DEVELOP YOUR bridgeBRIDGEbridge
Home > Declarer > Some basics 

 

Tutorial

Bidding Defence Declarer

 

 

Odds and Ends

Scoring Laws Famous Names

Some basics in declarer play (continued)

You may remember that we were on the point of looking at some examples.

The contract is three no-trumps, and a spade has been led. You have five certain tricks in the major suits (make sure you can identify these) and must develop the remaining four from clubs or diamonds. You will not have time to try both since when you first lose the lead, your remaining spade stopper will be removed and subsequent loss of the lead will give the defenders a number of spade tricks.

So, do we look for our extra tricks from clubs or diamonds ?

Well done if you judged that the clubs will not yield the four extra tricks we need for our contract, but the  diamonds will.

Try this one.

The contract is again three no-trumps, and the lead is a heart. They have found our weakness because once our ace and king have gone, we will lose lots of tricks in hearts. You have six tricks on top and must develop the other three. What will you do ?

While the diamonds will yield the other three if you have the time, this is the one commodity you don't have. The initial heart lead has put the defenders a tempo ahead (they can set up their hearts before we can set up our diamonds).

The other possibility is the club suit. If South has the king, continued leads from your own hand will provide the three extra tricks (this is the finesse). Even if the club finesse fails, giving only two extra tricks, there is still one further possibility for your ninth. Can you see it ?

Play three rounds of spades, finishing in dummy, and if the outstanding spades break 3:3, your two of spades will be your ninth trick.

The next one is a trump contract.

The contract is four spades and the lead is a small diamond. Here, your first decision is whether to let the diamond lead run round to your hand (making a trick with the queen if the hand on lead has the king), or taking the ace of diamonds and drawing trumps. Which course would you follow ?

The key here lies in the simple fact that you have a safe ten tricks anyway if you ruff two spades in dummy, losing two clubs and the king of diamonds. Letting the diamond run round to your queen runs the risk of the king of diamonds taking the trick, and the diamond return being ruffed. You would then be quite likely to lose five tricks, ace and king of clubs, king of diamonds and two ruffs. So, rise with your ace !

 4. I've collected together for you the most common mistakes made by declarer. Here they are. If you could only eliminate half these from your play....

When you are ready, have a look at these practise hands which encompass concepts from all aspects of declarer play.