This page is easy, and you

seem to be moving through it 

with the ease and grace

 of this skier.

Knowing when to take top tricks 

Top tricks are bosses. They are cards that are certain to take tricks unless there is an outrageous distribution to a particular suit.

These cards represent a great temptation for beginners to the game, since they are the only certain things in sight, and rather than embark on what appears to be a risky venture into finessing, or losing one trick to take several, beginners tend to take top tricks at once. This is usually fatal.

The contract is 3NT and the lead is a spade. A beginner will set about his aces and kings and make six tricks quickly. He will then (too late) consider where the other three are coming from. Diamonds offer great scope but by taking top tricks immediately, you have established tricks in the defender's hands. They will thoroughly enjoy taking the hearts, spades and clubs that you have set up for them and the likelihood is that you will make no more than your six tricks.

Who was it that said that the difference between a beginner and an expert in 3NT is that the beginner will take the first eight tricks while the expert will take the last nine.

So when do we take our top tricks ?

Clearly we may be obliged to take them in a suit that the opponents lead. In the hand above, repeated below for ease of reference

when a spade is led, we will take it. There is no point here in deferring the play of the ace or king of spades. But don't play them both please ! You must then consider where the extra three tricks are coming from to supplement the six you can see. Clearly this is where the diamond suit comes in. Play the diamonds until the ace appears and then, when your contract is safe, take your top tricks, making a total of two spades, two hearts, three diamonds and two clubs.

So, in general, if you want a rule of thumb, you don't take your top tricks until your contract is secure. The only possible exception is with one master card in the suit that has been led at you. Even there, it may be politic to duck it.

Have a look at this page, and you will be reminded that amongst the other things you should do when dummy goes down, you need to identify the suits where there is work to be done, and these are the areas that must be tackled first, leaving top tricks until much later.

On this hand, the contract is four hearts and the lead is a small spade. In a trump contract, the fatality of taking the top tricks in the side suits first is clearly that defenders are liable to be trumping in. This is certain to happen on this hand if you tackle clubs or diamonds before hearts.

The correct play is to take the spade lead and play on hearts until the ace and king have both gone. If they play clubs or diamonds in this period, you must take the trick, but your plan is to draw the opponents trumps as quickly as possible. Once this has been achieved, you can take all the top tricks you like and come home to three clubs, three diamonds, three hearts and one spade.

A small point in the play of high cards that novice declarers often forget is demonstrated below.

The two is led and you must beat the jack to take the trick. Easy. However, if you take it with the queen, you are telling East that partner does not have the ace or the king (she would have played them if she had held either). Likewise, if you play the king, East knows that West does not hold the ace. So what, you say ?

East is concerned with the points that partner has and where they are. If you clarify the position in this suit, you are making it all the easier for her to discover the high cards in West's remaining suits.

So, faced with the play of equal cards from your own hand as declarer, play the highest.

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