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The Everything Bridge Book: Easy-to-Follow Instructions that Will Have You Playing in No Time

Bridge Player's Bible: Illustrated Strategies for Staying ahead of the Game

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How to Bid Strategically

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Bridge Scoring Details

How to Win at Bridge

After bidding is over and the auction is won, you begin playing your cards. Whether you’re the declarer or one of the defenders, your goal is the same: win as many tricks as possible while preventing your opponents from doing the same. How you and your partner accomplish this depends largely on whether you’re playing a no trump or a trump contract.

How to Play and Defend No Trump Contracts

In no trump contracts, the key principle is to take and maintain the lead at the appropriate time. Unlike in trump contracts, when you can often regain the lead by playing trump, your opponents in a no trump contract can keep winning tricks in a suit in which you’re weak. If you can’t follow suit, you can’t win tricks in a no trump contract.

So what’s the appropriate time to take the lead? Though it might be tempting to play all your aces and other high honors right away, doing so often leaves you with no way to win any tricks beyond the first few. A better approach is to establish winners first, then play your longest suit.

How to Establish Winners

Establishing winners means giving up one or more of your honors in order to drive out higher honors by your opponents. Though it involves sacrificing one or more tricks early on, it leads to winning more tricks overall. The following example shows how to establish winners.

Assume that you’re playing South, and it’s your lead. You’ve bid 5NT, so you need to win 11 tricks to make your contract. You could start by playing your strong suits of spades, hearts, and diamonds, but be patient. You have aces in all of those suits, so you won’t have trouble winning those tricks later. The suit in which you need to establish winners is clubs. The dummy, North, has some strong clubs, but you need to drive out the ace and king first to establish the dummy’s clubs as winners.

Lead the

6. West will have to follow suit with the

A or

K, then you can play the

8 from the dummy, and then East will play the

3. Success! Even though you’ve lost this trick, you’ve driven out the

A or

K. Now, no matter what West plays, you’re in great shape. If West leads a spade, heart, or diamond, you can win the trick with one of your aces. If West leads the remaining

A or

K, you play the

T from the dummy and the

2 from your own hand.

With both the

A and

K driven out, the

QJ in the dummy are winners. You’ve just turned two lower honor cards into winners by driving out the ace and king, and you should have no trouble making your 5NT contract. Establishing winners in this way is a great play when you’re strong in a suit but are missing either the ace or the ace and king.

The Finesse

Another way to win extra tricks is a finesse. A finesse takes advantage of position to win an extra trick. Here’s an example of a finesse.

You’re South, and it’s your lead. Play the

5. No matter what West plays, you’ll win two tricks. If West plays the

K, you can play the

A from the dummy and win the trick. You’ve also driven out the ace, turning the dummy’s jack into a winner. If West plays the

6, play the

J from the dummy and win the trick. You’ve also held your ace—a sure winner on the next trick.

Admittedly, you can’t see your opponents’ cards when playing bridge. If East had the

K instead of West, the finesse wouldn’t work. You can expect a finesse to work at least half the time. Though you can’t see your opponents’ cards, you may be able to tell from the bidding which opponent is more likely to hold high honors. In the example here, West’s bidding may have revealed that she held high hearts.

The Opening Lead

The defenders always play the first card of a hand, known as the opening lead. To make a good opening lead, you must pay attention to the bidding. Follow these guidelines to use the bidding to decide which suit to lead in a no trump contract:

Don’t lead with a suit bid by your opponents.
If you have a strong suit that wasn’t bid by your opponents, lead that suit. If you have two such suits, lead the longer suit. Suit length is more important than the rank of your cards.
If you don’t have a strong suit, or it’s the same suit that your opponents bid, lead a suit bid by your partner.

Choosing the right suit is the most important part of your decision, but leading the right rank can also make a difference. Follow these guidelines for deciding which rank to lead:

If you have three consecutive honors in the suit that you’re leading, lead the top honor.
If you don’t have three consecutive honors, lead the fourth-highest card in the suit that you’re leading.

How to Play and Defend Trump Contracts

Not surprisingly, playing trump contracts effectively depends largely on the proper use of trumps. Though some techniques used in no trump contracts, such as the finesse, can work in trump contracts, you’ll need to add a few trump-specific skills to your arsenal.

How to Draw Out Opponents’ Trumps

Playing non-trump honors in a trump contract can be a dangerous proposition: you run the risk of one of your opponents being out of that suit and trumping your high card. To avoid this possibility, try to draw out your opponents’ trumps early in the hand. To do so, you’ll need to lead trump. If it’s your contract, you should have more trumps than your opponents, so you’ll be the only one with any trumps left at the end. Following is an example of effectively drawing out your opponents’ trumps. For simplicity, only the trump suit—diamonds—is shown:

You’re South, and it’s your lead. Between you and the dummy, you have a total of nine trumps. Since there are 13 trumps total, you know that your opponents have a total of four trumps between them. Lead with your high trumps until you force these four trumps out of your opponents’ hands. Then you’ll be able to play any of your other high cards without fear of being trumped.

Here, lead the

A. West plays

5, you play

2 from the dummy, and East plays

7. You’ve drawn out two of your opponents’ trumps. Next, lead

K. West plays

8, you play

3 from the dummy, and East plays

9. You’ve succeeded in drawing out all your opponents’ trumps and can now play your other high cards safely. Using this strategy effectively requires that you keep track of how many trumps have been played. Otherwise, you won’t know when you’ve finished drawing out your opponents’ trumps.

How to Ruff

Ruffing means trumping a trick in which you can’t follow suit. This is a great way to beat an opponent’s high, non-trump honor with a low trump of your own. In the following example, clubs are trump and you’re playing South.

Suppose West leads the

A. You have to play

T from the dummy, since you’re compelled to follow suit. East plays the

6, since there’s no reason to waste a higher heart after the

A has been played. You now have a great opportunity to ruff. Play the lowly

5. Since it’s trump, it beats the

A and wins the trick.

You don’t have to play last in order to ruff, but ruffing earlier risks losing to a higher trump if one of your opponents is also out of the led suit. Keeping track of how many cards have been played of each suit, especially trumps, helps in knowing whether your opponents are likely to ruff.

The Opening Lead

Though leading your longest suit is often an effective strategy in no trump contracts, such leads are often trumped in suit contracts. As with no trump contracts, paying attention to the bidding can help in deciding the opening lead. Follow these guidelines for making the opening lead in trump contracts:

If your partner has bid a suit: Lead with that suit. If you have two cards of that suit, lead the higher card. If you have three or more cards of that suit, lead the lowest card.
If you have three honors in a suit: Lead the highest card from that suit.
If you have two honors in a suit in which you have at least four cards: Lead the highest card from that suit.
If you have a singleton or a doubleton in a non-trump suit, and at least one low trump: Lead with your singleton or one of your two doubletons. The idea is that you’ll be able to ruff when an opponent or your partner leads with that suit.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer

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Bridge Scoring Details

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