Post-match analysis

I'm not a great card player. Depending on the game, I range from solidly adequate, through moderately passable to, in some instances, absolutely woeful. There have been plenty of occasions where, upon playing a card, I can see the light in my partner's eyes go out, and I know that I may well receive somewhere between a polite questioning and a proper talking-to at the end of the hand. There is nothing more disheartening than when you realise your choice of play has turned your opponent's difficult struggle and perhaps defeat into a simple by-the-numbers victory.

Nevertheless, I do try to improve, and as such I occasionally like to look back over hands that I have played (and usually made mistakes on), to attempt to analyse what I should have done, or how things may have played out had I not experienced some good fortune at the table. I'm not convinced that I am ever really thorough enough for these lessons to seep into and improve my playing, but with enough repetition I hope that I can gradually move onto new and more sophisticated mistakes.

I'm going to start putting them here. I don't claim that I will be presenting exceptionally well-thought-through analysis, because I almost certainly won't be. But I don't have that to offer, and something is (I believe in this instance) better than nothing, particularly as I shall be mainly writing about games that don't have a huge amount of such write-ups available (at least in English).

I think there is still probably something for players at all levels to enjoy:

• Beginners can marvel at my keen dissection of the play, and perhaps pick up a tip or two (or take note of some classic blunders to avoid)
• Intermediates can feel pleased that they have advanced sufficiently to not fall victim to such easy mistakes, or be undertaking such clumsy analyses
• Experts can get in touch to tell me the many ways in which my analysis is flawed, and perhaps be inspired to produce their own write-ups to outweigh my misleading ramblings

Hands will be taken from genuine play rather than constructed to make some point (especially as I don't feel sufficiently qualified for such an undertaking). Usually there will be some feature which I feel is in some way noteworthy or interesting, though of course this may not always be the case. There may even be a 'moral' to the story.

If you do end up reading any, I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to let me know if you have any thoughts/comments/suggestions/improvements. Bon nuit.