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played from dummy
| Tutorial |
| Odds and Ends |
First card played from dummy (continued)
You may remember that we left the previous page after six examples illustrating the information you can deduce from the opponent's opening lead. There are nine more examples to show you.
| (7) | A K 6 | Take it ! Play the ace or the king. If you need to duck, you can do so later. |
| Q | # | |
| 4 3 | ||
| any contract |
| (8) | A 3 | Let it run round and you must take a trick with queen now or later. Play the three. You would only contemplate playing the ace if East had preempted in this suit or you could not afford to let East have the lead for whatever reason. |
| 4 | # | |
| Q 7 6 | ||
| trump contract |
| (9) | 10 6 5 3 | Play the three from dummy, but try and fool them by playing the queen from your hand. It does sometimes work ! |
| A | # | |
| Q 4 | ||
| trump contract |
| (10) | K 7 3 | The ace is most likely with East so hold off your king as long as you can. On a good day, the ace will be a doubleton ! Play the three. |
| Q | # | |
| 5 4 | ||
| trump contract |
| (11) | A 2 | Take the ace at once and possibly play this suit back at them. It will look as if you are trying to trump in dummy and they may lead a trump---helpful if your trump holding is fragile. They may even continue with this suit giving you a ruff and a discard ! |
| Q | # | |
| 4 3 | ||
| trump contract |
| (12) | Q 10 6 | Play the six. There is a clear inference here that the hand on lead also holds the king so even if they switch to another suit, you can lead towards the queen later. |
| A | # | |
| 9 8 | ||
| trump contract |
| 3 2 | You probably want to ruff this suit in dummy and this line of play is likely to be less obvious if you duck the first round. Play small from both hands. | |
| Q | # | |
| A 5 4 | ||
| trump contract |
| (14) | A 2 | The lead is probably from a five-card suit or longer so you will want to hold up. You can't if you play small from dummy at trick one. Play the ace and then hold up the king when this suit is attacked later. |
| 7 | # | |
| K 5 4 | ||
| no-trumps |
|
(15)
2 |
|
Take it in the hand which has the greater number of entries, probably yours. Preserve the entry in the hand where they are scarce. | |||||
| When you are ready, have a look at these practise hands which encompass concepts from all aspects of declarer play. | |||||||
| Top of page | Go to this page
if you want to see the final instalment of this fascinating
bridge party.
If you would like to trace this pictorial saga from the beginning, start here. |
 'Farewell
to two-pounds-eighteen-and-six'
Image by courtesy of The Chelwood Gallery (Tel 01242-251-412) |