Published by Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Westerhill Road

Bishopbriggs

Glasgow G64 2QT

First Edition 2015

Second Edition 2019

Previously published as Collins Need to Know? Bridge. Now with additional practice deals.

Source ISBN: 9780008343767

eBook Edition © October 2019 ISBN 9780008348984

Version: 2019-08-07

© Andrew Robson 2007, 2015, 2019

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To my mother and father, who got me started.

Andrew Robson, 2015

Dedication

To my mother and father, who got me started.

Andrew Robson, 2015

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

1 Appetiser

2 Basics

3 Core

4 Development

5 Scoring and systems

Further bridge resources

Glossary

Index

About the Author

About the Publisher

Introduction
Welcome to bridge

Bridge is possibly the best game devised by mankind – and certainly one of the most popular. But a word of warning: you’ll soon be hooked. Fortunately, this need not be expensive and will be good both for your brain and your social life.

First steps

This book will please complete beginners, as no assumption of prior knowledge has been made. It’s also suitable for those who play social ‘kitchen’ bridge and want to develop their game.

The first chapter (‘Appetiser’) starts from scratch. By the end of it you’ll understand the essence of the game and be able to play, though at a rudimentary level. Those who have played before may prefer to skim this part of the book. The second chapter (‘Basics’) gives guidelines for bidding and card play. Work through this and you’ll have done the equivalent of completing the eight-week beginner course at my bridge club. In the third chapter (‘Core’), each area of the game is considered in more detail, taking you to intermediate-level bridge. Chapter 4 (‘Development’) takes things further, revealing the ingenuity – and sheer beauty – of the game. Finally, you’ll find information on scoring in chapter 5, and details of different types of bridge and bidding styles.

My suggestion is to read chapters 1 and 2, then try to get some practice – even if it’s just dealing out cards by yourself (a very stimulating and productive thing to do). At this stage, although probably not the strongest player at the table, you’ll be able to play a perfectly adequate game of social bridge; best of all, you’ll be having fun. When you’re ready, move on to chapters 3 and 4, using chapter 5 as a reference when you want to know more about scoring.

must know

The best way to learn to play bridge is to set realistic goals, reinforce your knowledge and slowly build your skills. Most important of all is to enjoy playing.

A short history

A trick-taking game, bridge evolved from whist, which has been played for centuries. The first book devoted to whist, Edmond Hoyle’s Short Treatise, appeared in 1742 and became a bestseller.

No one knows the roots of the name ‘bridge’. It may have evolved from ‘biritch’, the name of a Russian game with similar rules, or possibly the Turkish term ‘bir uc’, meaning ‘one-three’ – as in one exposed hand and three concealed ones.

In 1903 British civil servants in India developed the practice of bidding for the privilege of naming the trump suit, thus introducing ‘Auction bridge’. ‘Contract bridge’, the universally played modern form, was only formally invented in 1925: not in a seedy back room, but on an American cruise ship under the guidance of Harold Vanderbilt. US marketer Ely Culbertson soon popularized the game, and by 1930 it was the society activity on both sides of the Atlantic. Since those first heady days, bridge has made front-page news – when a famous British pair, Reese and Schapiro, were accused of cheating in 1965. It has attracted film stars – Omar Sharif played at the top level – and featured in many books, perhaps the most famous of all being Ian Fleming’s Moonraker. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are keen bridge players, and if they give just a small fraction of their wealth back to the game, we can look forward to a very bright future, especially as bridge is now more widely accessible than ever – via the internet.

Useful tip

Bridge is a ceaselessly fascinating and stimulating game. Start playing by partnering someone more experienced than you, who can help you get the most out of your play.

1 Appetiser

If you feel daunted by the complicated techniques and rules of bridge, just remember that it’s a game which can be enjoyed at any level. This chapter sets out the preliminary steps you need to make to have your first game of bridge.

The mechanics

Bridge is a partnership game. The ‘bidding’, the first phase of the game, establishes a target number of tricks to be made by each partnership. During the second phase, the partnership that wins the bidding tries to achieve their target number of tricks; the defending partnership tries to stop them.

Cards and ranking

Bridge is played with a standard pack of cards. The ace is the highest (or best) card of each suit – the two is the lowest. The ranking of suits is in reverse alphabetical order, as shown in the diagram: clubs are ranked the lowest, then diamonds, hearts and spades – the highest. Most social bridge, or ‘Rubber Bridge’ (the different types of bridge are explained on pp. 228–31), is played with two packs of cards that are distinguishable by the colour (design) on the backs.

must know

Spades and hearts are the higher-ranking and higher-scoring suits, known as the ‘majors’; diamonds and clubs are the lower-ranking and lower-scoring suits, known as the ‘minors’.

Drawing for partners and dealer

Bridge is a game for four people (two partnerships) seated round a table. Their positions are often referred to as points of the compass: North, South, East and West. To decide on partners (if you don’t wish to choose), and who deals first, each player draws a card, placing it face up on the table. Whoever draws the highest card deals first, chooses where to sit and ushers the player who draws the second highest card to be their partner. Partners sit opposite.

The position of partners at the table

must know

When drawing for partners or seats, the size of the card takes priority over the rank. Only when there are two same-size cards does the rank become relevant, for example the nine of hearts beats the nine of clubs.

Shuffling and dealing etiquette

The dealer chooses which of the two packs he wishes to deal. Before dealing commences, the opponent to the left of the dealer (LHO – West in the following example) shuffles the chosen pack and places it on the dealer’s left; meanwhile the partner of the dealer (sitting opposite) shuffles the other pack and places it on their right. The dealer then picks up the shuffled pack on their left, shuffles it again (this is optional) and passes it to the opponent on their right (RHO – East in the following example) to be ‘cut’. RHO cuts the pack by lifting (very approximately) half the cards, placing the top half on the table nearer the dealer and leaving the bottom half where it is. The cards are now ready to be dealt. The dealer takes the part of the pack furthest away from him and puts it on top of the closer part (known as ‘completing the cut’). He then picks up the pack (face down) and gives the top card (face down) to LHO, the next card to his partner opposite, the next to RHO, then one to himself, and so on in clockwise rotation, until all 52 cards have been dealt. The last card is always to the dealer.

After the shuffle, showing South as the dealer; the pack is cut by East

When the next deal occurs (after all 52 cards have been played and 13 tricks won), this is done with the other pack. The new dealer is to the left of the previous dealer (in clockwise rotation). As before, the pack to be dealt is placed on the dealer’s left, shuffled by the person on their left, then cut towards the dealer by the person on their right.

The next deal: West is the new dealer and South cuts the cards

Useful tip

Bridge etiquette can seem tougher than the real game, but master it and you’ll earn the respect of other players.

must know

It is poor etiquette to pick up your cards before the dealer has completed distributing all 52 cards.

A trick

Bridge involves taking tricks. A trick consists of one card from each player. Each player holds 13 cards, making 13 tricks per deal. The more tricks you and your partner win, the better; your side needs to win a minimum of seven tricks in the deal in order to score points towards a game (see pp. 220–4 for more on the points required to make a game).

One player has the lead for each trick, i.e. he or she plays the first card of the trick. For the first trick, the player on lead is seated to the left of the dealer; for the next and later tricks it is the player who won the previous trick.

After the opening lead, the play proceeds in clockwise order. If you hold a card in the same suit as the first card of the trick then you must play it (‘follow suit’). If not, you can play any card of another suit: unless it’s a trump card (see p. 12), a card of a another suit will not win you the trick so you will generally ‘throw away’ a low card.

The highest card in the lead suit wins the trick. If a trump card is played to a trick led in another suit, the highest card of the trump suit – rather than the highest card in the lead suit – wins the trick. Whoever wins the trick leads to the next trick.

In the following example (a), East can choose any card to lead; he chooses ♥3. The other players must follow suit, i.e. play a card in the lead suit (hearts) – if they have a card in that suit. Play proceeds clockwise, with South playing second, West third and North last. West wins the trick and leads to the next trick.

A trick won by West

In the next trick (b), North plays the winning card, ♣Q. East, North’s opponent, plays a low card (♣4) because he doesn’t have a ♣K or ♣A to beat North’s ♣Q. South, on the other hand, would not waste a high card to overtake ♣Q because she is in partnership with North, who is already winning the trick.

The next trick is won by North

must know

Everything in bridge is done clockwise, for example, dealing and play proceed in clockwise order – and bidding too.

A trump

Cards in the trump (or ‘boss’) suit outrank all other cards. The trump suit is determined during the first phase of the game – the bidding.

Look again at (a) on p. 11. Imagine that North is about to play the last card to the trick. There are two ways he can win this trick. First, if he holds ♥A then this will beat his opponent’s ♥K. Second, if he doesn’t hold ♥A, and he has no other hearts in his hand, then he can (but is not compelled to) play a card of the trump suit, if one has been chosen. With a trump card he will automatically win the trick, even if he trumps with the lowly two.

In the following example (a) diamonds are trumps and South (who won the previous trick) leads. When West’s ♥K is beaten by North’s ♥A, West’s partner, East, comes to the rescue: East has no hearts so can trump with ♦3, which wins the trick.

Trumps are diamonds

Overtrumping

If another player trumps, and you (also) have no cards in the lead suit, you have the option of overtrumping that player. In (b), clubs are trumps and West leads. South doesn’t hold a spade so can overtrump East’s ♣4 with ♣7, and win the trick. Note that if East had followed with a spade, South would not need to trump because his partner (North) would be winning the trick with ♠A.

Overtrumping with clubs as trumps

must know

Never lose sight of the fact that bridge is a partnership game – you play as a team with the person sitting opposite.

Your 13 cards – your ‘hand’

Once the cards have been dealt you can pick up your cards and sort them into suits. Place the highest card at one end of each suit, the lowest card at the other. Split up the colours (black-red-black-red or red-black-red-black) to avoid muddling the suits; hearts and diamonds are particularly easy to confuse.

The following diagram shows a typical bridge hand, in ranking order.

To save space, this will generally be represented as:

Notice the distribution, or ‘shape’, of the hand. It contains a four-card suit, a three-card suit, a two-card suit and another four-card suit. The number of cards in each suit determines the suit ‘length’ – a shorter length has fewer cards; a longer length has more cards. Rearranging the suit lengths, in the example we have a 4432 distribution. The more you play, the more you’ll realize that distribution is the key to bridge and can more than compensate for a low point score (see the following section).

Counting points

There is a unique method in bridge of evaluating the power of your hand – its trick-taking potential – based on the high cards. For each ace, the best card in the suit, you count four points, each king counts three, each queen is two and each jack (knave) one. No points are counted for tens and below.

As soon as you’ve sorted your hand and noted its distribution, you should count your points. There are 40 points in the whole pack – four aces, four kings, four queens and four jacks. The average number of points in any one hand is ten (one ace, one king, one queen and one jack). The hand in the previous diagram contains only seven points; if this were yours you should hope that your partner has a few more points.

Useful tip

Tens and nines may not count as points, but they are nevertheless potentially useful cards, and better than twos and threes.

Making tricks

The basic card-playing principles involved in making tricks are best learnt before tackling the bidding part of bridge – even though the bidding occurs first in practice. They will give you a feel for how many tricks to aim for at the bidding stage.

Counting tricks

The partnership that wins the bidding contracts to make a certain number of tricks during the play phase of bridge. Within this partnership there is a ‘declarer’ and a ‘dummy’ (for more on these roles, see pp. 22–3). The declarer controls his own hand and dummy’s (his partner’s) hand, playing cards from both to try and achieve their trick target. In the following examples, imagine you are playing the role of the declarer and see how many tricks you can expect to make by playing out the suit in each case:

In (a), you can make three tricks if you play just one high card per trick. In (b), you can make four tricks by playing one high card for each of the four rounds. In (c), although you have the six top clubs, you must follow suit and can make only three tricks overall.

must know

Bidding occurs before trick-taking. It establishes:

• which (if any) suit is trumps;

• the trick target for each partnership;

• which player within the highest-bidding partnership is ‘the declarer’ and which is ‘the dummy’. The declarer controls both his hand and dummy’s.

Which order to take (‘cash’) the tricks

In the examples on p. 14, it doesn’t matter which hand is the declarer or the dummy, or from which you lead first. However, in many real-life cases, the order in which you play the cards is important if you want to make the maximum number of tricks available.

In (a), where there’s an unequal number of cards in the two hands, there are three available tricks to be made, one after the other, but only if you cash them in the correct order. If you play ♦A first (or ♦4 to ♦A), you will then have to lead ♦2 to ♦K – because the hand winning the previous trick always leads to the next trick – and will be stuck in the wrong hand, unable to win ♦Q. To avoid being ‘blocked’ in this way, lead ♦K (or ♦2 to ♦K) first, then follow with ♦4 to ♦AQ.

In (b), you should play ♦Q and ♦5 on the first round, then ♦3 to ♦AKJ. Only in this way can you make four consecutive diamond tricks.

In (c), lead ♦2 to ♦K (or ♦K to ♦2). Follow with ♦J and ♦5, then ♦6 over to ♦AQ.

Note that these examples assume your opponents do not have a trump card that would win the trick (more on the use of trump cards on pp. 18–19).

must know

The Unblocking Rule (a guideline for cashing winners in the right order):

• If leading from the hand with the shorter length, lead the highest card.

• If leading from the hand with the longer length, lead the lowest card.

• You may find it helpful to remember ‘L’ for ‘Lead Longest Lowest’.

Extra tricks by force

So far you have cashed your ‘top’ tricks and your opponents have not had a look-in. Now consider the next three examples. In each case you are missing a high, winning card (or cards), and in order to make tricks in the suit you must ‘force’ out that card from the opposition partnership.

In (a), you are missing ♠A and need to force it out from the opposition. You can use any high card in the suit to do this, then go on to win the other two high cards when you regain the lead. In this way you promote two tricks by ‘force’. Note that if your opponent withholds their ♠A on the first round, you’ll win the trick anyway, effectively ‘promoting’ the high card you use to lead. You can then sacrifice a second high card in order to promote the third. Both scenarios give you your two tricks.

Example (b) contains the same high cards but in this case it’s better to start specifically with ♠Q (or ♠7 to ♠Q) to force out ♠A. You’ll then hold ♠2 in one hand and ♠KJ in the other, which avoids ‘blockage’.

In (c), you need to force out ♠A and ♠K. To do this, sacrifice two of your sequential cards ♠Q, ♠J, ♠10, ♠9 (note that sequential cards between your hand and dummy’s are worth the same). Then you have promoted the two cards that remain into two force winners.

Useful tip

Don’t be overly concerned about losing the lead, particularly early in the play. You have to lose to win in bridge.

Extra tricks by length

If you can exhaust your opponents of all of their cards in a suit, then your remaining cards, however small, will be promoted into ‘length’ winners. Assuming your opponents have no outstanding trumps, these remaining cards will be extra tricks.

must know

Length before strength – a general rule to follow in bridge: having more cards in a suit is often more important than a higher point count.

In (a), you have four ‘top’ tricks (tricks made consecutively, with high ranking cards), but it would be very unlucky if you didn’t also score ♥2. Your opponents hold five hearts between them. Unless they are all in one hand, they’ll all fall when you win ♥AKQJ. ♥2 will then be a fifth-round winner – by virtue of its length. This scenario depends on how the five missing hearts are split between the opposition. If they’re split 3-2 (most likely), or 4-1, you’ll achieve your extra trick by length. The only problem will be the much less likely 5-0 split.

In (b) start with ♥Q (or ♥2 to ♥Q), as it’s the highest card from the shorter length. Then lead ♥3 back to ♥J, and cash ♥A and ♥K. The six missing cards in the suit will go in these four rounds if the cards are split 3-3 or 4-2. Assuming they are (you’ll develop a habit of counting missing cards as they’re played), you can enjoy a length winner with ♥4. A 5-1 split, however, would prevent this. Fortunately, this is much less likely.

In (c), you have three top tricks but may also make a fourth-round length winner. There are six missing cards, held by the opposition. If the split is 3-3 (three cards in each opposition hand), you have the chance to enjoy a low-card length winner. Start with ♥K (or ♥3 to ♥K), then ♥Q, then ♥4 to ♥A. If all six missing hearts fall (i.e. both opponents follow suit all three times), then ♥6 will be a length winner. You’ll be less lucky if the suit splits 4-2 (or 5-1 or 6-0) as there’ll be an outstanding heart, which is bound to be higher than your ♥6.

must know

Your ability to generate length winners in a particular suit depends on how the missing cards in the suit are split between the opposition partners. If you are missing five cards from your own partnership you can expect them to be split 3-2 between the opposition, perhaps 4-1, or rarely (and less fortunately for you) 5-0.

Trumping

Apart from length winners, the only way to make tricks with twos and threes is by trumping. Which suit is preferable here as trumps: ♠AKQ or ♣65432? The answer is clubs because ♠AKQ rate to score tricks whether or not they are trumps, whereas the only way the small clubs are likely to win is by being trumps. A key challenge of bidding is to discover which one of the four suits holds the greatest combined length between your partnership, as it will probably be best to make that suit trumps.

Drawing trumps

When ‘declaring’ (playing the role of the declarer), it’s often good to get rid of the opposition’s trumps near the beginning of the hand so they can’t trump your winners. This is called ‘drawing trumps’. You should avoid continuing playing your trumps (wasting two together) once your opponents have run out of theirs. You therefore need to count.

Counting trumps

First work out how many trumps are missing, then think of that missing number in terms of how the cards may be split between the opposition partners, bearing in mind that they’ll usually have approximately the same number as each other. Each time you see an opponent play a trump, mentally reduce the number of missing trumps by one.

In this example, the declarer counts five missing trumps. He cashes ♠K and, when he sees both opponents follow suit, reduces his mental count of missing trumps down to three. ♠2 to ♠Q draws two more of the opponents’ trumps. There’s just one more left out (and it’s now obvious that the split is 3-2). The declarer cashes ♠A, drawing the last trump, and doesn’t need to play a fourth round in the trump suit.

must know

Counting trumps is important. Once you have drawn trumps from your opponents, i.e. exhausted them of their trump cards, you should stop playing in the trump suit and turn to others. Carrying on playing in the trump suit would be a waste because your remaining trumps could probably be made separately, by trumping another suit.

Introducing the bidding

Each bid carries a message and is used to tell your partner what type of hand you have: its strength and which suit(s), if any, you’d like as trumps. Your aim is to outbid the other side with a final bid, a ‘contract’ or trick target, that suits both you and your partner’s hands (hence the term ‘contract’ bridge – see p. 228).

must know

By the end of the bidding, the following will be determined:

• whether the deal will be played in a trump suit (clubs, diamonds, hearts or spades), or without a trump suit (‘no-trumps’ – see p. 27);

• how many tricks need to be made by the side who has bid highest and therefore won the contract; and, by deduction, how many tricks their opponents need in order to stop them from winning;

• which player within the highest bidding partnership is the declarer, and which is the dummy.

Opening the bidding

The bidding starts with the dealer, who decides whether to ‘open the bidding’. If he has an average or worse-than-average hand, he says ‘no bid’ or ‘pass’. If he has a better-than-average hand (12 points is a good guide), he opens the bidding by stating his preferred suit as trumps – choosing one of his longest suits.

In (a), the dealer says ‘Pass’ as he has only ten points (an average point score as there are 40 points in the pack divided between four players).

In (b), the dealer has 14 points – enough to open the bidding. He has more spades than any other suit, and would like spades to be trumps, so he opens ‘One spade’ (see p. 21, ‘Making a bid at the One level’).

Once the dealer has bid (or passed), the bidding moves to the next player in clockwise rotation. If the dealer has passed, the second bidder now follows the same process as the dealer: with less than 12 points, he passes, with 12 or more he opens ‘One…’ followed by the name of his longest suit. The third and fourth bidders similarly need 12 points to open the bidding. Occasionally, when the high cards are evenly distributed, none of the four players will hold 12 or more points. The deal is then ‘thrown in’, and the next player in clockwise rotation deals with the other pack.

Making a bid at the One level

The number in a bid is the number of tricks to be won above six tricks. There are 13 tricks in each deal, of which a partnership entering the bidding is expected to make at least six (just under half). When making a bid at the One level, e.g. ‘One spade’ if spades is your preferred trump suit, this means you are contracting to make one trick on top of the six, i.e. seven tricks, with the nominated suit as trumps (spades in this example). Bidding usually opens at the One level, but see p. 146 for cases where you open above the One level.

After the bidding has opened

Once the bidding has opened, 12 points are no longer needed to bid. You can enter the bidding if you have a good, long suit. There are two options: to make a higher bid – going up the series of steps shown in the diagram on p. 22 – or to pass. Note that your bid must be higher than the previous one. This is where the ranking order of suits is crucial: you can bid a higher-ranked suit or ‘no-trumps’ (a deal played without a trump suit – see p. 27) at the same level (e.g. at the One level), but to bid a lower-ranked suit you must ‘raise the level’ i.e. ‘contract for’ (promise to win) one more trick than the previous bidder.

The bidding continues until three players in a row pass, which signifies the end of the auction.

The bidding steps: the number next to the suit refers to the number of tricks plus six that you are contracting to make in the chosen trump suit, or in no-trumps (NT)

A typical bidding sequence

North deals and passes as he lacks 12+ points needed to open the bidding. East (next in clockwise rotation) opens the bidding with 1♥ – he has 12+ points and his longest (or equal longest) suit is hearts. South then bids 2♣ – he doesn’t need 12 points as the bidding has opened, but must raise the level to ‘Two’ (i.e. an eight-trick target) because clubs are ranked lower than hearts. West supports his partner’s chosen suit, hearts, by bidding 2♥, North then bids 3♣, upping his partnership’s target to nine winning tricks out of thirteen. North’s 3♣ bid ends the auction, because it is followed by three passes in a row, and 3♣ becomes the final contract. South becomes declarer and must make nine (or more) tricks with clubs as trumps; the defenders E-W need to win five tricks in order to stop him.

must know

Bidding essentials:

• Open the bidding with 12+ points.

• Once the bidding has opened, 12+ points are no longer needed to make a bid.

• You have two choices: to make a higher bid, or to pass (as in any other auction).

• The player within the highest-bidding partnership who was first to name the trump suit (or no-trumps) becomes the declarer. His partner becomes dummy.

• The defender on the left of the declarer leads the first card.

After the bidding has ended

Each of the four players has the opportunity to bid on the first round. When the bidding ends (three passes in a row), the highest bid becomes the final contract, and the player who first bid the suit (within the highest-bidding partnership) becomes the declarer. The player on the declarer’s left leads the first card (choosing any card to lead). The declarer’s partner then puts down his hand face up, sorted into suits (his hand is ‘tabled’), and, as the ‘dummy’, takes no further part in playing out the deal, the declarer playing cards from his own hand and from the dummy hand. Thus, everyone playing the deal is able to see half the deck: 13 cards in their own hand and the 13 cards laid out on the table by dummy. The advantage for the declarer is that he is the only player at the table who can see his own partner’s cards, and gets to play them.

In this example, South becomes declarer (by virtue of bidding the trump suit, clubs, first). West, on his left, leads, whereupon dummy (North) tables his cards face up, placing trumps (clubs) on his right, and the other suits (preferably with colours split) to his left, with the highest card in each suit nearest dummy, the lowest nearest the middle of the table.

Dummy is tabled

must know

Bridge is a co-operative game: try to inform your partner about your hand, remembering that quantity is more important than quality when it comes to suggesting a trump suit. Bridge is also a competitive game: your opponents are trying to make your life awkward. Do not be fooled or bullied by them.

After the play

Either the declarer fulfils his target (perhaps even making extra tricks), or he doesn’t (because he fails to achieve the contracted number of tricks, by one or more). All eventualities are taken into consideration in the scoring (see pp. 220–7).

want to know more?

• The type of bridge described in this book is ‘Rubber Bridge’, a version of Contract Bridge whose overall objective is to win a ‘rubber’, i.e. the best of three games. For more on scoring games and rubbers, see pp. 220–7.

• Other types of bridge, including Chicago, Duplicate and Minibridge, are outlined on pp. 228–31.

• Other methods of evaluating a bridge hand (besides counting points) are covered on pp. 190–5.

2 Basics

By now you’ve had your first taste of bridge and you’re ready to move on. You’re learning that distribution, or ‘shape’, is the key to bridge. In this chapter you’ll learn more about assessing a bridge hand, finding a trump fit and bidding to a game contract. There’s also guidance on trick-taking and defence.

Bidding

In bidding, your objective is to indicate to your partner what sort of hand you have, and determine how many tricks to aim for. To open the bidding we’ve learnt that you need 12 or more points. If you are able to open, you must also see if your hand is balanced or unbalanced: your whole bidding strategy depends on the answer.

Balanced or unbalanced hand?

The 13 cards of each suit are divided between between the four players. Each hand has a distribution, for example, a hand consisting of three spades, three hearts, four diamonds and three clubs has a distribution of 4333.

A balanced hand contains:

• no void (suit with no cards)

• no ‘singleton’ (suit with just one card)

• not more than one ‘doubleton’ (suit with just two cards)

must know

All distributions (or ‘shapes’) can be subdivided into one of two categories: balanced or unbalanced.

The distributions, or shapes, that satisfy all three criteria are 4432, 4333 and 5332. These are the three balanced shapes:

Opening with a balanced hand

With a balanced hand – no void, no singleton and not more than one doubleton – your bidding plan should revolve around no-trumps (see the following panel). The even spread of a balanced hand means you have no strong preference for a trump suit, which is why bidding no-trumps makes sense. However, an opening bid of One no-trump (1NT) shows a specific point count, so you may need to delay your no-trump bid if your point count is higher in order to convey the right message to your partner.

No-trumps

As the name suggests, ‘no-trumps’ means that the deal is played without a trump suit so in each round played the highest card of the lead suit always wins the trick. Arguably it’s slightly more difficult for the declaring side not to have the security of a trump suit, but no-trumps outranks all the trump suits (see the bidding ladder on p. 22 and notice that no-trumps is higher ranked than spades, the highest ranked suit). No-trumps also scores slightly better (see p. 221), so plays a huge role. Typically, a no-trump bid is made when you have no long suit and no short suit – an even spread, or balanced hand. The most important no-trump bid is the opening bid of One no-trump (1NT) because this describes your hand very accurately to your partner. If you open the bidding with 1NT, in most cases you shouldn’t bid again. Having described your hand so accurately, you should leave further bidding decisions to your partner (see p. 35 for your partner’s response to a 1NT opener).

If you have a balanced hand with 12, 13 or 14 points, you should open the bidding with One no-trump (1NT). In the following example (a), all three hands are 1NT openers. In (b), none of the three hands should open 1NT. The first has too many points (15) so opening 1NT would paint too pessimistic a picture for your partner. Instead you should open One-of-a-suit (1♦ in this case) and plan to bid no-trumps at your next turn. The second hand has just eleven points, so you should pass. The third contains two doubletons: an unbalanced hand. In this case you should open 1♦.

(a) Examples of One no-trump (1NT) opening hands

(b) Examples of opening hands that are not One no-trump (1NT)

Now let’s consider your opening strategy with these three balanced opening hands:

(a) You have 13 points so should open 1NT. Leave further bidding to your partner (except in certain situations that we’ll discuss later).

(b) You have 16 points – too many to open 1NT. You should open 1♥, then show your balanced hand by bidding 1NT at your next turn. By bidding a suit followed by no-trumps you’re indicating to your partner that you have a balanced hand but with too many points to open 1NT (though not enough to open 2NT).

(c) You have 21 points. When your hand has 20+ points (i.e. at least half the pack’s total points in your hand alone) you should tell the good news to your partner by opening at the level of ‘Two’ (2NT).

Strategy for opening bidding (balanced hand)

With a balanced hand (a distribution of 5332, 4432 or 4333), your opening bidding strategy should be:

Useful tip

If you have 20+ points, open at the Two level (to remember, think ‘Two-Twenty’).

Opening with an unbalanced hand

If your opening hand is unbalanced (i.e. the distribution is not 4432, 4333 or 5332), then you should avoid bidding no-trumps at your first two bids. We’ll consider these strategies in more detail later. For now, just remember that your aim is to describe your hand as accurately as possible to your partner, and if your partner responds in a new suit, you are obliged to bid again.

must know

• Introducing a suit into the bidding guarantees at least four cards in the suit are held by the bidder.

• A ‘fit’ means that a minimum of eight cards in one suit are held by the partnership.

Strategy for opening bidding (unbalanced hand)

With an unbalanced hand (not a distribution of 5332, 4432 or 4333), your opening bidding strategy should be:

Finding a fit (making a suit trumps)

There are two primary goals of the bidding:

• To find a trump suit mutually agreeable to you and your partner – this is known as ‘finding a fit’.

• To decide how many tricks to aim for in that chosen trump suit (or no-trumps) – in particular, whether to bid to a game contract.

When finding a fit, there is a minimum number of cards that should be held between you and your partner to warrant making a suit trumps. Clearly, it would be nice to hold all 13 cards in a suit, but this is rare. Eight cards is more likely and considered the minimum to make a good trump suit. This leaves the opponents with five cards in the suit (probably splitting 3-2 between the opposition partners), giving you a substantial advantage.

Three ways the suit cards may be distributed between the partnership for there to be a ‘fit’

A common scenario is that your partner bids a suit, because he holds at least four cards in the suit. You also hold four (plus) cards in the suit so you know there’s a fit. You then decide how many tricks to aim for – particularly whether or not to ‘go for game’.

Bidding to a game contract

Bidding to a game contract, known as ‘bidding game’ or ‘going for game’, is very important. In Rubber Bridge, one game made marks a halfway point to the ultimate goal: scoring a rubber (see pp. 220–4).

must know

You can make (win) a game either by making several small contracts (‘part-scores’) that add up to the score for game over several deals, or by making game in just one deal (a ‘game contract’). For more on part-scores and game contracts, see p. 60.

The five game contracts are 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ and 5♦. The game contract requiring the fewest tricks to win is 3NT (six plus three = nine tricks out of a total of thirteen – see the bidding steps on p. 22), which is why it’s the most commonly played game contract – closely followed by 4♥ and 4♠. The last two (5♣ and 5♦) are more difficult and should be avoided.

A rough guide for bidding game is if your opening bid faces a hand that could also have opened the bidding (i.e. your partner also has 12 or more points), then your partnership should go for game. For example, South is dealer and he and his partner hold the following cards:

South has a balanced hand with 13 points – he opens the bidding 1NT. With the opponents silent, North, who also has an opening hand, immediately thinks ‘game’. With no particular preference for a trump suit (his hand is also balanced), he opts for game in no-trumps. He therefore bids the game contract 3NT.

A more specific guide for when to go for game in the three desirable game contracts (3NT, 4♥ and 4♠) is if you and your partner together have 25 points (i.e. ten more than your opponents out of the total, 40). It doesn’t guarantee success, and you won’t always fail if you have fewer points, but it’s a useful guide.

must know

• The five game contracts are 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ and 5♦.

• Avoid contracts 5♣ and 5♦.

• If you have an opening hand (12+ points) and your partner also has 12+ points, you should contract for game.

• Bid game (3NT, 4♥, 4♠) if your partnership has 25+ points.

When to go for game

Bidding with your partner involves first trying to find a fit, then seeing whether you have enough points between you for game. This decision process is shown here:

Now let’s look at some sample pairs of hands (we’ll assume silence from the opponents). Note that ‘responder’ is bridge jargon for the opener’s partner.

(a) Opener bids 1♠, so responder knows they have at least eight spades between them – a fit. Responder must now bid. There’s no point bidding clubs – it would only confuse matters when it’s obvious spades should be trumps. The only unresolved issue is how high to bid in spades, specifically whether or not to bid for game (4♠). Responder knows that opener has 12+ points (the minimum required in order to open the bidding), and responder has 13, thus the partnership has at least 25 points, which means that responder can go for game: she bids 4♠, a ‘jump’ from the previous bid 1♠. The bidding sequence is as follows, the underlined bid being the final contract:

(b) Opener bids 1♠. Again responder knows there’s a spade fit (opener must have four+ spades, and responder has four spades, so the partnership has eight+ spades). However responder has a relatively low point count, so should raise to 2♠. This conveys to opener that responder supports spades as trumps but her hand is only worth a minimum bid. With nothing to add to his opening bid, opener then passes. They’ve found their fit but lack the strength for game. The bidding sequence is:

(c) Opener bids 1♠, which doesn’t reveal a fit to responder. She therefore tries her favourite (longest) suit at the lowest level possible, bidding 2♣. This suit doesn’t appeal to opener, but rather than repeat spades he offers a third choice of trump suit, hearts. Responder now knows they’ve found their fit (the partnership has at least eight hearts). She considers whether the values for game are present: she has 13 points, and her partner has advertised 12+ by opening, which is enough to bid a game contract (25 points are needed to go for game). Responder jumps to 4♥. The bidding sequence is:

must know

Don’t bid unnecessarily high when bidding a new suit. Try to find a fit as ‘cheaply’ as possible i.e. the bid you reach first as you work up the bidding ladder on p. 22 (the bid that requires the least number of tricks to make a contract). Then assess whether or not you have enough points to go for game.

Responding to a 1NT opener

If your partner opens the bidding 1NT, as responder you should be happy because he’s described his hand very accurately: 12, 13 or 14 points and one of three balanced distributions (see the diagrams on p. 26). In most cases you’ll be in a position to place the final contract.

Strategy for responding to 1NT opener

Remember that opener will only rarely bid again, so you should assume (at this stage) that your bid as responder will end the auction.

Now consider how you’d respond to your partner’s 1NT opener when you hold the following cards:

(a) You know the partnership has enough strength for game (you have 25 or more points between you). With your balanced hand, your preferred bid is 3NT.

(b) You know the values for game are present. You also know there’s a heart fit (a 1NT opener can’t contain a void or a singleton so your partner must have at least two hearts, which makes at least eight hearts between you). The correct response is jump to 4♥.

(c) With such a weak hand there’s clearly no chance of going for game. However, leaving your partner in 1NT would be a mistake so you need to make a bid. Your hand is useless in no-trumps but may take a few tricks with diamonds as trumps, so bid 2♦. Your bid effectively removes your partner’s 1NT bid and is known as a ‘weakness take-out’. Your partner will know not to bid again (he’ll look on your bid as a rescue).

must know

• When your partner opens 1NT, as responder you must consider whether to make a trump suit or to stay in no-trumps, and whether to go for game.

• Responding Two-of-a-suit removes your partner’s 1NT opener and is known as a ‘weakness take-out’.

Responding to a suit opener

If your partner opens with One-of-a-suit, e.g. 1♥, you know that 19 is the highest point count they can have to open at this One level (see diagrams on pp. 29 and 30). This means that you, as responder, need a minimum of six points to have a chance of game (25 points in total are required for game).

Strategy for responding to One-of-a-suit opener

If you as responder have six+ points in total then you should keep the bidding open (note the difference between this and responding to 1NT, where the opener’s upper limit is 14 points).

Now consider how you should respond to your partner’s 1♥opener if you hold the following cards:

(a) You have fewer than six points. The partnership doesn’t hold the 25 points for game, so you should pass. To bid would show (inaccurately) six+ points.

(b) You have plenty of points to respond, plus a fit for hearts. Also, the point count is high enough to go for game (13+12 = 25). You should jump to 4♥.

(c) You easily have enough points to bid, but no guarantee of a fit for hearts (opener may only have four hearts, in which case you’d need four to make the eight required for a fit). Instead you should bid your longest suit at the lowest level, and await developments: a bid of 1♠. This shows you have at least six points in order to bid and at least four spades to try for a fit (see the diagram on p. 31), and, by inference, you have fewer than four hearts.

must know

• The responder to a One-of-suit opener should bid if she has six+ points in her hand, and pass if she has fewer points than this.

• The opener of One-of-a-suit must bid again if his partner bids a different suit.

Bidding after an opponent’s opener

If you bid (or ‘call’) after the opponents have opened the bidding then you are ‘overcalling’.

Overcalling

Unlike opening, you don’t need 12 points to enter the bidding when overcalling, but you should only enter the bidding for a reason, i.e. when you have strong cards in a long suit. Sometimes you may be able to steal the contract from your opponents, or you may simply be aiming to cause them trouble by using up their bidding space (their opportunities to communicate with each other) or pushing them to make an unwise bid at too high a level.

The crucial difference in bidding an overcall is that where an opening bid and response only promise a minimum of four cards in the bid suit, an overcall guarantees a minimum of five cards. The corollary to this is that the overcaller’s partner only needs a three-card support to make the fit of eight cards (see the following diagram).

Note that both members of the overcalling side adhere to the same guidelines – it doesn’t matter if you’re bidding directly over an opening bid, or over the response.

Here are three sample hands that would make a 1♠ overcall following your opponents’ opening bid of 1♥ (or after the bidding sequence: 1♣, Pass, 1♥).

(a) and (b) are not particularly strong hands, but there’s everything to be gained by mentioning your spades in each case: it’s the highest-ranked suit (see pp. 8 and 22) and you may go on to make a contract. Even if it’s just a case of disrupting your opponents’ bidding, and ultimately defending, you’ll have helped your partner’s defence by indicating which suit to lead.

(c) is another clear overcall of 1♠. Note that an overcall is possible with opening bid values (12+ points).

must know

• An overcall in a suit indicates five+ decent cards in the suit.

• An overcall doesn’t guarantee that the overcaller has opening points (12 or more), but equally it doesn’t preclude them.

Doubling

The final bid in the bridge player’s arsenal is a double. When you bid ‘Double’ literally this means that you double the opposing contract because you think it will fail, and if you’re right you get more points for your side. However, the most frequent use for the double is something quite different: to ask your partner to bid in one of the unbid suits.

We’ll talk much more about the double in chapter 4 (see p. 126). For now, accept that the following hands (a, b and c) would double a 1♥ opener from the opposition:

must know

If you bid ‘Double’ following an opening suit bid from the opposition this normally indicates you have an opening hand (12+ points) supporting all unbid suits, and it implicitly asks your partner to bid one of these other suits.

Play

Once the bidding has finished, as declarer you now need to make the required number of tricks to achieve your contract, or as a defender you need to stop declarer from doing this.

Playing our first deal in no-trumps

When there is no trump suit, in each round of play the highest card in the lead suit wins the trick. A player unable to follow suit cannot win the trick so must throw away a card in a different suit.

As declarer you must plan your strategy before you play from dummy at Trick one. First count how many tricks are ‘off the top’, i.e. how many you can make before losing the lead. Note that you don’t play out these ‘top tricks’ at this stage.

Let’s return to a previous example:

Between the two hands, declarer has four top spades (provided he plays his top cards in the right order) and two top hearts: a total of six. Note that he doesn’t have any top tricks in diamonds and clubs – he’ll have to lose the lead before establishing tricks in these suits. In the bidding he has contracted for 3NT (six plus three = nine tricks out of a total of 13) and he can now work out that he needs three extra tricks to win (six + three extra = nine). He has two options:

(a) To take the six top tricks (i.e. ♠AKQJ and ♥AK) straight away, then look around for the three more he needs. (b) To focus first on generating those three extra tricks. The wisest strategy on almost all deals (and particularly no-trumps) is (b). The two strategies can be likened to a tortoise and a hare.

Tortoise and hare

I often equate the choice of strategies in a bridge deal to a race between a tortoise and a hare. The hare loves to get off to a flying start; cashing his top tricks straight away. The tortoise, on the other hand, is happy to lose the lead early, knowing he’ll polish up later on.

In the example on p. 40, let’s see what happens to the hare. He cashes all his spades and hearts, then, unable to cash any more tricks, turns to diamonds. The difficulties arise because when his opponents win the lead – as they’re sure to with ♦A – they’ll go on to cash promoted low-card winners in hearts (and perhaps spades) with cards left over in their hands. Together with ♦A and ♣AK (tricks he has no choice but to lose), the hare will lose too many tricks and fail to make his contract. There’s no bonus for taking early tricks.

The tortoise, on the other hand, wins ♥K, then focuses on establishing the three extra tricks (additional to his six top tricks) needed for his nine-trick contract. He works out that these can all be made by forcing out ♦A. At trick two, he leads ♦Q (he could equally well lead ♦10, or ♦2 to ♦K/♦J). His opponents are likely to win ♦A on this trick; if they don’t, the tortoise’s ♦Q is promoted into a trick and he leads a second diamond to force out ♦A. The beauty of flushing out ♦A early on is that the tortoise retains control of the other suits. If his opponents decide to cash ♣A and ♣K, this will promote the tortoise’s ♣Q and ♣J. More likely, they’ll lead a second heart. The tortoise then wins ♥A and has three promoted diamond winners. All he needs to do is cash his four top spades without blocking himself, to give him his nine top tricks. He plays ♠K first (highest card from the shorter length) and leads ♠3 to ♠AQJ. Nine tricks and game contract made.

must know

Before play commences, as declarer you should:

• observe the very important etiquette of saying ‘Thank you partner’ as dummy tables her hand;

• count up how many top tricks you have (i.e. tricks you can make before losing the lead);

• work out how many extra tricks you need;

• go for those extra tricks as soon as possible. We have learnt two methods so far: (a) by force (flushing out opposing higher cards), and (b) by length (exhausting the opponents of their cards in a suit, enabling you to make tricks with cards you have left over).

Defending

You didn’t win the bidding and are defending. Here are some strategies you should adopt:

Opening lead

The opening lead is unique. It’s the only card you as defenders play without sight of dummy’s hand, as the lead card is always played by the player on declarer’s left before dummy tables her cards. Because the opening lead is a bit like a stab in the dark, you should stick to tried-and-tested ploys. Much depends on whether you’re defending against a trump or no-trump contract.

Defending against no-trumps

Against no-trumps, you should focus on length. If you can exhaust declarer and dummy of their cards in your longest suit, you’ll have small cards left over and these will be length winners. Your opening lead should therefore be a low card from your longest suit, or from your partner’s if she has bid.

Defending against trumps

The length strategy is far less powerful against a trump contract as declarer will simply trump you when he’s run out of cards in the lead suit. At the other end of the spectrum, leading a singleton (in a ‘side suit’, i.e. not trumps) is a powerful ploy. You can void yourself (run out of cards in the suit) in the hope that the suit will be played again and you can trump.

More common than the singleton is the ‘top-of-a-sequence’ lead: when defending against a trump contract, and you hold two or more high cards in a sequence (known as ‘touching’ high cards), lead with the top card in the sequence. For example, if you hold the ace and king in a suit, then it’s standard practice to lead with the ace; if you hold the king and queen, then lead the king; if you hold the queen and jack, lead the queen; if you hold the jack and ten, lead the jack; or lead the ten if you hold ten and nine. Thus, if you lead with the king and hold the queen, this puts you in a win-win position: your partner may hold the ace, in which case your king will win the trick; and even if the declarer or dummy takes the king with the ace you’ll have promoted your queen into a second-round winner.

Useful tip

You defend half of all contracts, and only declare a quarter of them, so learn to love defence – it’s a wonderful co-operative challenge.

After the lead

As you begin bridge, you’ll probably find defending to be the toughest part of the game. Your instinct may well be to throw down an ace or two, grabbing tricks quickly. This wasn’t the right strategy for the declarer (remember the hare), and nor is it the right strategy for defence. An ace is meant to catch a king, and not two low cards, as it is sure to do if you use it hastily.

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.

Three basic deals

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.

Deal B

Dealer South

The bidding:

South deals the cards and opens the bidding – One Club. West passes – although he does not need 12 points now that the bidding has already been opened, the one suit worth mentioning has been bid by an opponent, and it can’t be right for both sides to be bidding the same suit. North hates clubs, so bids his longest suit at the lowest level – in a fit-finding exercise. After North’s bid of One Diamond, East offers One Heart. His lack of points is more than made up for by his long heart suit and interesting shape. Back to South – who must bid One Spade. Why?

good to know

Do not bid a suit that an opponent has bid.

South does not know that his partner has a fifth diamond – and whether there is a fit. Furthermore, a fit in a major suit (spades or hearts) is more valuable than a fit in a minor suit (diamonds or clubs). This is because 11 tricks need to be made in order to score game (5♦/5♣), whereas only ten are required to make game in a major (4♠/4♥). So South must try One Spade – perhaps there is a fit there. He must never forget that North knows that clubs is his first-choice trump suit, as he bid them first.

Over to West, who has heard his partner overcall One Heart, indicating five+ hearts. With three-card support, West knows that his side has an eight-card fit. He bids Two Hearts. Now North. He has four-card support for partner’s spades (making a fit) so bids Two Spades. East would much rather make hearts trumps – even at the cost of needing to make nine tricks, so competes with Three Hearts. It pays to be bold with a fit, and South, using the same logic, competes to Three Spades. Everybody now passes – having bid their cards to the full.

good to know

It pays to be bold when you have a fit.

Here is the bidding sequence:

The play:

By bidding spades first, South becomes declarer (he will do this a lot in written deals – for the simple reason that it is easier to orient yourself as declarer when in the South position). West must make the opening lead, and has two good choices. He could lead the suit his side has bid and supported, hearts, and would select the queen (top of a sequence – showing the jack); alternatively, he could lead his singleton diamond, in the hope of using his trumps to trump later rounds of diamonds. Which way to go?

It is one of the beautiful uncertainties of the game that some days one choice will work out better; other days the opposite applies. But I’d probably opt for the singleton. Such a lead can be spectacularly successful, and, furthermore, West knows that he can win the first round of trumps, preventing declarer from drawing his trumps and avoiding the threat of him trumping a diamond. West leads the two of diamonds.

Can East interpret the lead correctly? He wins the ace of diamonds, and reflects that West must have a good reason not to lead hearts – the suit East bid. That reason must be that his diamond was a singleton. East promptly leads back a second diamond at Trick Two. Bingo! West trumps it. At Trick Three West switches to the queen of hearts in an attempt to put his partner on play. The lead of the queen (top of a high-card sequence) denies the king, so East plays the ace. Note that even though his partner is currently winning the trick, East knows that declarer has the king, and will win the trick unless East plays the ace. His ace fells declarer’s king (you can see that East would have ‘gone to bed’ with his ace if he had not played it at this juncture). At Trick Four East returns another diamond, and West trumps again. His ace of trumps is bound to take the setting trick.

Although play continues until the end, declarer can make all bar that ace of trumps by playing trumps, losing to the ace, drawing East’s second trump, then playing club and diamond winners. Eight tricks made, against nine bid. Down one.

Everybody is happy with this result. East-West are happy because they defeated South’s Three Spade contract. But North-South are also happy – for East would almost certainly have made Three Hearts, and it is much better to go down one than let the opponents make a contract. Points below the line (resulting from a making contract – and counting towards game) are far more valuable than points above the line which do not count towards game (see chapter 5: Scoring). Hence the expression ‘Down one is good Bridge!’.

If you remember just one thing about …

Bidding: Try to declare when both sides have a fit. Even if you go down one in your contract, it is preferable to letting the opponents make their contract.

Declaring: Play carefully to the bitter end, even if you are already down. Loss limitation is an important part of the game.

Defending: If partner makes an unexpected play (e.g. West’s failure to lead a heart), he should have a good reason (here West’s diamond is bound to be a singleton).

Deal C

Dealer South

The bidding:

South has a balanced hand (5332) with 12-14 points: perfect for a One No-trump opener. West passes: to overcall at the Two-level requires much more, both in the way of points, and strength of suit. North knows that his partnership has the values for game – but which one? Game in clubs is two more tricks than game in no-trumps, so North makes the clear-cut bid of Three No-trumps (mistaken even to mention clubs, as you know what the final contract should be).

The sequence has been brief but effective (the fewer the bids, the less chance to go wrong!):

The play:

The defence must focus on length against a no-trump contract, so West leads a low heart. Declaring a no-trump contract, it is particularly imperative that declarer starts by counting up his ‘top’ tricks – the ones he can make before losing the lead. He is not going to play them all out – like our hare – but he needs to see how many extra tricks he must make. Looking at dummy’s holding in conjunction with his own in each suit, he counts three top tricks in spades, two in hearts, and three in clubs: total eight. He needs one more, and the length in the clubs offers by far the best chance. He will need to count the opponents’ clubs as they fall, but he notes that they begin with six clubs.

Declarer plays a low heart from dummy, and beats East’s jack with his king. Focusing on clubs, he cashes the queen first (high card from the shorter length), and leads a club to dummy’s king. Both follow suit twice, but when he next leads the ace of clubs (discarding a heart from his hand), West also discards (a spade). Had both opponents followed a third time, meaning that clubs had split three-three, dummy’s two remaining clubs would be length winners. But they did not – instead splitting four-two. Should he abandon clubs?

Absolutely not – you have lose to win in bridge. Declarer leads a fourth club from dummy, losing the trick to East’s jack (and throwing a diamond from his hand, as West sheds another spade). If the defenders could see each other’s hands, East would switch to a low diamond at this point, enabling them to win the king, then the ace (taking dummy’s queen), then the jack; but this would not defeat declarer as he would have the fourth round master with the ten. In practice, East is likely to return his partner’s hearts. Declarer wins dummy’s ace (note how important it was that declarer saved this card, as a way of getting back to dummy), and can now proudly lead the promoted fifth-round length winner in clubs. This is his extra trick, and now he can play like a hare, grabbing the ace-king-queen of spades, to bring his trick tally to nine. Game made.

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