer reason for the results we achieve with new partners rivaling the professional partnerships!

As we meet with our newfound friend for a second venture we are into our relaxed mode and we are not paying the attention to bids and plays with this partner as we did in the first game. Somehow as we chatted and became friendlier we forgot that 6 was our dnil bid and 7 was not, or that a 5-bid guaranteed one of the top two spades, etc, etc! God help us, by the third time we play we know our partner's third cousin's name and we have an invite to share a dinner and listen to his child play the piano. Yes folks, we have become almost intimate!

Could it be that as we learn more about our pard we have more misunderstandings instead of less? Absolutely -- lol! As we become familiar we add more and expect more. I am guilty of this myself and have tested proof positive in this arena. Yes, everyone is getting back into that mindset that with friendship comes miscommunications and when you have miscommunication you must have misunderstanding!

In retrospect I halfway agree with this philosophy, but other things can be done to maximize the opportunities or bring success to these new partnerships.

1. Take any time available to discuss treatments and conventions and signaling as well as defenses to things like notorious baggers and aggressive nil bidders, etc,etc.
   
   
2. Don't make any of those $5.00 dollar bids with a pickup pard or force on them some new convention you made up like the "Mongolian Nil Bust."
   
   
3. Let your partner decide the systems, defenses, and style until further time can be devoted for the complexity you desire.
   
   
4. If you run into a snag during the game and become disoriented regarding conventions or some defense select the lesser of two evils when you cross this path. Gamblers have done this for years as well as good card players so this should come easy for you. I tell most of my new partnerships this, "When in doubt, bid it!" Go with that first thought and do not talk yourself out of it. Generally our first hunch is a good one and the longer we sit trying to decide on whether a bid is a good one or a nil is a good nil we can talk ourselves out of a winning action!
   
   
5. Don't captain each and every hand. You have a partner and captaincy is something that changes on "every" hand, and even during the play of each hand! Leave masterminding to those guys that devise the double-dummy type problems and leave that facet to the post mortems that occur after the game not during it.
   
   
6. Inflate your partner's ego! This will make partner secure and he will perform much better.
   
   
7. "Don't try for the best possible result, but for the best result possible." I have seen this quote countless times in Bridge publications but it applies in our Spades world as well.
   
   
8. If you get what ya pay for then…….. (Free advice at the spades table is worth exactly what you pay for it($00.00)

Regards,
Ruffkid1 (Jay Tomlinson)