MAKE A PLAN

PLAYING SUIT CONTRACTS

Count losers
Can you get rid of losers
Consider your entries
Look at the lead

1. Count your losers. If a 5-3 or 6-2 fit count losers in the longer trump hand only. If too many losers, can you?

Develop winners in a long suit

Ruff if one hand is short in a suit and the other is long
Throw off a loser on a winner (or another loser)
Will missing honors fall? If not, finess to trap opponents honors
Need to take a finesse but do not know in which direction - play other suits first and lose an unavoidable losing trick to let opponents lead that suit

2. Count winners - are there enough outright winners? Do you need to watch your entries?

3. Distinguish between different types of losers:

unavoidable losers
Other fast losers
Slow losers that may be avoidable
Possible losers than may depend on placement of adverse honours (finesse)

Plan accordingly as the order you take action is important

4. Decide which suits to attack and in which order

A) If you have enough natural winners to make the contract:

lead trumps first
If one trump is left and it is a winner, do not draw it
If one trump is left and it is a loser and you know it is in RHO hand, do not draw it - if you could lose 2 trumps
Collect all trumps if you need to make all your winners in outside suits (even if you lose a trick)

B) You do not have enough natural winners

Postpone leading trumps
If you need to use the short hands trumps to ruff, do this this before collecting all trumps
Do you need to cross ruff with all your trumps? (not enough winners)

5. After you have made use of trumps, attack your longest side suit, count cards until you have only winners left

6. Use shorter suits with top tricks as entries, if not needed cash these last

7. You may need to plan for a fourth round loser (see below)

FOR SUIT CONTRACTS

PLANS IN SUIT CONTRACTS

PLAN 1 (RUFF)

If you can play trumps first before you set up a ruff do BUT in some cases you cannot e.g. if trumps are unevenly divided (5-3, 6-2, 5-4).

Every ruff in the short hand is an extra trick so do not play trumps too early if the short hands trumps are needed for ruffing (ie ruff first).

When you want to ruff a loser in the short hand set it up first, before defenders can remove dummy’s trumps.

Make sure you have enough entries back into the hand from which you want to ruff from

If 4-3 in a side suit and you need to ruff the last card you may need to lose the lead up to 3 times and will need one more trump in the short hand than the number of times you have to lose the lead.

If 4-4 in trumps once you have cleared trumps - can you use the extra trumps to ruff?

Maintain entries to the hand with the extra card for this to work (ruff in hand with less trumps).

PLAN 1b

Crossruff can give you extra entries to make extra tricks. Best done if you hold all the higher trumps.

If you have winners in a different side suit. Cache these first.

PLAN 2 (EXTRA TRICK)

Can you set up an extra trick by ruffing out dummy’s long suit? Must have enough entries to set up the suit and cash the winners once established.

If you have too many fast losers can you cache an established suit quickly to throw off a loser? Before you do this you may need to make as many clearance plays as you can in trumps without giving up the lead.

You also need to have an entry to the hand with the long suit (usually dummy).

Sometimes it is better to discard a loser on a losing trick if the opposition is forced to use a trump to win

Playing a long uneven off suit - cache high cards but first chance start ruffing. Hold onto rest of high cards until opponents are out of trumps.

Plan 2 depends on having entries to get back into dummy and that it is not unusual to refrain from drawing all of opponents trumps.

DUCKING A LEAD

Allows you to cut communication between opposing players BUT only do so if you know where the cards are (know opponent’s agreements with leads and discards)

RUFF & SLUFF

You need an extra trick and best chances is a finesse in a unplayed suit but not certain which way to finesse. So to set this up:

Clear trumps but keep a trump in each hand
Eliminate other suits
Give the opponents the lead with an inevitable loser

That way opponents have a choice of leading the suit or leading a suit that you are out of so that you can ruff in one hand and throw off in the other.

Also called strip & end-play.

Use this when you have:

lots of trumps
Short suits that are easy to eliminate
One or more suits that you want defence to lead first
An exit card.

PLAN 3 (FINESSE)

ONLY use if it is the only way to make your tricks.

see below

PLAN 1 & 2 TOGETHER

You have decided to set up an extra trick in a long suit (to throw off a loser) by:

taking winners
ruffing all except last trick

To do this you need:

enough entries to the hand with the long suit
1 more card than opponents

Clear trumps first or use trumps as entries if you can

GUILLEMARD’s MANEUVER

Leave one small trump out while cashing out a side suit that may contain a possible loser. Thus allows you to trump the loser (or discard if not needed)

A suit of Qxx opposite Jxx will always give you a trick if lead by opponents - so can you use a strip and end play?

COMBINE DUCK & CLEARANCE PLAY

Use when have a 4-4 (or 5-3) trump fit of low quality headed by Ace. By ducking first then taking second trick with Ace you limit trump clearance to 2 rounds and so still have a trump in dummy.

DUMMY REVERSAL

When you ruff so many times on the long hand the long hand becomes shorter than the short hand. This requires dummy to draw trumps so:

dummy to have high quality cards
You need dummy to have entries to draw ruffs and another entry to draw trumps at the end

NOTE it is better to ruff high so do not get overruffed

ALSO:

Don’t try to cross ruff with sure winners in another suit.

If you want to ruff with winners in the suit you are ruffing in, ruff first if you can.

FOR NT CONTRACTS

PLAN FOR NO TRUMPS

Count your winners
Which suit can provide extra tricks
Consider your entries
Look at the lead

1 Count your winners as soon as dummy goes down

2. Not enough top winners? You can:

develop long suit winners
Will missing honors fall? If not, finess to trap opponents honors

3. Decide the suit that offers most potential tricks and lead it first

decide which hand to lead from - usually use honor first from the shorter hand so the suit is unblocked
manage entries to your weaker hand
count opponents cards as you lead the long suit so you know when the small cards are winners

4. Cash winners in the short suit last

NOTE: Be cautious leading the suit the opponents chose as opening lead.

HINTS FOR NTs

Give up the lead early whilst establishing a suit to get the maximum return
Use the Rule of 7 if you have an Ace and no other stoppers
Do not use the rule of 7 if a shift to another suit is dangerous
Plan ahead and watch your entries

RULE OF 7 - WHEN TO DUCK

When declarer in a NT contract, you can determine how many tricks to duck by subtracting the number of cards that you and your dummy hold in the suit led from 7. Then duck that many times.

Hence if spades are led and you have a total of six spades between both hands, subtract that from 7-6 = 1 so hold up only one round and take the second spade trick.

On the other hand, if you have five spades between you, hold up twice and take the third trick, etc.

WHEN NOT TO DUCK

DO NOT USE:

when the hold up play if a shift to another suit is dangerous
when you have pulled out opponents honour and you have other stoppers.

PLAYING 1NT

Try and build up potential tricks by giving the lead to the opponents so they can open new suits for you
Play on the longer suits and leave the opponents the shorter suits to lead back at you

Fourth Round Losers and how to overcome them:

From Red Dirt Bridge

Strong side suits with a low fourth card can be trouble especially if you do not have 3 rounds of control in trumps:

If your hand is 5/3 in trumps, you may need the 3rd low trump in dummy to ruff the losers in the side suit.

A. If you have AKQ play 2 rounds of trumps and then the side suit to ruff the loser before you play the 3rd round of trumps (H1)

OTHERWISE

B. Play side suit first before opponent can lead trumps to take your ruff away (H2)

NOTE: If you have a high trump in dummy use your hand to draw trumps and save the high card in dummy for the ruff

If you have a 1st/2nd/3rd and a 4th round loser of a side suit and opponents have a master trump. You must give up a trick in the side suit BEFORE either opponent can play the master trump

A. Drive out the missing card in the side suit before pulling trumps (eg finesse)

B. Duck one round of the side suit if you cannot finesse and have NO high card in dummy

BUT

C. Do not duck if you have a high card in dummy

NOTE: when you need to set up a side suit because you lack first round control and you have 4th round loser in side suit set up side suit first before trumps and ONLY DUCK if have low cards in dummy

If Ace is your only honour (4/4 or 5/3 split) and you have to ruff a loser/s then duck the first round of trumps and then play the ace and play the side suit leading to ruffing the side suit

YouTube VIDEO FROM RED DIRT BRIDGE

Dealing with 4th Round losers

DECLARER PLAY - Finessing

MISSING CARDS?

An even number of cards against you are more likely to break unevenly
An uneven number of cards (5) are more like to break 3-2 than 4-1

HOW TO FINESSE

Finesse - leading low towards an honor hoping the missing honor is on side.
Double Finesse - if missing 2 or more cards (eg you have AQT, so missing KJ), lead from the other hand and play the T, then cross back and play low to the Q. Same if you have AJxx but missing KQ.

Trapping an honor - lead the highest of supporting honor with a high honor in the opposing hand, if the missing honor falls cover it otherwise let it run. Once the missing honor is out the rest of the cards are PROMOTED.
Two Way Finesse - (AT82 and KJ95) you have equivalent honour in each hand so which way to finesse? Check out THE DANGER HAND (below)

NOTE: Without a sequence of honour cards, don't lead an honour card for a finesse... Lead low towards the honour you hope to make.

DO NOT FINESSE IF:

you can make your contract and the finesse failing makes you go down
there is a sure line of play that is safer
there is a chance in a suit contract that the opening lead is a singleton
you have enough cards to drop the missing honour

FOR A MISSING King IF YOU HAVE Ace and Queen in one hand:

A King can only be finessed one way, if missing the K (and you need it to make) it is usually correct to finesse
WITH NO OPPOSITION BIDDING, it is usually better to finesse on the second round (ie take the first trick with the Ace) unless playing in a suit contract and you fear the opening lead to be a singleton.
WITH OPPOSITION BIDDING, if your RHO opponent has shown an opening hand and your partnership has 24+ HCPs, finessing the Q is usually futile. So play the Ace first, then cross back to your hand and play a low card, if LHO plays low do not play the Q - duck and hope RHO has a doubleton.

FOR A MISSING Queen

Finesse with an 8 card fit, but not with a 9 card fit, except:

1. An 8 card fit and you hold the King in one hand and the Ace & Jack in the other,

If RHO to hand WITH King has NOT shown strength (by opening or a double) cash the King first, retaining the tenace and then play a small card to the J if the Q has not fallen.
If RHO has shown strength cash Ace first then King

2. A 9 card fit (you do not finesse) but with the King in one hand and the Ace & Jack in the other, play King first and retain the tenace, if RHO opponent to hand with King shows out in first round then you have only 1 loser not 2

3. A 9 card fit AND you are missing Queen and Jack, cash the King or the Ace and the Q or J drops finesse the other opponent for the missing honor.

IF YOU HAVE A 8 card fit and a SEQUENCE with a MISSING HONOR:

Number of missing cards (5) - Sequence length (Q,J,T = 3) < 2:

If the missing card is the King, lead a low card towards the tenace and finesse if King is not played
if the missing card is not the king play for a 4:1 fit by playing the higher honors in the hand other than the tenace first, then leading towards the tenace (and finesse if needed).

If the answer = 2

lead an honor if there are 2 together in the other hand otherwise as above

If the answer >2

lead to the tenace and finesse if a missing honor is not played

NOTE: If you can, preserve the tenace for as long as possible so play the honors in the other hand first

IDENTIFYING THE DANGER HAND

in NTs if you are missing honours in the suit lead, the hand that lead may be the danger hand ie running a long suit
BUT it could also be the other hand that can lead through your weak honor (in this case hold up to run the weaker hand out of the suit)
the key is to make sure that the danger hand does not take the lead
so that if you have a choice of which way to finesse you can finesse into the safe hand

LOW LEAD FROM LHO

Ace in dummy, play low
Ace in hand, other honor in dummy, play low, if they play honor, take it with the Ace
One honor in each hand, play low in dummy
AJx in hand, Qx in dummy, play low in dummy. If RHO plays high, play the Ace (With equivalent cards in dummy play second hand low)
J95 in dummy, A7 in hand - play Ace

Also:

Be careful of first suit lead by opposition
Check to see which hand you want to lead from for second trick
Eight ever, nine never to finesse a Q
If the only trump out is the best do not draw it
Play honors in shorter holding first
There is usually no need to ruff in the long hand as these will be winners anyway. Look to discard a loser

HOW TO USE AN END PLAY

Decide which suit is the frozen suit
Play all the winners in the other suits
Play a loser and lose that trick - opponents are left with only that suit to play or if in trumps - give you a ruff and throw away

NOTE - do not play frozen suits make the opponents play this suit

HOW TO USE A TRUMP COUP

Use this if you have a missing honor in trumps

Ruff yourself down so that you have the same number of trumps left as your opponent with the trump honor
be in the hand opposite to your long trumps
lead any plain suit card

NOTE - to defend against a trump coup, only play on the suits of dummy's entries

trump coup

WHAT IS A FROZEN SUIT?

This is a suit where the side that play it first will lose more tricks
eg N:J72 / S:AT5 - KQ held by opposition - need to win 2 tricks

Frozen Suits (WEB LINK)

DEFENDER PLAY

Missing cards?

Count points - guess partners point range, could partner have them?
Watch how declarer plays to work out declarers hand

When Defending

Lead higher of touching cards but play lower if it has been lead to you
Try to pick partners long suit
Watch for partners signals - attitude, count, suit preference, honour signals

Also:

Second player plays low (if can)
Cover an honor with an honor
Do not cover touching honors
Lead through strength and up to weakness
Leading a new suit can give away a trick

WHEN THE HAND GOES DOWN - FOCUS:

Count the points
Think about hand shape
Watch the cards

DURING PLAY USE ALL SOURCES OF INFORMATION

inferences from the bidding or play, both positive and negative
counting points
defensive signaling
counting tricks
counting distribution

TYPES OF DEFENCE (FOR SUIT CONTRACTS)

Forcing Declarer to ruff
Active Defense
Passive Defense
Creating trump tricks
Cutting down on Declarer's ruffing power

1. Forcing Declarer to ruff

By forcing declarer to trump multiple times you can gain control of the trump suit and you force declarer to lose control of the hand.

WHEN TO DO THIS:

Declarer has a two-suited hand
4-3 trump fit
when you have 4 trumps or you believe partner does
any time you can force the declarer early in the hand

TO DO THIS - lead the partnership's strongest suit (even a 10-Ace)

2. Active Defense

Any time tricks may disappear, defend actively. Take risks you would not ordinarily take

WHEN TO DO THIS:

long running suit in dummy or defender
your side suits are breaking evening
confident, enthusiastic bidding (failed slam try?)
any time tricks can go away

TO DO THIS - lead Ace without the king, lead from a 10-Ace, under lead a king, break new suits

3. Passive Defense

Most of the time, you should defend passively, wait for your tricks to come to you. DO NOT do the declarer's work for them.

WHEN TO DO THIS:

there is no evidence of a strong side suit
declarer is very strong and dummy is weak (or vice versa)
they have bad splits in key suits
misfitting hands
you have an attractive suit when leading against NT
defending against 6NT or any grand slam
when opponents have bid tentatively or may have overbid
when you have key cards in their suit

TO DO THIS - do not lead away from a King, do not break new suits, lead tops of sequences, return declarer's leads, lead worthless suits, or some other suit that will not do declarer's work for him, leading trumps is a passive lead

TIP: against NT contracts, be cautious about leading from a ragged 4 card suit headed by one honor, instead try and find partners suit

3 types of dummies:

dummy with shortness in side suit so can declarer can trump out lose then YOU SHOULD lead trumps
dummy has a long suit that serves as a parking space for declarers losers - play aggressively
balanced dummy - no shortness, no long suits, play passively

4. Creating trump tricks

An excellent way to develop enough tricks to upset a contract is to create trump tricks instead of Ruffing

WHEN TO DO THIS:

you are short in any unbid suit
you have length in opponents suit
you have a weaker hand with no better line of defense

TO DO THIS - promote trump honors and make use of the uppercut

WAYS TO CREATE TRUMP TRICKS

trump promotion - force declarer to trump high and so defenders trumps are promoted
uppercuts - defender ruffs high to force defender to ruff with highest trump, in the hope that partner will take a trump trick
ruff declarer's tricks

LOOK FOR RUFFS WHEN:

when you have no natural trump tricks
when you have a high trump honor
when the situation is desperate and there is no better line

5. Cutting down on Declarer's ruffing power

Reduces opponents options

WHEN TO DO THIS:

dummy is short in trumps
declarer is playing the second suit in bidding - declarer will want to ruff losers in dummy
your suit preference was taken
your side has a trump stack - take ownership of the trump suit, declarer will be wanting to ruff losers in either hand
the hand is a misfit
bidding suggests dummy has a shortness in a suit (may have bid 2 suits and raised a third)
dummy denied no trumps due to a flaw
you control the other suits
the opponents are sacrificing

LEAD TRUMPS ON FIRST TRICK IF - partner has left your 1-level takeout double in for penalty, when one of you does a 2-level double of opponents because you have a lot of values are in that suit or opponents are sacrificing, when declarer is playing in his second suit

FROM OKLAHOMA COLLECTIVE (YouTube video)

Developing trump tricks for defenders

OPENING LEAD

Passive vs Aggressive Leads

AGGRESSIVE - the aim is to set up quick tricks for your side, often risky.

Leading from 1 honor or non-touching honors. Do this against:

a suit contract when dummy has a good side suit (5+ cards)
a small slam (but not if your partner has points)
a pre-emptive opening

Leading from a sequence of honors is attacking but safer.

PASSIVE - you do not expect to gain anything, but unlikely to help declarer

Suits with no honors MUD or 2nd highest with 4 or more, a small doubleton (no honor), a trump lead from 2 or 3 small trumps. Do this against

a grand slam
6NT if bid 'qualitatively' and no 5-card suit
1NT or 2NT (or 3NT if invitational) with no 5 card suit

Leading partners suit

Singleton
Top of a doubleton (7-2, J-5)
Top of touching honors (Q-J-6)
With no sequence lead lowest (J-7-6-3, K-8-5)
If you raised partners suit , partner knows you have 3 cards, lead top of nothing (8-6-3), or low from an honor
internal sequence (K-9-8-2)
internal broken sequence (K-9-7)

Do not lead an opponents bid suit unless

it is artificial
1C/1D and you have AK
Leading trumps as dummy has only 2

Against NT contracts

Fourth highest of best suit (rule of 11)
Lead partners bid suit
Top of 3 card sequence (or more) - solid sequence, broken sequence, internal sequence
With no sequence lead low
Can lead away from an Ace

Against TRUMP contracts

Lead partners bid suit
Top of 2 card sequence (solid sequence, broken sequence, internal sequence)
Top of doubleton (top of nothing) Never lead an A or K unless have AK or it is your partners suit
Fourth highest of best suit (rule of 11)
Never lead away from Ace

When to lead trumps

If opposition have bid 2 suits and agreed on a third, lead trumps
If partner does not lead trumps they may have Kx or Qxx and want you to lead trumps
Anytime you think the declarer is going to ruff losers
If there is a void

When to cash your unsupported side suit Aces

if there is a long side suit in dummy or you think there will be from the bidding eg 1H -> 1S -> 2S -> 4S

ALSO:

Lead the non bid suit
If all suits bid - lead declarers second bid suit (weaker??)
Look at bidding, lead through strength (ie dummies first bid suit)
Never lead an Ace as opening lead (unless you have the King, or unless it is your bid suit with partner) and avoid it later if you can
Never lead away from an ace in trumps unless can see Kx in dummy on your RHS.
Any time - watch to see if opponent is out of a suit and may still have trumps, lead that suit
If partner ignores bid suit and leads another suit to your ace, lead back their suit (they may have a singleton)
Once open a suit, stick to it, changing lead gives declarer a trick
Do not lead away from king if declarer has shown a strong hand or partner is very weak

FROM OKLAHOMA COLLECTIVE

Videos on YouTube

Bridge opening leads quiz

More on opening leads and coded nines and tens

SIGNALS

Remember

The lead of the queen denies the king. In a suit contract it almost always denies the Ace as well.
If partner overcalled and then doesn't lead the suit, it is most likely he holds the Ace without the King. Partner needs you to lead the suit.
With a doubleton, lead 'high-low' then partner will know you can ruff the third round. (especially if Ax is led to you and you take it with the King, lead the suit again!)
Always try to remember the bidding, it can give you useful clues during the play.

Signals

Do not lead a suit if opponents need to finesse that suit
If partner leads a A signalling AK in a suit and you have a doubleton or Qxx give signals to keep partner in the suit (ATTITUDE) check dummy doing this
First discard -play suit you want partner to lead
McKenny Ruff - Play higher card to show lead a higher suit. Play lower card to day lead a lower suit
MUD - 3 rag cards, play middle up down
Watch first discard - partner may signal their suit
Signal odd or even number of cards (COUNT): even - high/low; odd - low/high
Lead Directive Double (Pinch Bid) - DBL after an opponents artificial suit. One that is usually taken out (eg if opponents are slam bidding, Stayman, transfers)

Attitude on partners lead - 2 ways to play;

High to encourage, low to discourage

If you have 3 middling cards, play low to discourage. Partner should lead another suit and you lead the first suit when get a chance. Play highest card that you have left to clear path for partner to continue playing the suit.
A lead of a middle card shows no particular interest in that suit

Low I like, high I don’t like

Play low if have King to partners Ace

MAKE A PLAN

PLAYING SUIT CONTRACTS

FOR SUIT CONTRACTS

PLANS IN SUIT CONTRACTS

FOR NT CONTRACTS

PLAN FOR NO TRUMPS

HINTS FOR NTs

RULE OF 7 - WHEN TO DUCK

WHEN NOT TO DUCK

PLAYING 1NT

Fourth Round Losers and how to overcome them:

From Red Dirt Bridge

DECLARER PLAY - Finessing

MISSING CARDS?

HOW TO FINESSE

IDENTIFYING THE DANGER HAND

LOW LEAD FROM LHO

Also:

HOW TO USE AN END PLAY

HOW TO USE A TRUMP COUP

WHAT IS A FROZEN SUIT?

DEFENDER PLAY

Missing cards?

When Defending

Also:

WHEN THE HAND GOES DOWN - FOCUS:

TYPES OF DEFENCE (FOR SUIT CONTRACTS)

1. Forcing Declarer to ruff

2. Active Defense

3. Passive Defense

4. Creating trump tricks

5. Cutting down on Declarer's ruffing power

OPENING LEAD

Passive vs Aggressive Leads

Leading partners suit

Do not lead an opponents bid suit unless

Against NT contracts

Against TRUMP contracts

When to lead trumps

When to cash your unsupported side suit Aces

ALSO:

FROM OKLAHOMA COLLECTIVE

SIGNALS

Remember

Signals

MORE ON SIGNALS

Attitude on partners lead - 2 ways to play;