Admitting your flaws is important.

It might be the key to why some couples manage to stay married for fifty years without killing one another, and the key to why some bridge partnerships work better than others.

Every once in a while, it starts to bug at me. If the results that I spot in anything – copywriting, a bridge game, language studies – the first thing I ask is where I might be going wrong and what I can do to improve it.

Any student of bridge or seasoned player should do the same every once in a while if they, too, see that their results haven’t been what they’d like them to be

Here’s what I found when looking at my own bridge play and a few things I’ve done about them to get better.

What Was That Again?

On most nights, I work late. I don’t take weekends off. I don’t pass go. I’m always either in a state of writing or thinking about writing – and usually, thinking about bridge.

But at the same time, this leads to serious decision fatigue.

In turn, this wakes up my brain at four in the morning, usually having forgotten something very basic – and feeling the need to immediately know the answer.

It’s not uncommon for me to grab the phone at four in the morning to look up a bridge convention, news piece or trivia fact. I can only get back to bed once I’m satisfied with the answer to what I woke up with.

What helps for this? Google, I’d say, although I’ve noticed that taking notes while awake makes me less likely to wake up with questions.

Coordination During Bidding

My bidding could use some work, and certainly how well I’m able to coordinate with others I’ve never met in conventions I haven’t encountered.

I try not to be too harsh when criticising my own bidding. I always feel like it’s not what it should be, which means – inevitably – that I’m always in a state of working on it.

That’s a good thing, and it keeps me from turning into Icarus; Too confident and too close to the sun.

There are too many conventions that I don’t know the name of, just like there are plenty of standard Chess moves that I just can’t remember right off the top of my head.

What helps? Other than more bridge play, kibitzing is a huge help. I like to see what other bridge players have done when presented with certain situations or cards in order to apply it when I encounter the same again.

Foresight During Play

Foresight helps – and a lot – but it’s one of the things I tend to notice slips most during a game when I’m not at my best (or not focusing as much as I should on the task at hand.)

There have been many occasions where I’ve made a move without fully seeing the implication of it a few moves later when the opponents have thought this out far better.

Kibitzing also seems to help for this; I also get myself into the habit of asking questions about a specific card before playing it.

Focus at the Table

Other than an experienced lack of foresight at the table, I’ve also had many days (and imaginably, many games) where I can tell that I wasn’t focused. Sometimes, even in the middle of the game, I’ll have to stop and tell myself to come back to the situation at hand.

I\ve found that a “time out” before the game helps: Breathe, listen to a few songs, anything goes as long as it does something positive for focus and calm.

The Art of the Shuffle

Even though shuffling by hand is rarely required when most people are using electronic means, it’s still something that I enjoy doing – and something that I take time at least once a week to work on.

My shuffle isn’t as great as most of the card players I’ve gotten to meet, but I view it as a “constant learning curve” – and it still helps to keep my hands flexible for the amount of typing that I do, even though I’m not the best at it.