Half-Full or Half-Empty?

When did you bid-and-make your last slam? Oh you can't even remember... It might be purely incidental, or it might have something to do with your general disposition. The "turn of a friendly card" might not be so totally arbitrary as we have grown accustomed to think.
For example, how many tricks do you expect to take in this suit if you held this between you and dummy?
Please, do not attempt to give the "it depends.." answer! That is a cheap cop-out, and, though perfectly correct, that is not the issue here. Just imagine: you are playing the hand as declarer, and be honest with yourself - does the sight of this suit combination fill you with enthusiasm or trepidation?
The example, btw, has been taken from one of Fred's lessons in BBO (more specifically, from Learn to Play Bridge 1).
An optimistic attitude has been proven to increase the probability that your finesses will work, that the splits will be favourable, and overall you will be dealt better hands in the long run. In contrast, a pessimistic attitude has shown to decrease levels of performance, while bidding glitches become more numerous and more frustrating.*
So, to return to the question above: if you thought you can take only one trick, then you need a cup of hot chocolate and lots of unconditional no-holds-barred overdose of TLC (yeah, that is tender loving care, not LTC - which might come in handy, too!). If you expect that LHO will have the A and K, and RHO will hold the Q and J (any 2-2 split will do), so you can collect your very own, absolutely deserved 3 tricks to make that impossibly overbid and redoubled 3NT contract come through, contact me so we can go play the next goulash tourney. :)

*P.S. I made it up, as a lay cod-psychologist... but... It might well be true... Heh, dare me (if you dare!)... ;)

LTPB 1& 2

This free software is presented in two volumes: Learn to Play Bridge 1, for beginners, and Learn to Play Bridge 2, for those who know the basics but want to develop their playing, bidding and defense skills. The end goal is to get you to a working knowledge level of SAYC, for all practical purposes - both online and offline. In my experience the two LTPB's manage to accomplish this rather ambitious goal, and on top of it all it is great fun going through the lessons and exercises, tests and practice deals. There is no pressure to hurry and no performance fear - try to solve the problem, until you get it right, or take a peak and check the answer if you give up (cos this might happen in the more advanced sections). No point beating yourself about it, either, as you always could (and maybe should) go back in a while and redo it all - for fitness purposes.
You can download both programmes here and practise offline, or log into BBO => Other Bridge Activities => Learn to Play Bridge (at the very bottom) and work on it online. In either case the software tracks your progress and bookmarks the last page which you have been working on.