Millions of people enjoy playing bridge and millions of players understand the basic rules of the game. They practice and play every day. Many reach a certain level of experience and then plateau. His game stops improving.

What is responsible for this tray? For many the answer is statistics. Or to be more precise, lack of understanding or knowledge of how to use stats when you’re playing.

What do statistics have to do with playing bridge, I hear you ask? The answer is a lot.” They can be, and often are, the barrier to becoming a better bridge player.

Suppose, for example, that you are a filer. Once the opponents have made their opening, the dummy lead’s hand is exposed for all to see. You know what cards you have and what cards the doll has.

Now suppose you are playing a trump contract. Dummy has 5 trump cards and you have 4, a total of 9 cards. That means your opponents have 4 trump cards between them.

You need to plan your game. Depending on the cards you have in trumps, you may need to try to figure out how the trumps are divided between the opponents. A 4-0 split can mean the game plays out much differently than it would if there was a 2-2 split.

You can’t know for sure how the cards were divided in a given situation, but you can use the statistics to give yourself a better chance. So you can play on the most likely scenario: the game percentage. This won’t always work, but over several games it will give you a better chance of winning more games.

As you can imagine, there are many statistics associated with playing bridge. The best players will have memorized them and will use them all. Those of us who are more modest, home or club players, will only remember a few, the ones that we believe will be most useful to us and that we will be able to understand the use of.

So, back to our division of wins. As we plan our game, it may seem to us that a winning 4-0 split between opponents will require us to play differently than a 2-2 split or a 3-1 split. We cannot know how they are divided and we may not be able to plan for all 3 scenarios. So which one should we choose as the most likely?

Statistics tell us that the probability of a 4-0 split is 10%. However, the probability of a 2-2 split is 40% and the probability of a 3-1 split is 50%. It probably doesn’t make sense to plan for a 4-0 split, though if it becomes obvious early on that the cards split that way, you’ll want to rethink your plan.

In a scenario where a 4-0 split could have a major effect on how many tricks you take, you might want to test the split early in the game by drawing a round of trumps (or whatever suit you’re concerned about). . ). If one of the opponents shows up in the first round, then you know you are facing a 4-0 split and you can re-plan your game.

If it’s not possible to test split, then you’ll probably want to make the percentage play and hope your approach pays off.

If 5 cards of a suit are missing, the percentage chance changes. The probability of a 5-0 split is only 4% (and opponents may have helped you determine if that is likely to be the case by bidding that suit). The probability of a 4-1 split is 28%, but the probability of a 3-2 split is 68%. You’ll probably want to make your initial plan assuming a 3-2 split.

Planning your game is an essential skill and knowing some basic statistics will help you plan. But bridge is a dynamic game and you must be prepared to rethink your plan if your opponents mess you up or if the statistics don’t work in your favour.