I agree with whoever expressed skepticism over players' ability to consciously figure out such a subtlety. On the other hand, for a game like bridge that's probably too complicated to completely analyze, it seems possible that top-players-to-be intuitively explore strategy space, and gravitate toward whatever style of play tends to improve their success. Even if that occurs on a unconscious level. --Dan Michael Kleber wrote: << ... Persi has a nearly unlimited number of great anecdotes on the subject, so actually I have no problem believing Bernie's (2), though. Bernie Cosell wrote: << ... 2) bridge masters seemed to occasionally make counter-probabilistic plays [playing finesses and for suit splits, etc], but as a corollary to (1), he discovered that their play was actually correct for the *actual* probabilities [due to the inadequate shuffles]. ...

...

Sometimes the brain has a mind of its own.