PLAY SESSION 1 Welcome Teacher Douglas Russell Telephone

PLAY SESSION 1 Welcome Teacher: Douglas Russell Telephone: 480 2294 or 021 235 2220 Email: douglaskeithrussell@gmail. com Prepared by Douglas Russell for Auckland Bridge Club 1

Basic Rules for Opening 1 NT • 12 - 14 points • Balanced Hand This bid is your FIRST choice from now on 2

What does responder do? • Responder asks him/herself: • Do you want to play in No Trumps or a suit? • Have you got enough points to bid or invite game? Responder is the BOSS There are ONLY 2 decisions to make 3

Responses to 1 NT – Balanced Hand • 0 – 10 points … no GAME possible … PASS • 11 – 12 points … GAME is possible … Bid 2 NT • 13+ points … definitely in GAME … Bid 3 NT Add your points to partner’s KNOWN 12 -14 points 4

Responses to 1 NT – Unbalanced Hand • 0 – 10 points … no GAME possible Bid your + card suit at the 2 -level This is called a WEAK(NESS) TAKEOUT Partner MUST then pass … YOU ARE THE BOSS Add your points to partner’s KNOWN 12 -14 points 5

Responses to 1 NT – Unbalanced Hand 12+ points … GAME Forcing • Bid your card MAJOR at the 3 -level (Partner MUST agree your suit or bid No. Trumps) • Bid your card MAJOR at the 4 -level - OR • Bid your card MINOR at the 5 -level 6

An extra thing to think about • We spoke frequently about the importance of finding an 8 -card fit, especially in a major suit. However, nothing so far has suggested how we might locate a 4 -4 major suit fit. How can we deal with this common situation? • The answer lies in the Stayman Convention. Using this, Responder asks if Opener if she has a 4 card major by bidding 2♣ - this means that this cannot be used as a natural bid with clubs. Opener says 2♦ if she has no 4 card major, and bids 2♥ or 2♠ to show 4 of that suit. 7

The aim of the play • Declarer aims to take enough tricks, using both his own and Dummy’s cards, to fulfil his contract – eg, 9 tricks in a contract of 3 NT. The fact that Declarer can see all 26 of his side’s cards can make this task a little easier. • On the other hand, the Defenders aim to use their combined assets to defeat the contract, eg to take 5 or more tricks against Declarer’s contract of 3 NT. • Very rarely, Declarer will have enough top high cards to make his contract without doing anything fancy; the play is then simply a matter of playing out these high cards (known as cashing tricks). 8

Declarer’s task - make a plan! A good, logical way to plan a hand is to consider it in the following way: Tricks First count your top winners. These are the tricks that you can make straight away without losing the lead. How many more do I need? Next, work out how many tricks you are short of the number needed to make the contract. If you are lucky, the number of tricks you can make already will equal (or exceed) the number needed for the contract, and all you need to do is cash them. 9

Declarer’s task - make a plan! Where will the extra tricks come from? Inspect each suit in turn looking for opportunities to make extra tricks. Some opportunities are not as good as others, and you will need to choose the best. Remember: If you need ten tricks for your contract, they do not have to be the first ten tricks. Executing a plan may involve losing the lead once or even twice! 10

Taking a finesse for extra winners • The FINESSE is an attempt to gain a trick with a card that would normally be beaten by a higher card. • Generally you should play a low card TOWARDS honour cards, hoping that the second player has the missing honour card. 11

Winning tricks with low cards Sometimes it will be possible to establish extra tricks simply by playing out top cards in a suit and exhausting the opponents of their cards in that suit. Then, any remaining cards (even low ones) will become winners: North K 864 J 93 10 AQ 752 South Initially, the low cards in this suit are easily beaten. However, if declarer plays his ace, king and queen (in any order) then all the opponents’ cards in the suit will have gone. This means that the low cards remaining are now worth tricks. 12

Winning tricks by promotion Apart from laying down aces, kings and queens, declarer can establish extra tricks by forcing out enemy high cards: North South has no immediate trick to “cash” (another term for make) QJ 4 but he can establish two certain winners by forcing out East’s ace. If 10 7 5 A 86 East does not take his ace on the K 932 first round of the suit then declarer South continues with a second round. With the slightly lucky 3 -3 “break” in the six cards held by the opponents, the fourth card in South’s hand will also become a winner. 13

A long suit is often able to provide extra tricks even when the low cards do not look too promising: South has two immediate tricks in the suit, but the rest of his cards are as low as can be. North A 5432 J 10 9 Q 8 K 76 However, all he needs is a 3 -2 split in the five missing cards to produce two more winners. South One trick is conceded to whichever opponent holds three cards and then four tricks are won. Note that it does not matter whether it is the third trick or the first which is lost. 14

Counting trumps • It is terribly frustrating, when playing in a suit contract, to have one of your winners ruffed by a defender when you thought that all the enemy trumps had been drawn. • When playing trumps, it is essential to count how many have gone, so that you know when the defenders have run out. After all, you cannot always afford to play one round more than necessary “just in case”. • It does not matter how you manage to count trumps as they are played. You can even use your fingers if it helps! One way that works for many players is to take the number of trumps held by declarer and dummy away from 13. This is how many the opponents hold between them. Whenever both defenders follow suit, deduct two from this total. If only one follows, or one of them makes a ruff, deduct one. 15

Trumping the defenders’ winners One of the more satisfying aspects of playing in a suit contract is when you get the chance to trump one of the enemy high cards that seemed destined to take a trick. In no trumps, a high card in the suit led is always going to win the trick if there are no adverse cards out to beat it. In a suit contract, there is the one, vital, additional factor: trumps. We have already touched on the aspect of trumps giving you control. As well as winning a trick for your side, trumping the enemy high card gives you the opportunity to gain the lead and decide which suit is to be played next. 16

Play of the Hand – Trump Contracts • Draw trumps first • Remember to count how many trumps are left out • STOP drawing trumps when: • Only the highest trump is left OR • Your Opponents trumps have run out BUT … There is an EXCEPTION 17

Play of the Hand – Trump Contracts • If dummy has a shortage in a side suit you may be able to score extra tricks by ruffing with dummy’s trumps THIS MEANS YOU CAN’T DRAW ALL THE TRUMPS STRAIGHT AWAY 18

PLAY SESSION 1 Welcome Teacher: Douglas Russell Telephone: 480 2294 or 021 235 2220 Email: douglaskeithrussell@gmail. com Prepared by Douglas Russell for Auckland Bridge Club 19