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Play
Once the bidding has finished, as declarer you now need to make the required number of tricks to achieve your contract, or as a defender you need to stop declarer from doing this.
Playing our first deal in no-trumps
When there is no trump suit, in each round of play the highest card in the lead suit wins the trick. A player unable to follow suit cannot win the trick so must throw away a card in a different suit.
As declarer you must plan your strategy before you play from dummy at Trick one. First count how many tricks are ‘off the top’, i.e. how many you can make before losing the lead. Note that you don’t play out these ‘top tricks’ at this stage.
Let’s return to a previous example:
Between the two hands, declarer has four top spades (provided he plays his top cards in the right order) and two top hearts: a total of six. Note that he doesn’t have any top tricks in diamonds and clubs – he’ll have to lose the lead before establishing tricks in these suits. In the bidding he has contracted for 3NT (six plus three = nine tricks out of a total of 13) and he can now work out that he needs three extra tricks to win (six + three extra = nine). He has two options:
(a) To take the six top tricks (i.e. ♠AKQJ and ♥AK) straight away, then look around for the three more he needs. (b) To focus first on generating those three extra tricks. The wisest strategy on almost all deals (and particularly no-trumps) is (b). The two strategies can be likened to a tortoise and a hare.
Tortoise and hare
I often equate the choice of strategies in a bridge deal to a race between a tortoise and a hare. The hare loves to get off to a flying start; cashing his top tricks straight away. The tortoise, on the other hand, is happy to lose the lead early, knowing he’ll polish up later on.
In the example on p. 40 (#u964ca6c9-a911-4bc2-85f7-325ee76ad78f), let’s see what happens to the hare. He cashes all his spades and hearts, then, unable to cash any more tricks, turns to diamonds. The difficulties arise because when his opponents win the lead – as they’re sure to with ♦A – they’ll go on to cash promoted low-card winners in hearts (and perhaps spades) with cards left over in their hands. Together with ♦A and ♣AK (tricks he has no choice but to lose), the hare will lose too many tricks and fail to make his contract. There’s no bonus for taking early tricks.
The tortoise, on the other hand, wins ♥K, then focuses on establishing the three extra tricks (additional to his six top tricks) needed for his nine-trick contract. He works out that these can all be made by forcing out ♦A. At trick two, he leads ♦Q (he could equally well lead ♦10, or ♦2 to ♦K/♦J). His opponents are likely to win ♦A on this trick; if they don’t, the tortoise’s ♦Q is promoted into a trick and he leads a second diamond to force out ♦A. The beauty of flushing out ♦A early on is that the tortoise retains control of the other suits. If his opponents decide to cash ♣A and ♣K, this will promote the tortoise’s ♣Q and ♣J. More likely, they’ll lead a second heart. The tortoise then wins ♥A and has three promoted diamond winners. All he needs to do is cash his four top spades without blocking himself, to give him his nine top tricks. He plays ♠K first (highest card from the shorter length) and leads ♠3 to ♠AQJ. Nine tricks and game contract made.
must know
Before play commences, as declarer you should:
• observe the very important etiquette of saying ‘Thank you partner’ as dummy tables her hand;
• count up how many top tricks you have (i.e. tricks you can make before losing the lead);
• work out how many extra tricks you need;
• go for those extra tricks as soon as possible. We have learnt two methods so far: (a) by force (flushing out opposing higher cards), and (b) by length (exhausting the opponents of their cards in a suit, enabling you to make tricks with cards you have left over).
Defending
You didn’t win the bidding and are defending. Here are some strategies you should adopt:
Opening lead
The opening lead is unique. It’s the only card you as defenders play without sight of dummy’s hand, as the lead card is always played by the player on declarer’s left before dummy tables her cards. Because the opening lead is a bit like a stab in the dark, you should stick to tried-and-tested ploys. Much depends on whether you’re defending against a trump or no-trump contract.
Defending against no-trumps
Against no-trumps, you should focus on length. If you can exhaust declarer and dummy of their cards in your longest suit, you’ll have small cards left over and these will be length winners. Your opening lead should therefore be a low card from your longest suit, or from your partner’s if she has bid.
Defending against trumps
The length strategy is far less powerful against a trump contract as declarer will simply trump you when he’s run out of cards in the lead suit. At the other end of the spectrum, leading a singleton (in a ‘side suit’, i.e. not trumps) is a powerful ploy. You can void yourself (run out of cards in the suit) in the hope that the suit will be played again and you can trump.
More common than the singleton is the ‘top-of-a-sequence’ lead: when defending against a trump contract, and you hold two or more high cards in a sequence (known as ‘touching’ high cards), lead with the top card in the sequence. For example, if you hold the ace and king in a suit, then it’s standard practice to lead with the ace; if you hold the king and queen, then lead the king; if you hold the queen and jack, lead the queen; if you hold the jack and ten, lead the jack; or lead the ten if you hold ten and nine. Thus, if you lead with the king and hold the queen, this puts you in a win-win position: your partner may hold the ace, in which case your king will win the trick; and even if the declarer or dummy takes the king with the ace you’ll have promoted your queen into a second-round winner.
Useful tip
You defend half of all contracts, and only declare a quarter of them, so learn to love defence – it’s a wonderful co-operative challenge.
After the lead
As you begin bridge, you’ll probably find defending to be the toughest part of the game. Your instinct may well be to throw down an ace or two, grabbing tricks quickly. This wasn’t the right strategy for the declarer (remember the hare), and nor is it the right strategy for defence. An ace is meant to catch a king, and not two low cards, as it is sure to do if you use it hastily.
Here are three of the most important factors to bear in mind when defending:
Trick target
Never lose sight of how many tricks you need to defeat the contract and stop your opponents scoring points towards a game (see pp. 221–2 (#litres_trial_promo)).
Observe dummy
Look for dummy’s weakest suit – e.g. one with three small cards.
Partner
Work out what kind of hand your partner holds: did she bid? What did she lead? Why did she lead what she led?
To remember this, ‘TOP’ stands for ‘Trick target’, ‘Observe dummy’ and ‘Partner’.
want to know more?
• The system of bidding assumed in this book is the English Standard ‘Acol’, the most prevalent in Britain. For more on different bidding systems, see p. 231 (#litres_trial_promo).
• For more ways to make tricks, see pp. 78–89. (#litres_trial_promo)
• For playing a deal in a trump suit, see pp. 84–9. (#litres_trial_promo)
• For more on the opening lead and defence, see pp. 90–103. (#litres_trial_promo)
Three basic deals
You may find it helpful to lay out all 52 cards and play through the following illustrative deals with open cards. When each card is played, turn it face down beside the hand, vertically if won by the partnership, and horizontally if lost.
Deal A
Dealer East
The bidding:
East deals, so is first to speak. Lacking 12 points, he says ‘No Bid’. The bidding moves clockwise to South, who, since the bidding has not yet been opened, also needs (at least) 12 points to bid. He has them. He opens One of his Longest Suit, One Spade. West passes – although he does not need 12 points to bid (now that the bidding has been opened), he should have a nice five-card suit (which he does not have). North can work out that the points for game (25) are present between the partnership. But there is no rush – for he does not know the trump suit. He simply bids his longest suit at the lowest level – Two Clubs – and awaits developments.
With East-West silent, South then considers what to do next. He knows that his partner does not particularly like his spades (no support); and he does not like his partner’s clubs. Rather than sing the same song twice and repeat the spades, he suggests a new alternative, hearts, knowing that his partner will realize he prefers spades – because he bid them first. Over his bid of Two Hearts, North perks up. The fit is found – South must have four+ hearts, giving a partnership total of the magic eight. It was not the first-choice trump suit for either player, but together, hearts are best.
It’s like partners in life: ‘I want to watch the football tonight.’ ‘Oh, I’d like to go to the movies.’ Eventually the two go out and have a meal together – neither of their first choices. But the best combined option – and delicious!
The one remaining issue is whether or not to go for game. Because North knows that the points for game (25) are present (he has 13 and his partner opened the bidding to indicate at least 12), the answer to that question is ‘yes’. North jumps to Four Hearts. Everybody passes – end of the bidding.
Here is the bidding sequence in full:
The play:
By bidding the trump suit – hearts – first, South is declarer. West (on South’s left) must make the opening lead, after which North lays out his cards (for he is dummy).
West has heard his opponents bid all the suits bar diamonds. This makes diamonds an intelligent choice of opening lead, likely to hit their weakness. Leading diamonds is still more attractive because West holds a king-queen combination in the suit. He leads the king of diamonds (top-of-a-sequence – indicating the queen), and will be very happy to see it win the trick (should his partner hold the ace), but almost as happy seeing it force out the ace and so promote his queen.
Declarer wins the ace of diamonds, and looks at his lovely spades. Before he can enjoy them (without the risk of them being trumped), he must get rid of (‘draw’) the opposing trumps. Because he has eight trumps, he can work out that the opponents hold five. He expects those five missing trumps to split three-two, in which case they will all be gone in three rounds. It does not matter in which order he plays his three top cards, so say that at Trick Two he leads to dummy’s king. When both opponents follow, he knows there are three trumps left out. He follows with dummy’s ace of trumps and, with both opponents following a second time (good!), he now knows that the opposing trumps have indeed split three-two. There is just one trump outstanding. If it was higher than all of his remaining trumps, he would leave it out. Because it is lower, however, he leads to his queen to get rid of it. Trumps have now been drawn, and note the method of counting (focusing only on the missing cards and counting down). It would be a bad move to lead out the fourth round of trumps – wasting the two small trumps together. Play correctly, and declarer will make those trumps separately – let’s see how.
The opposing trumps drawn, declarer now turns his attention to spades. Following the unblocking principle of leading the highest card from the shorter length first when holding sequential high cards between the two hands, at Trick Five declarer leads a low spade to dummy’s king. He returns a second spade to his jack, and then cashes the ace. He has the opportunity to make a discard from dummy on this trick – can you spot the best play? Declarer can get rid of dummy’s remaining diamond. He next cashes the queen of spades, discarding a club from dummy. Say he has been counting the six missing spades as they fall (although my recommendation at this juncture is to limit yourself to counting one suit per deal – here that suit being trumps – so don’t feel a failure if the idea of having to count spades too fills you with horror); he will then know that all the opposing spades have gone. He leads his fifth-round six of spades, and it is a length winner. Rather than trump it, he discards another club.
Here is the position, with declarer on lead having won the first nine tricks, and everybody left with four cards:
Declarer could simply lead out his last trump and secure his ten-trick game. But making overtricks counts extra points (albeit ‘above the line’ – see chapter 5: Scoring (#litres_trial_promo)), so instead he leads the two of diamonds, trumping it in dummy with the five of trumps. At this juncture he has to lead a club, enabling the opponents to win their ace-king of the suit. But the last trick is taken by declarer’s remaining trump, and he has made a total of 11 tricks. Note how he scored the two remaining trumps separately.
Game made – with an overtrick.
If you remember just one thing about …
Bidding: Bid new suits at the lowest level (provided at least four cards are held), until a fit is found.
Declaring: When counting a suit (say trumps), work out how many cards are missing, and count down those missing cards, preferably thinking in terms of their likely split.
Defending: The lead of a high card (such as West’s king of diamonds) is normally top-of-a-sequence of two or more. Thus partner knows both that you have the card immediately below, and that you deny the one immediately above.
Deal B
Dealer South
The bidding:
South deals the cards and opens the bidding – One Club. West passes – although he does not need 12 points now that the bidding has already been opened, the one suit worth mentioning has been bid by an opponent, and it can’t be right for both sides to be bidding the same suit. North hates clubs, so bids his longest suit at the lowest level – in a fit-finding exercise. After North’s bid of One Diamond, East offers One Heart. His lack of points is more than made up for by his long heart suit and interesting shape. Back to South – who must bid One Spade. Why?
good to know
Do not bid a suit that an opponent has bid.
South does not know that his partner has a fifth diamond – and whether there is a fit. Furthermore, a fit in a major suit (spades or hearts) is more valuable than a fit in a minor suit (diamonds or clubs). This is because 11 tricks need to be made in order to score game (5♦/5♣), whereas only ten are required to make game in a major (4♠/4♥). So South must try One Spade – perhaps there is a fit there. He must never forget that North knows that clubs is his first-choice trump suit, as he bid them first.
Over to West, who has heard his partner overcall One Heart, indicating five+ hearts. With three-card support, West knows that his side has an eight-card fit. He bids Two Hearts. Now North. He has four-card support for partner’s spades (making a fit) so bids Two Spades. East would much rather make hearts trumps – even at the cost of needing to make nine tricks, so competes with Three Hearts. It pays to be bold with a fit, and South, using the same logic, competes to Three Spades. Everybody now passes – having bid their cards to the full.
good to know
It pays to be bold when you have a fit.
Here is the bidding sequence:
The play:
By bidding spades first, South becomes declarer (he will do this a lot in written deals – for the simple reason that it is easier to orient yourself as declarer when in the South position). West must make the opening lead, and has two good choices. He could lead the suit his side has bid and supported, hearts, and would select the queen (top of a sequence – showing the jack); alternatively, he could lead his singleton diamond, in the hope of using his trumps to trump later rounds of diamonds. Which way to go?
It is one of the beautiful uncertainties of the game that some days one choice will work out better; other days the opposite applies. But I’d probably opt for the singleton. Such a lead can be spectacularly successful, and, furthermore, West knows that he can win the first round of trumps, preventing declarer from drawing his trumps and avoiding the threat of him trumping a diamond. West leads the two of diamonds.
Can East interpret the lead correctly? He wins the ace of diamonds, and reflects that West must have a good reason not to lead hearts – the suit East bid. That reason must be that his diamond was a singleton. East promptly leads back a second diamond at Trick Two. Bingo! West trumps it. At Trick Three West switches to the queen of hearts in an attempt to put his partner on play. The lead of the queen (top of a high-card sequence) denies the king, so East plays the ace. Note that even though his partner is currently winning the trick, East knows that declarer has the king, and will win the trick unless East plays the ace. His ace fells declarer’s king (you can see that East would have ‘gone to bed’ with his ace if he had not played it at this juncture). At Trick Four East returns another diamond, and West trumps again. His ace of trumps is bound to take the setting trick.
Although play continues until the end, declarer can make all bar that ace of trumps by playing trumps, losing to the ace, drawing East’s second trump, then playing club and diamond winners. Eight tricks made, against nine bid. Down one.
Everybody is happy with this result. East-West are happy because they defeated South’s Three Spade contract. But North-South are also happy – for East would almost certainly have made Three Hearts, and it is much better to go down one than let the opponents make a contract. Points below the line (resulting from a making contract – and counting towards game) are far more valuable than points above the line which do not count towards game (see chapter 5: Scoring (#litres_trial_promo)). Hence the expression ‘Down one is good Bridge!’.
If you remember just one thing about …
Bidding: Try to declare when both sides have a fit. Even if you go down one in your contract, it is preferable to letting the opponents make their contract.
Declaring: Play carefully to the bitter end, even if you are already down. Loss limitation is an important part of the game.
Defending: If partner makes an unexpected play (e.g. West’s failure to lead a heart), he should have a good reason (here West’s diamond is bound to be a singleton).
Deal C
Dealer South
The bidding:
South has a balanced hand (5332) with 12-14 points: perfect for a One No-trump opener. West passes: to overcall at the Two-level requires much more, both in the way of points, and strength of suit. North knows that his partnership has the values for game – but which one? Game in clubs is two more tricks than game in no-trumps, so North makes the clear-cut bid of Three No-trumps (mistaken even to mention clubs, as you know what the final contract should be).
The sequence has been brief but effective (the fewer the bids, the less chance to go wrong!):
The play:
The defence must focus on length against a no-trump contract, so West leads a low heart. Declaring a no-trump contract, it is particularly imperative that declarer starts by counting up his ‘top’ tricks – the ones he can make before losing the lead. He is not going to play them all out – like our hare – but he needs to see how many extra tricks he must make. Looking at dummy’s holding in conjunction with his own in each suit, he counts three top tricks in spades, two in hearts, and three in clubs: total eight. He needs one more, and the length in the clubs offers by far the best chance. He will need to count the opponents’ clubs as they fall, but he notes that they begin with six clubs.
Declarer plays a low heart from dummy, and beats East’s jack with his king. Focusing on clubs, he cashes the queen first (high card from the shorter length), and leads a club to dummy’s king. Both follow suit twice, but when he next leads the ace of clubs (discarding a heart from his hand), West also discards (a spade). Had both opponents followed a third time, meaning that clubs had split three-three, dummy’s two remaining clubs would be length winners. But they did not – instead splitting four-two. Should he abandon clubs?
Absolutely not – you have lose to win in bridge. Declarer leads a fourth club from dummy, losing the trick to East’s jack (and throwing a diamond from his hand, as West sheds another spade). If the defenders could see each other’s hands, East would switch to a low diamond at this point, enabling them to win the king, then the ace (taking dummy’s queen), then the jack; but this would not defeat declarer as he would have the fourth round master with the ten. In practice, East is likely to return his partner’s hearts. Declarer wins dummy’s ace (note how important it was that declarer saved this card, as a way of getting back to dummy), and can now proudly lead the promoted fifth-round length winner in clubs. This is his extra trick, and now he can play like a hare, grabbing the ace-king-queen of spades, to bring his trick tally to nine. Game made.
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