Andrew Robson - The Times Beginner’s Guide to Bridge - All you need to play the game

Here are three of the most important factors to bear in mind when defending:

Trick target

Never lose sight of how many tricks you need to defeat the contract and stop your opponents scoring points towards a game (see pp. 221–2).

Observe dummy

Look for dummy’s weakest suit – e.g. one with three small cards.

Partner

Work out what kind of hand your partner holds: did she bid? What did she lead? Why did she lead what she led?

To remember this, ‘TOP’ stands for ‘Trick target’, ‘Observe dummy’ and ‘Partner’.

want to know more?

• The system of bidding assumed in this book is the English Standard ‘Acol’, the most prevalent in Britain. For more on different bidding systems, see p. 231.

• For more ways to make tricks, see pp. 78–89.

• For playing a deal in a trump suit, see pp. 84–9.

• For more on the opening lead and defence, see pp. 90–103.

You may find it helpful to lay out all 52 cards and play through the following illustrative deals with open cards. When each card is played, turn it face down beside the hand, vertically if won by the partnership, and horizontally if lost.

Deal A

Dealer East

The bidding:

East deals, so is first to speak. Lacking 12 points, he says ‘No Bid’. The bidding moves clockwise to South, who, since the bidding has not yet been opened, also needs (at least) 12 points to bid. He has them. He opens One of his Longest Suit, One Spade. West passes – although he does not need 12 points to bid (now that the bidding has been opened), he should have a nice five-card suit (which he does not have). North can work out that the points for game (25) are present between the partnership. But there is no rush – for he does not know the trump suit. He simply bids his longest suit at the lowest level – Two Clubs – and awaits developments.

With East-West silent, South then considers what to do next. He knows that his partner does not particularly like his spades (no support); and he does not like his partner’s clubs. Rather than sing the same song twice and repeat the spades, he suggests a new alternative, hearts, knowing that his partner will realize he prefers spades – because he bid them first. Over his bid of Two Hearts, North perks up. The fit is found – South must have four+ hearts, giving a partnership total of the magic eight. It was not the first-choice trump suit for either player, but together, hearts are best.

It’s like partners in life: ‘I want to watch the football tonight.’ ‘Oh, I’d like to go to the movies.’ Eventually the two go out and have a meal together – neither of their first choices. But the best combined option – and delicious!

The one remaining issue is whether or not to go for game. Because North knows that the points for game (25) are present (he has 13 and his partner opened the bidding to indicate at least 12), the answer to that question is ‘yes’. North jumps to Four Hearts. Everybody passes – end of the bidding.

Here is the bidding sequence in full:

The play:

By bidding the trump suit – hearts – first, South is declarer. West (on South’s left) must make the opening lead, after which North lays out his cards (for he is dummy).

West has heard his opponents bid all the suits bar diamonds. This makes diamonds an intelligent choice of opening lead, likely to hit their weakness. Leading diamonds is still more attractive because West holds a king-queen combination in the suit. He leads the king of diamonds (top-of-a-sequence – indicating the queen), and will be very happy to see it win the trick (should his partner hold the ace), but almost as happy seeing it force out the ace and so promote his queen.

Declarer wins the ace of diamonds, and looks at his lovely spades. Before he can enjoy them (without the risk of them being trumped), he must get rid of (‘draw’) the opposing trumps. Because he has eight trumps, he can work out that the opponents hold five. He expects those five missing trumps to split three-two, in which case they will all be gone in three rounds. It does not matter in which order he plays his three top cards, so say that at Trick Two he leads to dummy’s king. When both opponents follow, he knows there are three trumps left out. He follows with dummy’s ace of trumps and, with both opponents following a second time (good!), he now knows that the opposing trumps have indeed split three-two. There is just one trump outstanding. If it was higher than all of his remaining trumps, he would leave it out. Because it is lower, however, he leads to his queen to get rid of it. Trumps have now been drawn, and note the method of counting (focusing only on the missing cards and counting down). It would be a bad move to lead out the fourth round of trumps – wasting the two small trumps together. Play correctly, and declarer will make those trumps separately – let’s see how.

The opposing trumps drawn, declarer now turns his attention to spades. Following the unblocking principle of leading the highest card from the shorter length first when holding sequential high cards between the two hands, at Trick Five declarer leads a low spade to dummy’s king. He returns a second spade to his jack, and then cashes the ace. He has the opportunity to make a discard from dummy on this trick – can you spot the best play? Declarer can get rid of dummy’s remaining diamond. He next cashes the queen of spades, discarding a club from dummy. Say he has been counting the six missing spades as they fall (although my recommendation at this juncture is to limit yourself to counting one suit per deal – here that suit being trumps – so don’t feel a failure if the idea of having to count spades too fills you with horror); he will then know that all the opposing spades have gone. He leads his fifth-round six of spades, and it is a length winner. Rather than trump it, he discards another club.

Here is the position, with declarer on lead having won the first nine tricks, and everybody left with four cards:

Declarer could simply lead out his last trump and secure his ten-trick game. But making overtricks counts extra points (albeit ‘above the line’ – see chapter 5: Scoring), so instead he leads the two of diamonds, trumping it in dummy with the five of trumps. At this juncture he has to lead a club, enabling the opponents to win their ace-king of the suit. But the last trick is taken by declarer’s remaining trump, and he has made a total of 11 tricks. Note how he scored the two remaining trumps separately.

Game made – with an overtrick.

If you remember just one thing about …

Bidding:Bid new suits at the lowest level (provided at least four cards are held), until a fit is found.

Declaring:When counting a suit (say trumps), work out how many cards are missing, and count down those missing cards, preferably thinking in terms of their likely split.

Defending:The lead of a high card (such as West’s king of diamonds) is normally top-of-a-sequence of two or more. Thus partner knows both that you have the card immediately below, and that you deny the one immediately above.