[Rossoneri]

I think some have probably experienced what I'm going through, suddenly finding the right plays at the table seems difficult, at times impossible, and your results just start dropping. Sure, it comes back after a while, but while you're stuck in a rut, it does seem difficult. What do most people do to cope with it/make it more bearable/get back your form faster?

[pooltuna]

maybe refocus on the basics? i.e. Count, Count, and Count

[mtvesuvius]

I had a period like that about 8 months ago... It was right before I started doing some teaching work, as well as starting playing with a few new partners etc.

For me, I just grinded out a bunch of hands and eventually was over it. Finding some new partners who were both much better than me, and much worse than me helped me improve a lot, and gave me a better general opinion of my skill level. The one thing I am still consistently at around 10% on is guesses for Queens. In the past year or so, I'd say it cost me roughly 50 platinum points -- Perhaps even winning the Fast Pairs. I'm sure that I'll eventually get over this, but until then I am virtually guaranteed to get a zero (or lose 12 IMPs) whenever a contract hinges on finding a queen. This is infinitely frustrating, and I'm honestly not sure other than just developing table feel by playing and maybe reading a bit, what else I can do.

I wish I were able to improve my guessing skills, but it is a rut I'm currently in, and am having trouble getting out of.

I do everything by playing though, so perhaps brushing up on some books and reading some would help as well -- For me I know it probably would not, however a little book review certainly never hurts.

Regardless, sticking with it is important, even when it seems to be incredibly painful and annoying -- I had a session of a national pair event where I declared 8 contracts. Out of those 8, 6 of them depended on guesses for queens to make the contract or an overtrick (almost as important at MPs). If I were to flip a coin each time, I'd have been like 15th in the event. As it was, I got every single one wrong, and we didn't even place.

[paulg]

I tend to read more, especially books that have a mix of declarer and defensive problems. Some of my older books, such as Kelsey's Challenge Match etc, are excellent to dip into for a few hours.

[Free]

It depends on what causes bad results. If you're doing the right thing and fail to get good results, then you just have to go through the cycle and don't give up. And most important: never think "whatever I'll do, it will be wrong"!

If there's one particular area where you're failing constantly I'd suggest reading some books on that topic. This will boost your confidence, improve your judgement, and should eventually improve your results as well.

[Rossoneri]

Free, on 2011-July-12, 01:29, said:

It depends on what causes bad results. If you're doing the right thing and fail to get good results, then you just have to go through the cycle and don't give up. And most important: never think "whatever I'll do, it will be wrong"!

If there's one particular area where you're failing constantly I'd suggest reading some books on that topic. This will boost your confidence, improve your judgement, and should eventually improve your results as well.

Maybe I should have been clearer in my first post. What about if you are making mistakes that you are not supposed to be making?

[Free]

Rossoneri, on 2011-July-12, 01:32, said:

Maybe I should have been clearer in my first post. What about if you are making mistakes that you are not supposed to be making?

Then it's probably a concentration-thing.

[matmat]

Rossoneri, on 2011-July-12, 01:32, said:

Maybe I should have been clearer in my first post. What about if you are making mistakes that you are not supposed to be making?

One or two shots of something strong before the session should relax you a bit and get your mind off of worrying about mistakes

[mtvesuvius]

Rossoneri, on 2011-July-12, 01:32, said:

Maybe I should have been clearer in my first post. What about if you are making mistakes that you are not supposed to be making?

In that case, I would say playing with some good players, as well as doing some review/reading will help some. As Free said, this sounds like a concentration problem a bit as well.