Don’t play 5♣/5♦

Able to lose just two tricks, as against three for 4 ♥/♠ and four for 3 NT, the 5 ♣/5 ♦ game contracts really are best avoided, save for those rare occasions where, without a major-suit fit, 3 NT is out for the lack of a stopper in a suit. Even then, 3 NT may be best. Take a suit of three small cards facing three small cards: three losers in 5 ♣/5 ♦ (down), yet probably just four losers (4-3 split) in 3 NT (still a chance of making).

On our featured deal, 5 ♦ would have stood no chance – indeed nine tricks would be the limit. There were nine tricks in another contract too – namely 3 NT – but those tricks gave N-S game...

West led a normal ♠ 5 – only an abnormal club to East’s king followed by a spade switch from the East side would have scuppered the notrump game. Declarer beat East’s ♠ K with ♠ A and noted how useful that ♠ 10 was.

Rightly anticipating that dummy would be squeezed on the sixth diamond if those winners were taken first, declarer led straight back ♠ 10. West won ♠ Q and switched to ♥ 9 (best). Declarer was not going to take risks – play low and East wins and the defence promptly take three club tricks. He rose with ♥ A, cashed ♠ J and followed with the six diamond winners. Nine tricks and game made.

The take-out double

West led ♦ AK, all following, then cleverly led ♦ 8 (not ♦ Q) as he wanted his partner to ruff, hopefully with a trump that would promote ♥ 1097. East did ruff with ♥ J and now came the key moment. If declarer overtrumped with ♥ Q, ♥ 1097 would indeed win a later trick. Together with the unavoidable spade loser that would mean declarer lost four tricks: down one.

Given that the spade loser was unavoidable, declarer discarded ♠ 8 on ♥ J (key play). He could win any return, cash ♥ AKQ drawing West’s trumps and claim his game.

Bidding 1NT as an overcall

West led ♥ 10 and declarer made the key play of rising with dummy’s ♥ Q. If dummy had played low, East would have ducked the trick round to ♥ K; when declarer later lost the club finesse to West’s ♣ K, ♥ 4 through ♥ Q9 would seal his fate. By rising with ♥ Q, East had to win ♥ A, but was unable profitably to continue the suit (due to dummy’s ♥ 9).

At trick two East switched to ♣ 9, to ♣ J and ♣ K. West reverted to ♥ 4 (best) to ♥ 2, ♥ 8, ♥ K and declarer needed to pick up diamonds. He knew by now East held both ♠ K and ♦ K (for his opening bid) and had to hope ♦ K was doubleton. He crossed to ♠ A (no finesse) and led ♦ 2 (not ♦ Q) to ♦ J. He cashed ♦ A and saw ♦ K fall (good!). He crossed to ♦ Q, back to ♣ AQ and tabled ♦ 65. Nine tricks and game made.

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Duplicate Bridge on RealBridge

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Supervised Bridge on RealBridge

Supporting an overcall – level of the fit

West led ♦ Q, his partner’s suit, winning the trick. ♦ 6 went to ♦ 10 and East tried ♦ A. Declarer ruffed high, drew trumps finishing in dummy and led ♠ 2 towards ♠ K. East rose with ♠ A and cashed ♣ K, but declarer had the remainder.

Down one and a meagre +50 to E-W was scant compensation for the 4 ♠, 5 ♣ and 5 ♦ games which they could have made (4 ♠ fails on ♣ 2 lead). Indeed E-W can make 6 ♣ (unless it’s played by West and North leads an unlikely spade). Played by East on two rounds of hearts, declarer ruffs, draws trumps in four rounds (throwing ♠ 6), then runs ♦ Q. With North holding ♦ K, the suit runs. Slam made. click here to try to make 6 clubs on these cards.

Bidding to the level of the fit

West led ♣ Q, East overtaking with ♣ K and cashing ♣ AJ. At trick four East switched to ♠ J, declarer winning ♠ A, drawing trumps finishing in dummy and leading ♥ 3. East played low (in case declarer misguessed by playing ♥ J from ♥ KJ), and declarer’s ♥ K won.

Declarer conceded a heart and claimed. Nine tricks and down one.

So why didn’t South pass 3 ♦ (a making contract)? Because West would have bid 3 ♥ , East would have raised to 4 ♥ and E-W would have made game.

Overcalling and SQOT

Let’s go back to basics. The most basic competitive decision is whether to bid your suit (overcall) after an opposing opening bid. Your shape and strength is a factor. but most important by far is the quality of your suit. Why?

3 NT would have romped home on West’s normal ♣ 6 lead. East having bid spades, however, he led ♠ 7, trick one going ♠ 7, ♠ 10, ♠ Q, ♠ 6, declarer correctly ducking. East needed to put his partner back on lead for a second spade through dummy’s ♠ J3 and he found the one winning card: ♥ 5. He expected declarer to have just one heart on the bidding so this looked clearly best.

West won ♥ A and reverted to ♠ 4, to ♠ 3, ♠ 9 and ♠ A. Declarer led ♦ K, but West won ♦ A, led ♥ 2 over to K and East cashed ♠ K52. Down three.

Competitive Bidding

West cashed ♣ AK and switched to ♠ J. Winning ♠ A, declarer drew trumps and reflected that West having just one heart made it more likely he had longer diamonds; plus East’s 3 ♠ bid on skinny values suggested a singleton diamond.

Declarer cashed ♦ K, finessed ♦ 10 (key play – East discarding), cashed ♦ A, ruffed ♠ 3, ruffed ♦ 9, ruffed ♠ 4 and cashed ♦ J. 11 tricks and game made.

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You, must, must, must,....

Dummy is tabled and you must, must, must count your top tricks. Work out how many extra tricks you need for your contract and focus on those straight away – do not be a hare and cash those top tricks; rather be happy to play lose-to-win Bridge (like the tortoise). The three basic methods of making extra tricks are:

On our deal you count six top tricks and must tackle clubs, involving finessing and length. Win the spade lead with the ace, to preserve the king as a later dummy entry. Now play to the ten of clubs (Principle: finesse against the lower missing card first). The ten wins (good), so cross to the king of hearts and lead to the queen of clubs. Next cash the ace, East discarding, give up a fourth club to West and win his (say) spade return with dummy’s king. Now cash the long club and cross to your two aces. Nine tricks and game made.

Why I dislike the Rule of Seven

On our 3 NT deal, West’s jack of spades lead – East’s bid suit – is clearly top of two. So after the jack is ducked and a second spade led to East’s queen, you win the second round [duck again and East can – fatally for you – switch to hearts].

You now knock out the ace of diamonds and when West proves to have the card (good!), claim ten tricks. The Rule of Seven should never enter your mind, the bidding combined with the lead having told you spades are 6-2.

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2025 Winter

When to duck and the Rule of Seven

On our 3 NT deal, West led the three of spades to East’s queen. When should you win your ace? Using the Rule of Seven, you have six spades between your hand and dummy. Taking six from seven tells you to duck your ace once and win it on the second round.

You let East’s queen of spades win and take his spade return with the ace. You now lead the king of clubs, pleased to see that it is East who holds the ace. If East did hold a third spade and led it, the opposing spades would be 4-3 and the defence would only be able to win three spades (plus a club). East proves to have no more spades so you can win any return and cash out for nine tricks via four clubs, three hearts and the aces of spades and diamonds. Game made.

Note that had you ducked a second spade, an alert West would have switched to (specifically) the ten of diamonds (key play) after winning his spade (knowing his spades were dead for the lack of an entry). That ten of diamonds would kill you.

Note finally that if West’s opening spade lead had been the two, indicating just four cards, you would win the ace immediately, for fear of a diamond switch.

Interpreting the opening lead

On our 3 NT deal, West leads the eight of spades. Taking eight from 11 gives an impossible three higher spades in N, E and S (N and S have four). The lead must be high-for- hate. If you finesse, East will win and surely switch to hearts before you have knocked out the ace of diamonds.

Instead rise with dummy’s ace of spades and knock out the ace of diamonds. East wins the second diamond and switches to hearts, you winning the second round. You still have just eight tricks, but look at what happens to East on the fifth diamond:

East must throw his penultimate heart to keep his guards in both black suits. Now you can lead a spade knocking out his king and setting up a second trick in that suit, as he has just one heart to cash. Nine tricks and game made.

Basic Percentage Play

Sometimes, however, you might be put to a premature guess – as on our deal. The defence took their four spades, East winning the fourth and switching to a club.

Declarer, who had thrown a club from dummy and a club and a diamond from hand, had eight top tricks. He had to decide whether to finesse the queen of clubs for his ninth; or rely on a 3-2 diamond split and a fourth trick in that suit.

The 3-2 diamond split being better odds, he rose with the ace of clubs, cashed the three top diamonds (good – 3-2 split revealed), over to a top heart, cashed the long diamond throwing the queen of clubs and finished with his three remaining top hearts. Nine tricks and game made.

Retaining a Finesse Position

On our 3 NT deal, declarer won a second spade with the ace. Needing all four tricks from each minor, he tested (say) clubs by cashing ♣ AQ first, to retain ♣ K10 finesse position in case West held ♣ J98x [nothing he could do if East held ♣ J98x]. East duly discarded on the second, so he led a third club to the (nine and) ten.

Without cashing the king of clubs (he might –would – need the dummy entry), declarer turned to diamonds, cashing the ace to retain his ♦ KJ(8). When West’s queen dropped, he could lead to his eight if East played low. East inserted the nine, however so declarer won the jack, West discarding. He crossed to the king of clubs and led a third diamond to the (seven and) eight and cashed the king. Nine tricks and game made.

Note that the first-round finesse of the jack of diamonds would yield just two tricks in the suit (ace-king); cashing the ace first yielded all four.

The Power of a Five-card suit

On our illustrative 3 NT deal, you as declarer have eight top tricks. Trick one goes ♠ 4, ♠ 2, ♠ Q and you win the ace. Hearts, diamonds and clubs all contain seven cards, comprising the ace-king and five low cards. Which suit should you play on?

Emphatically hearts – holding five cards in one hand. At trick two lead a low heart to the (ten and) king (high card in the shorter length), then lead back a heart. Given that you will have to lose at least one heart trick whatever the split, you might as well duck this second round (once in a while East began with ♥ QJ942).

West wins the queen and persevered with the jack of spades which you duck, then a third spade. You win the king, cross to the king of (say) diamonds and play the ace of hearts (West discarding) and a heart. East wins but, with no spades to lead, leads (say) a diamond. You win dummy’s ace, cross to the king of clubs and cash the promoted fifth heart, your crucial extra trick. All that remains is to cross to the ace of clubs and that’s nine tricks and game made.

Note that there were (expected) 4-2 splits in all three suits. Yet only hearts – because of the five-card length in one hand – could yield an extra trick.

Don’t be afraid of notrumps

After ducking trick one [♥ 10, ♥ J, ♥ Q, ♥ 4] and winning ♥ K that follows, you know West has no more hearts. So if you can avoid losing the lead to East, you have good chances. Plan the play.

You have five top tricks. Even if you bring in clubs for all five tricks, you need a winning spade finesse, so you might as well take it now. At trick three you lead and successfully pass the queen of spades, following with a spade to dummy’s jack. Time for clubs.

You do not mind losing a club trick to West (with no more hearts) so at trick five you lead a club to the ten (key play). Either the finesse succeeds (if East holds the queen), or it loses to West, who cannot hurt you. Say the ten loses to West’s queen. You win his (say) diamond return, cash four clubs and the ace of spades and make nine tricks. Game made – another 3 NT chalked up.

Quiz: Make your ♥ A into ♥ K. You still bid 3 NT, but have to win your king at trick one when East correctly [from ♥ AQ98752] withholds his ace. Plan the play?

Answer: Now, in addition to a winning spade finesse, you need to pick up clubs without loss (West has another heart to lead if he wins a trick). West rates to have more clubs (he has five fewer hearts) so play clubs by cashing the king then running the ten [succeeding when East holds any two small clubs or a singleton eight or nine].

A twist to ruffing in Dummy

West leads ♠ A and East signals with ♠ 10, because he can potentially overruff dummy on the third spade. West continues with ♠ K, then ♠ Q. What do you do?

Ruffing low is sure to fail, East having advertised that he will overruff. You will also lose an unavoidable late club. Ruffing high (with ♥ Q) is better, but you would then be reliant on a 2-2 heart split. On the layout, you would lose to East’s ♥ J and, later, the third club. Down one.

How about discarding a club from dummy at trick three (key play). This is a loser in any event, but by throwing the club, you are swapping ruffs. You can win any return (say ♦ 4). You then play ♥ Q and back to ♥ A; then ♣ 3 to ♣ A, ♣ 6 to ♣ K and peacefully ruff ♣ 7.

Note that this elegant Loser-on-Loser play would not work if East held a club fewer, as he would also throw a club on the third spade and be able to overruff in clubs. But then 4 ♥ would be unmakeable.

Ps  If West plays a fourth spade, try trumping with the h2 in the dummy at trick four.

East must overtrump, or declarer can simply throw her losing club.
So trick 4 goes spade, h2, h9, hK.
Declarer then plays a club to the Ace, a club to the King, and trumps the club 7 in dummy with the heart 6.
Now just draw trumps - HQ, diamond to the Ace and the HA is ten tricks and game made.

The 5-2 Fit

North-South bid well to the best game contract of 4 ♠. Yes – 3 NT would be a lucky make this time, because hearts were 4-4, but you’d not wish to be there. 5 ♣ would require ♣ Q to drop doubleton [the chances of this are 40% x 68% = 27%, where 40% = the chances of ♣ Q being in the two-card holding and 68% = the chances of a 3-2 split] and would fail on the layout (losing two hearts plus ♣ Q).

West leads ♥ K, East encouraging with ♥ 9, then follows with ♥ QJ. is would not be the moment to discard: in effect you would be discarding a winner and still be left with ♣ Q to lose. You can afford to ruff in the long hand – once. You ruff.

What you cannot now afford to do is draw trumps. You should assume the six missing trumps are splitting 4-2 (as they are), in which case you’ll have no trumps left after drawing them all. When you then lead out ♣ AK and a third club to set up your long card, West will win ♣ Q and cash a heart. Down one.

You must give up the club whilst dummy still holds trumps – with which to ru a fourth heart. At tricks four, five and six you lead yAK and a third club. West wins ♣ Q but, unable profitably to lead the fourth heart – you’d ru low in dummy [and survive even if East had thrown his fourth heart on the third club and overruffed, as he held the four trumps], may switch to ♦ 4. You now win, draw trumps in four rounds and peacefully enjoy the long club. 10 tricks and game made.

Whites 2025

Drawing Trumps when it might seem Wrong

West leads J♦ v 4 ♥ . You baulk when you see that you are missing ♥ AKQJ10. You may wish you were declaring 3 NT (nine top tricks). Perhaps – however it is worth pointing out that at Duplicate Pairs 4 ♥ is superior: 3 NT will make only nine tricks (unless diamonds are 3-3), whereas 4♥  will make ten (provided trumps are 3-2).

WRONG THINKING: Yikes, my trumps are terrible, I cannot possibly play them. Let me play out my minor suit winners and see what happens...

You win J♦ with (say) ♦ Q and lead (say) ♣ K then ♣ 3. Disaster! West ruffs (with ♥ Q) and leads a second diamond. East ruffs (with ♥ 10) and leads a third club. West ruffs (with ♥ A) and East must score ♥ KJ. The defence make all their five trumps separately – down two.

CORRECT THINKING: I am missing ve trumps, which will normally split 3-2. By leading trumps, two of their high cards will fall together; I will merely lose three tricks.

Win (say) ♦ A and lead ♥ 2. West wins ♥ Q and although he can lead a second diamond for East to ruff, as you’d expect [the defender with short diamonds holding longer trumps], East is ruffing at the cost of a trump trick. You can win any return, then lead a second trump and watch ♥ A and ♥ K crash together. 10 tricks and game made.

There is just one (unlikely) way to beat 4 ♥ . West must lead ♣ 9 [although holding ♥ AQ he does not seemingly want a ruff]. Declarer wins in dummy and leads ♥ 2, whereupon East must rise with ♥ K (!) and lead a second club for West to ruff (with ♥ A). Down one.

Three Reasons for Delaying Trumps

Although drawing the opposing trumps straight away is the default setting on the Bridge machine – you don’t want your winners to be trumped – there are many occasions where it is folly. Here are three of the most important reasons to delay:

• (A) To dump loser(s) from hand on winners in dummy.
• (B) To void dummy of a shorter suit and ruff loser(s) in dummy.
• (C) To establish a suit. Sometimes two (even three) of the above apply on the same deal.

South was minimum for his preemptive 3 ♥ ,and 4 ♥ would have been unmakeable on the lead of either major suit. West led a normal ♣ 10, however and declarer could now get home – provided he used the correct strategy.

Because there were fewer clubs in dummy than in hand, declarer had the opportunity to score an extra trump trick by rung as third club in dummy, the short trump hand [Reason (B), above]. However because this involved giving up a trick, he rst had to dump a spade on dummy’s second top diamond [Reason (A)].

Declarer won West’s club lead with dummy’s ♣ A and promptly and necessarily cashed ♦ AK, dumping ♠ 5. At trick four he led ♣ 3, to void dummy of clubs.

East won ♣ Q and the defence did the best they could, East switching to ♠ 6 to West’s ♠ Q. Refraining from trying to cash ♠ A [if declarer’s club play made sense, he had to have a club in his hand; his other seven cards had to be hearts to justify his three-level opener; no room for another spade], West switched to a heart.

Spurning the heart finesse [play low from dummy – in the hope West held ♥ K – and East would win ♥ K and lead a second heart, removing dummy’s hearts before the club could be ruffed], declarer rose with ♥ A. He ruffed ♦ 6 to get back to hand then led ♣ J and ruffed it with ♥ 5 (the crucial extra trick). His remaining six cards were ♥ QJ10743, of which he had to score five (all bar ♥ K). 10 tricks and game made – via ♦ AK, ♣ A, six trumps plus a ruff in dummy.

Trumping in Dummy

The most fundamental occasion where you have to delay drawing trumps is when you have to ruff in the short trump hand (normally dummy). Dummy must be voided and extra cards ruffed whilst dummy still has trumps.

On our featured 4 ♥ deal there was such a suit – in which dummy has fewer cards - namely spades. Declarer won West’s top-of-a-sequence ♦ Q lead with ♦ K. Without touching a trump (which would signal defeat), declarer led a spade, beginning the voiding-dummy process. East won ♠ 9 and, realising declarer’s cunning plan, switched to a trump [this is the standard defence in such situations: the defence must try to remove dummy’s trumps before you can use them for ruffing].

Winning ♥ K, declarer led ♠ 6, voiding dummy. West beat ♠ J with ♠ Q and persisted with ♥ 7. Winning ♥ J, it was now declarer’s big moment: he led ♠ 7 – a loser – and trumped it in dummy. This was the extra trick which made the difference between 10 tricks and game made as opposed to nine tricks and ‘a good effort’.

Declarer now crossed to his hand via (say)♣ K, draw the remaining opposing trump and cashed his remaining top tricks, merely giving up a third round club trick.

There was a defence to beat 4 ♥ . West must lead a trump at trick one. The defence can lead two further trumps when in with spades and now there are no more trumps in dummy to ruff the third spade.

Whilst leading a trump would have worked well here, such a lead risks handing declarer the initiative on (at least as) many other occasions, where setting up diamond winners early is key. That’s Bridge – you can’t always be right.

Endplay & Squeeze

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How will your Trumps Split

Here are the odds of the various trump splits:

West leads ♣ Q v 4 ♠ [the killer lead would be ♦ K, but how can West find that?]. As declarer, you win and should make some guesstimates. You’d guess trumps are 3-1 (a missing even number of cards does not rate to split evenly); and you’d guess hearts are 4-3 (a missing odd number of cards does rate to split as evenly as possible).

With the above expectations, you win ♣ A (East encouraging by playing ♣ 10) and play over to ♠ K and back to ♠ A East discarding (♣ 3) on the second round), revealing that, indeed, trumps are 3-1.

Leaving West’s master trump outstanding – the Rule of One – you now play out hearts. You cash ♥ A, overtake ♥ Q with dummy’s ♥ K, then follow with ♥ J, discarding a minor-suit loser. Both opponents follow (as expected) and you now lead the good ♥ 10, discarding another minor-suit loser. West ruffs, but you do not mind, as you have just two minor-suit losers remaining. 10 tricks and game made.

Note that without ♥ 10, the sequence of plays would be ♣ A, ♠ A, ♥ AQ, ♠ 2 to ♠ K, ♥ KJ.

Red Conventions (was Advanced Plus)

The positional factor

A finesse is an attempt to promote a card (or cards) in a suit, when a higher card (or cards) is missing. The key is the relative position of the higher card. But contrast:

Declarer won the club lead with the king, and led a heart to dummy’s jack, winning the trick as West held the ace. He next crossed to the queen of diamonds and led a second heart to the queen, West ducking again (best). He followed by crossing to his ace of diamonds, and leading a third heart towards the king. This time West took his ace and led a second club. Declarer won the ace, crossed to the king of diamonds, cashed the promoted king of hearts, and scored his ninth trick with the ace of spades. Game made.

Note that had declarer lazily led a top heart from dummy, he would only have scored two tricks in the suit. He would have had to rely on a 3-3 split to score dummy’s five as a length winner. Not this time.

The Ruffing Finesse in action.

The Ruffing Finesse is a method of card promotion that enables you to benefit, even though the critical missing honour is sitting over your strength. The technique has the advantage of allowing you to dispose of a loser in another suit should the ruffing finesse fail.

The success of this 4 ♥ contract depended on guessing which opponent held the queen of spades. West led the king of clubs and, when it won, continued with the queen of clubs to East’s ace. East switched to the king of diamonds, and declarer won the ace.

There were several good reasons for playing the ruffing finesse (ace-king then run the jack - in the hope that East held the queen) as opposed to the regular finesse (low to the ten - playing for West to hold the queen).

• (i) West had preempted, so East rated to have the length (and strength) outside.

• (ii) The contract would go one fewer down should declarer misguess.

• (iii) The ruffing finesse against East would also succeed if West held the queen in a singleton or doubleton holding.

Declarer cashed the ace of trumps and crossed to dummy’s ten, West discarding (a club). Leaving East’s last trump out (needing the queen of trumps as a later entry), declarer cashed dummy’s ace-king of spades. No queen fell, so he followed with dummy’s jack (the ruffing finesse).

If East had covered with the queen of spades, declarer would have ruffed, crossed to the queen of trumps, then cashed the promoted ten of spades discarding a diamond. He would merely lose one diamond at the end. At the table East played low on the jack of spades. Declarer discarded a diamond and, when the jack won the trick, was able to draw East’s last trump and concede just one diamond. Game made.

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