ª © ¨ § BRIDGE FOR BEGINNERS : LESSON 8 ª © ¨ §
Develop your skills in bidding and playing in trump contracts
You should be feeling some confidence now about the following aspects of suit bidding:
¨ knowing whether or not your hand is strong enough to open at the one level - 12 HCP or a little less with a decent long suit
¨ knowing which suit to open
¨ knowing what constitutes a fit with opener, how to evaluate your hand with a fit, how high to raise with such a fit
¨ knowing when to shift to a new suit and which one to shift to
¨ knowing when you should respond to opener in notrumps
¨ knowing how to make a rebid as opener that indicates your strength - mini, midi or maxi
¨ knowing how to make a rebid as opener that, if possible in terms of strength, indicates your shape - a fit with responder, balanced, single-suited, two- or three-suited
¨ making sure you get to game as responder when you also have opening values
Observing basic
routine when playing trump contracts will always stand you in good
stead:
1. Count your losers. Distinguish immediate losers (those which the defence can take the moment they gain the lead) from eventual losers (those which are currently protected by high card(s) or by trumps but will still end up as losers if you fail to do something about them in time).
2. Form a plan to eliminate excess losers by, for example, discarding them on extra winners.
3. Count your winners.
4. If you don’t have enough, form a plan to create more winners. The most common possibilities include establishing winners from intermediate honours or from small cards in a long side suit; finessing; trumping in the short trump hand, or in one hand (usually the weaker holding) when you have a 4-4 trump fit.
5. If you have enough winners and not too many losers, draw trumps as soon as possible even if this means losing the lead. After all, what can they do to you? Remember: 'Draw trumps immediately unless there’s a bloody good reason not to'.
6. Sometimes it is wise not to draw trumps immediately because there may be more pressing considerations that qualify as 'bloody good reasons':
¨ You may need to discard immediate losers before giving up the lead to the defenders in trumps.
¨ You may need to use some or all of dummy's trumps to ruff
losers from your own hand.
¨ Some rather testing comments and questions are inserted in the text in this font. Don’t let them scare you. They merely offer a glimpse of the exhilarating climb to new heights that lies before you.
Board 1 Dlr N Nil Vul
NORTH
ª 3
¨ AKQ943
§ 963
WEST EAST
ª AJ95 ª Q87
© J432 © QT65
¨ 82 ¨ 765
§ K84 § AQ5
SOUTH
ª KT652
© A9
North opens 1¨ and over South's response of 1ª rebids 2¨ to show a minimum opening with 6+ diamonds (might only be 5 if desperate – with 5 diamonds and 4 hearts, say, in a minimum hand too weak to reverse). With no hope of game and a likely 8-card fit, South should pass with such a minimum responding hand even though it is possible they have a 5-3 spade fit.
East will probably lead ©5. No lead stands out. As declarer, you can count 8 tricks and only 5 losers - good news indeed.
But at matchpointed duplicate bridge it is never enough to sigh with relief and proceed to take your eight tricks. Always ask yourself: Are there any more winners possible?
A ninth can come from one of the most common methods of creating extra tricks - ruff a losing heart in dummy, the short trump hand.
Clearly, therefore, drawing trumps must wait. Win ©A in dummy - honour from the short hand - and then play a heart to the king. Now trump your last heart with one of dummy's diamonds.
Next draw trumps by overtaking dummy's last trump with a higher honour in hand and playing two more rounds. 9 tricks for +110 (3x30 + 50).
¨ Are you aware of the viciousness of matchpoint scoring? If you make your contract exactly and every other declarer makes an overtrick, your score is 0%. Not a bean for making your contract!
Board 2: Dlr E NS Vul
NORTH
ª KJT3 ª AQ75
SOUTH
East opens 1§. West responds 1ª. With such a weak responding hand, focus on its likely best feature, a major. It is best to ignore the 'rule' of responding in the cheaper (= closer) of two four-card suits with very weak hands with one major suit. Remember: 'The minors aren't called the minors for nothing.'
With a spade fit, East's hand is still a mini 14 TP and worth a raise to only 2ª. West passes since 9 TP means there is no hope of game opposite 12-15 TP.
North's hand is difficult to lead from - the heart 'tenace' (= a holding containing split honours) is especially unattractive, although on this deal ©A works out okay since partner, rather than declarer, holds ©K. ¨J, top of an interior sequence – another tenace - in the unbid suit, is possible, though still risky as the declaring side may hold AQ between them and you will have given the opposition a quick extra trick. Perhaps a low club, also risky, is the best of unattractive alternatives.
Declarer can count only 7 tricks and 6 possible losers. As with the previous deal, one extra trick to fulfil the contract can come from a heart ruff in dummy.
Should declarer draw trumps first? You can if they break 3-2. But what if they are 4-1?
¨
Declarers should
try to plan for unpleasant scenarios:
'What if one opponent holds 4 trumps? I will find this out after playing two rounds. But it may then be too late to get my heart ruff. Why? I have to lose two hearts first. What if a defender, realizing you want to trump a heart, could play a trump each time she won a heart? There would be no trumps left to take care of my losing heart.’
With this unpleasant possibility in mind, declarer
should win the lead, leave trumps for the moment, and lose a heart. The defence can take only two diamonds and
another heart. And declarer can always
arrange to ruff the third round of hearts (with a high trump - just in case),
draw trumps and end up making 9 tricks, an overtrick, since the diamonds break
3-3, for +140 (3x30 + 50).
Board 3 Dlr S EW Vul
NORTH
West opens 1¨. Over a 1© response from East (which may show only 4 ©s), there is no guaranteed heart fit. With a balanced 14-count and no 4-card spade suit, the most descriptive rebid is 1NT (= a balanced 12-14). East now knows there is a heart fit and with 14 TP bids the heart game.
Looking at all four hands, it is easy to see that a spade lead will allow the defence to take the first three tricks. However, holding §KQ and only ªK, this South was more inclined to lead a club. Alas for the defenders, this lead is very helpful to declarer because her club losers are reduced to only one.
Declarer can count 10 top tricks. But she also has 4-5 possible losers - 3 in
spades and 1 in clubs if a club is led, 2 on any other lead. How can this
number be reduced? Easy - two can be
thrown away on dummy's extra diamond winners.
Do you draw trumps first? This time the answer is yes because there is no urgency to discard losers. The opponents cannot win the lead until much later, after they are out of trumps and after losers have been discarded.
And if you don't draw trumps, South will trump the
third round of diamonds and cash 3 winners for one down and you will score -100
instead of +620. Ouch!
Board 4 Dlr W All Vul
NORTH
ª 98742 ª QJT5
West must pass as dealer. North opens 1§ with 3-3 in the minors, East passes, and South responds 1©. With 4-card support and 13TP North makes a minimum raise to 2©. Knowing there is a fit, South re-evaluates and is now 14TP. And so she jumps to game in 4©.
West has an easy ¨K lead. Declarer is looking at two trump losers for sure and two diamond losers after ¨A is dislodged - too many. The good news is that there are 10 winners available - 4 in trumps, 3 clubs, 2 spades and 1 diamond. The problem is how to win ten before the opponents take their four.
You must dispose of a loser before they win the lead again. How? As in the previous deal, you can discard one, this time on dummy's extra spade winner.
So, do you draw trumps at trick two? No, because the defence will win and cash their two diamonds. With another trump winner to come, they will defeat you. You must first discard one diamond loser on dummy's extra spade winner before playing a trump. Then you will make 10 tricks for +620 instead of -100 for one down.
Board 5 Dlr N NS Vul
NORTH
North opens 1ª. With no fit
and 12 HCP, South shifts to 2©.
¨ A shift to 2© always shows 5+ ©s. Can you explain why, according to the rules you have learnt for shifting?.
North with a strong 16-count, a midi hand with an
excellent 6-card suit, ensures her rebid reflects this by jumping to 3ª (=16+ and forcing to game over South's guaranteed minimum
of 10 HCP). Doubleton king is now
adequate support and South's 4ª concludes the auction.
East has no clear-cut lead. A minor suit sounds best on the bidding. And a more aggressive §4 lead (low from an honour other than the ace) looks better than a diamond when you have so little. You tend to lead aggressively when you think cards are well situated for declarer – on this hand your ©K may well be sitting nicely for declarer under dummy’s AQ. (Don’t take up fortune-telling!)
Declarer is cheered to count ten sure tricks, with a possible eleventh via a club finesse. Further good news is that there are only two sure losers, with a possible third in clubs if the finesse loses.
So what do you play at trick one on a club lead? It's now or never for the finesse. Can it hurt you if it fails? The lead can hardly be a singleton, for West would surely have bid at favourable vulnerability with seven clubs headed by the KJT.
To make a vital overtrick in the greedy game of matchpointed
duplicate bridge, declarer must play §Q and then draw trumps and claim 11 tricks for +650
rather than a panicky +620, which is likely to score very poorly.
Board 6 Dlr E EW Vul
NORTH
East opens 1ª. With only 6 HCP West must not shift to the two level (which guarantees 10-15 HCP), despite her nice diamonds. The correct response is 1NT, showing 6-9 HCP, not 3 ªs and not necessarily balanced.
¨ Are you aware that you would respond 1NT even with a void spade if you had only a poor 6-9 HCP? (You might dredge up a two-level shift with 9HCP and a good 6-card suit, or maybe even AKQxx.)
East makes the normal rebid of 2ª with her minimum hand with its 6-card suit and no other 4+ suit. West, of course, passes.
South's club sequence makes that suit the most likely
lead. North wins §A and with dummy's diamond suit a possible threat (meaning
that declarer may be able to make lots of diamond tricks and throw away losers
from her hand) may choose to switch to a slightly dangerous heart. ©J is best with this holding when the ten is in dummy. (This
is a rather advanced defensive play called a surround play. Your J9
surrounds dummy’s ten.) This lead removes declarer's ©A and exposes two heart losers.
On a normal 3-2 break in spades, declarer figures to have four spade winners and one more guaranteed in each of the other three suits - one short of the eight needed. And the loser count is two in trumps and hearts, one in clubs and one possible in diamonds.
What can be done? The only possibility to create an eighth trick and avoid a sixth loser is a successful diamond finesse. But there is no need to do it immediately.
Play ace and another trump. Take the diamond finesse either when South is on lead and plays a low diamond, or when you are back in your hand with a club for example. The opponents can make only one more trump trick and all will be well. You will come to 8 tricks, +110 (2x30 + 50).
Note that there is no guarantee of making your contract by finessing. But there is a virtual certainty of failing if you don't.
Board 7 Dlr S All Vul
NORTH
South opens 1© and North with 13 TP in support of hearts has enough for game even opposite a minimum opening, but should not bid game immediately, as that would show a weak freak. Better to shift to 2¨ and next bid 4© over South’s likely rebid of 2NT, showing a balanced 12-14 (Yes, the club holding is a bit scary and South may prefer 3¨, ideally promising 4 cards.)
West leads out §AK and seeing no future in clubs with only a doubleton in dummy, switches to ªJ.
As declarer, you can count five winners in trumps, two in spades and three more in diamonds after the defenders' ace is driven out. On the other hand, there are two club losers, one diamond loser and one eventual loser in spades - too many.
You are happy to lose a diamond as you will create three winners - a good investment. The problem is therefore to avoid losing a spade. How? Declarer's third spade can be thrown on dummy's fourth diamond if the timing is right.
In which hand did you win the spade? In your own, I hope. Remember the useful principle of conserving the entries to the hand with the long suit you plan to establish (here dummy with its diamonds).
Do you draw trumps immediately? Yes - you are not planning to use dummy's trumps and it could be very dangerous to play four rounds of diamonds if the opponents still hold any trumps. Draw trumps, taking care to note that this requires three rounds.
What next? It is very important to play on diamonds now. Lose early if there is a profit in it. If instead you play your winning spade, you will be exposing your spade loser. And when the opponents win ¨A they will be able to play their spade winner. Playing honours first from the short hand and for as many rounds as it takes, drive out their ¨A.
Then you can safely win the return and throw away your
spade loser as planned. Making 10 tricks
for +620.
¨
How can the
defenders punish you if you won the first spade in dummy? Sometimes, those
capricious bridge gods help only those who help themselves.
Board 8 Dlr W Nil Vul
NORTH
West opens 1©. With heart support and 11 TP, East makes an invitational jump raise to 3©. Now, with 15 TP opposite an announced 10-12 TP, West has just enough to accept the invitation and bids 4©.
North leads §J, the top card of her strongest sequence. After two rounds of winning clubs, South, seeing no more clubs in dummy, should switch to ªQ. Declarer has already lost two clubs and must lose to the trump ace. There are two other eventual losers in spades to be dealt with. How?
You are now expert at seeing they can both be discarded on diamonds. (Don't forget to play ¨K first - honour from the short hand – followed by two more rounds to discard a spade!).
And you can afford to draw trumps first because you still hold one high spade guarding your losers. As it happens, you will survive on this deal if you don't. Do you see why? The bridge gods, like others, do not always punish us for our sins. 10 tricks and +420 for your non-vulnerable game.
Board 9 Dlr N EW Vul
NORTH
South opens 1ª in third seat, North makes an invitational jump to 3ª with support and 11 TP, and South accepts with 15 TP.
West leads ©AKQ and switches to a spade - giving nothing away. (Any switch is okay on the actual hand.) Declarer sees the trumps are breaking 4-0, always a little uncomfortable. But there are nine top tricks, and another can be made by ruffing a diamond in dummy, the short trump hand.
All trumps cannot be drawn immediately (or there will be none left in dummy). The ruff will have to be made first. And all will be well as long as West holds at least two diamonds.
An easy one as long as you think it through from the beginning. 10 tricks and +420.
Board 10 Dlr E All Vul
NORTH
South would definitely open if ¨A were ªA (points are always better in your long suits) but may well choose to pass here. West is happy to open 1¨ with that excellent 6-card suit. East's response of 1ª keeps NS out of their 8-card fit. West, with a minimum single-suiter, rebids 2¨ and East is happy to leave it there.
North leads ©K. Declarer can see six losers - two in hearts, one in diamonds and three in clubs. And there are only seven sure winners - two aces and five trumps after the ace is taken. Where can an extra trick come from?
A successful spade finesse (a 50% chance) will give
you the eighth trick and at the same time a 'parking place' for one of your
losers.
Do you play trumps first? No, because alert defenders can then take six tricks on the trot and you will be one down.
Thus win ©A, play ªJ overtaking in dummy with ªQ in order to gain quick access to ªA, pitch a loser, and then play trumps.
Another case of finessing for possible success, or not
finessing and surely failing. You make 8
tricks and +90 (2x20 +50).
Board 11 Dlr S Nil Vul
NORTH
© JT984
After three passes the bidding gets around to East, in fourth seat, who opens 1¨. Holding no 4-card major, West chooses a 3¨ response (=10-12 TP & 5¨s). With a maxi opener, East is thinking of slam. 4NT Blackwood is a sensible way to check they are not missing two aces (Bad luck if you are missing ©AK – you will learn more sophisticated methods of bidding slam some time down the track). West's reply of 5¨ (= one ace) allows East to bid 6¨ with enthusiasm if not with absolute confidence.
South leads ©J and you survey your prospects as declarer. There are plenty of tricks - three spades, one heart, three clubs and five diamonds after losing to the ace.
But the defenders have attacked your weakest point, hearts. If you play a trump immediately, they will win their ace and cash a winning heart.
You must therefore attempt to discard your heart loser first by playing three rounds of spades in careful order. Win ©A, play ª5 to dummy's ªA. Play ªQ and overtake with your ªK so that you can play ªJ and discard dummy's heart.
Only then can you draw trumps and claim your 12 tricks
and small slam for a score of 920 (6x20 + 300 + 500).
Board 12 Dlr W NS Vul
NORTH
North opens 1ª in second seat and South, with game-going values, bids 'naturally' by shifting to her longer suit with a 2¨ response. North rebids 2©, promising 4+ ©s and a little vague as to strength - either mini or midi. With a heart fit and 14 TP, South has enough for game even opposite a minimum opening and jumps to 4©. With no extras, North has no hesitation in passing.
The unbid suit looks like East's best lead - §8 (fourth highest from non-touching honours). West wins and returns a club to East's king.
¨ You will learn later that West returns §4, his original fourth highest. Since declarer has played §75, East observes that his partner likely holds the two and may well have started with five clubs, and declarer two. (Declarer could be foxing by falsecarding and hiding the two, mind you. It’s a tough game.) It is usually very unprofitable to play a suit in which both dummy and declarer are void when both hands hold trumps. Safest to switch suits. Very advanced stuff at this stage. A glimpse of the endless fascination.
Declarer is looking at nine winners once ªA is driven out. There are two clubs already lost and one sure spade loser. What about the second diamond? The only way to avoid a diamond loser is to turn it into a winner by a successful finesse on the first round of diamonds.
If East has switched to a diamond at trick three (not
a bad plan), declarer must finesse. It's
now or never. If any other suit is led,
declarer has time to draw trumps and then finesse in diamonds. Yet another example of grabbing the only
available lifeline. 10 tricks and a
score of +620.
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