Mini Bridge Booklet Translation Ver 2 100715
Mini Bridge Booklet Translation Ver 2 100715
Mini Bridge Booklet Translation Ver 2 100715
2
Lesson No 1 - introduction
Appropriate Behavior
General Rules We all like to play, this is the reason we prefer breaks to
No talking without permission. lessons. Our lessons will be a bit different.
No shouting, no swearing, no We will do what we like to do during the lessons – we
provoking others, no getting up will play.
from the table – even if you are But, it is impossible to learn to play without learning the
angry. Lose with honor, win rules of the game. So we will learn the rules but we will
courteously. try to play more.
During the course of the lessons you will switch places, according to the table which I will
hang on the wall.
In order for this to be done with properly, we will number the tables. I have put numbers on
the tables. There are boards on the tables each with a number in the middle.
What do you see on the sides of the boards? Correct! Words.
Do you see what is written on the sides of the tables?
Correct we can see the signs of the wind directions. So all those sitting by window are North
and all those by the board are East.
3
Distribute the cards without jokers
Now the player who is sitting North on each table will lay them out on the table arranged by
suits.
How many suits can you see? Correct 4 suits!
Each suit has a name : Spades , Hearts, Diamonds , and Clubs
Now let's go on the next trick – the player who won the trick will lead a card from his hand
(Any card), and the other players will follow suit. Play like this until all the cards have been
played. * Wait until all the cards have been played.
How many cards do you have in the vertical position?
This is the number of tricks you have won.
5
Lesson no.2 – For bridge you need 2
Who can tell me when we have won a trick? Correct we have the highest card. When
someone gets lower cards, it is more difficult for him the win tricks.
It appears that it is a matter of luck: Whoever gets the highest cards wins and whoever gets the
lowest cards loses – but this is not accurate.
There are 2 stages in the game of bridge:
The first stage when the partnership contracts to win a number of tricks in advance. The
partnership determines the contract.
6
The second stage when you try to make the number of tricks you promised. We will discuss this
later when we talk about making the contract.
Both the other players at the table become defenders and their job is to defeat the contract.
The card led will be played by the player who sits on the left of the declarer.
Distribute board no 1
You have to arrange to boards according
KJ94
Declarer: South to the table and each players will arrange
QJ5
Board no. 1 Opening lead: their own hand.
A43
K
876
South is the declarer and his contract is
T83 765
to make 8 tricks at least. If he succeeds
KT32 874
he will be the winner.
T QJ976
KQJT5 93
If South is the declarer then who the
AQ2
A96
dummy? Correct North!
Sure tricks Contract : 2nt
K852
A42
And who are the defenders? Correct
East and West!
How many tricks should East-West have to make in order to defeat the contract?
Correct, 5 or more.
Who leads? Correct the player on the left of the declarer- that is West.
7
Firstly the opening lead is made and only then dummy reveals his cards. He places
them according to suits where the highest card is nearest to dummy and the lowest
is nearest to declarer.
When the dummy goes down we have to count the sure tricks with have together with dummy.
A sure trick is one that we are certain to win because we hold the highest cards and the
defenders have no way to stop us.
For example, when we have the Ace we can be sure that it will win a trick because it is the
highest card. When we have the Ace and King together they are 2 sure tricks, and the Ace-
King- Queen is 3 sure tricks and so on.
* Draw the cards of Declarer and Dummy on the board, and show how we count sure tricks.
Sometimes when the dummy goes down we will see that we do not have enough sure tricks. In
the next lesson, we will try to see how we can develop extra tricks in order to fulfill our contract
8
Lesson No.3 – Developing tricks
The aim of the lesson
1. Acquainting yourself with the term "developing tricks".
2. Getting to know the term "honors".
3. Learning about the value of honors and the points in the pack.
4. Learning about "high card points".
5. 5. The minimum number of tricks to take.
6. 6. The minimum number of trick to open.
Suit Development
Draw on the board In the hand below, declarer contracted to make 8 tricks. How many sure
tricks can we see? Correct 3.
872 Sometimes, when the dummy goes down, we can see fewer tricks than is
A2 required to make our contract.
KJ953
764 What can we do about it? Correct, develop more tricks.
How can we develop extra tricks? By developing honors.
AQ5
K963 Let's take a look at the Diamond suit. We can see that N-S are missing the
QT2 Ace only. Apart from that we have all the high cards.
KQ8
What do you think we should do to make these cards win tricks? We
will have to lose a trick to the Ace and then, when the Ace has been
played, all the remaining cards in our hand will be high.
When is it worthwhile losing the trick? As soon as possible.
9
When we can see that we have to lose a trick in order to develop a suit, we should give it
10
Minimum opening bid requirements
How can we know if it is possible or not to try to win 7 tricks?
Correct, with the help of the points that we hold. If you have at least 12 points, then this is an
indication that you can try to win 7 tricks.
Who in your opinion is the first to have his turn to bid? Correct, the dealer is the first to
bid.
Does this mean that he will be the declarer? No, if the dealer did not get enough points (12
at least), he cannot open the bidding and therefore cannot be the declarer.
“”
The partner tells him The next player is turn
begins the auction
11
Lesson Number 4 - Points for Winning
The aim of the lesson
1. Acquaintance with the points table for no trump contracts (table No 1)
2. Acquaintance with the terms "first trick", "part-score" and "game".
3. Acquaintance with the terms "small slam" and "grand slam"
4. What happens when you make your contract?
12
Questions to check understanding – table of tricks and points
How many points will we score if we make 10 tricks? Correct 430 points. Is that a game
or part-score? It is game.
How many points will we score if we make 11 tricks? Correct 460 points. Is that a game
or part-score? It is game.
We will always strive for small or grand slam, to get a higher score, but only on
condition that we have enough points
Comprehension questions
If declarer went 2 down, will he score points? No. How many points will the defenders
score? Correct 100 points. If the declarer went down 3, how many points will the
defenders receive? Correct, 150 points.
13
K7 Dealer : North
Board number AT5 Declarer:South
KT42 Opening lead:
4
Q
KT83
QJT84 932
74 9632
95 A76
AJ42 Q97
A65
KQJ8
Suit development Contract 3 NT
QJ83
65
J853 Declarer : SOUTH
Board no KT Opening lead
5 964 K
AQ75
QT7 K642
964 A872
KQJ75 T
T2 J984
A9
QJ53
Suit development Contract 2NT
A832
K63
14
Lesson number 5 – the play of the hand
The aim of the lesson
1. Counting tricks when the honors in the suits are distributed between the 2 hands.
2. Learning the terms the "long hand", the "short hand" and "blocking".
3. General learning – first begin by winning in the short hand.
4. Keeping the lines of communication open between the 2 hands.
5. What do to when a blockage occurs?
Counting trick when the honors are distributed between the 2 hands
We have already learnt that a sure trick is one that we can win without
Example giving up a trick to the defenders.
17643
Example One: We have AKQJ in our hand and 4 small cards in the other
hand. We can see that we have sure tricks in our hand and the small
cards from dummy we can play from the honors in our hand.
AKQJ
Example 2:
Example
AQ3 2 We have all the honors but they are distributed between the 2 hands.
Whatever way we look at it we cannot take more than 3 tricks.
15
Examples of the short hand – deal board no 6
T73 Dealer North South is dealer, and bids 3 NT
Board No. A4 Declarer SOUTH according to the table of bidding.
875 Opening lead
6
K
AKJ64 The K is instructed as the opening
J8 Q952 lead.
KQJ82 975 * Many pupils will fail to complete the
QT64 K9 Contract as there will be a blockage
72 T985 in the club suit.
AK64
Examples of play
T63
from the short Contract : 3nt
hand AJ32
Q3
Who succeeded in making 9 tricks? Very good. Let's try to understand what happened
to those that did not make it?
How many sure tricks can you see? Correct 9. So what happened that you did not
manage to take them?
In the club suit, we can see 5 tricks but whoever took the Ace first and then played a club to
the Queen, found himself "stuck" in hand with no possibility of returning to the dummy to play
the rest of the high cards.
This situation is called a blockage and, in order to avoid it, we have to play firstly the high
cards from the short hand, and then with the last card from the short hand play small to the
long hand. The last card from the short hand is the communication between the 2 hands.
When the number of cards is distributed unevenly between the 2
hands we have to first play from the honors from the short hand and
then afterwards play the honors from the long hand
16
How do we overcome a blockage?
Sometimes a blockage occurs, even if we played correctly.
Example
מה How many tricks can we make when we play in the example above?
AK7
Example In principle, we can see 4 tricks.
47
How will we play the suit? According to the rules, we draw the first two
tricks with the Ace and King. But there is still a problem,
QJ43 Who can see what it is? Correct after we play the honors from the short
hand, as we should do, we do not have a way back to out hand.
What do we do? We find honors in the other suits to find our way back
to the "long" hand.
If we do not have small cards to play to the other side, we have to quickly play the cards
from the short hand as soon as possible. Then we will look for honors in the other suits in
order to play from the "long" hand.
Distribute board No 7
84 Declarer:South South is the dealer and he is playing
KJ6 Opening lead 6 according to the bidding table and has
Example 7
KJ964 to try to make it.
AT3 You are instructed to lead the 6
QT763 KJ2
87 T943
T82 75
742 KQ98
A95
Examples of the AQ52
Contract 3nt
short hand AQ3
J65
How many tricks does the declarer have? Correct 11 sure tricks.
What do you have to do to play correctly? Correct you have to make sure that you play
the honors from the short suit first. In this hand, even if you did not follow this rule you can
still make the contract because, even though a blockage has occurred, you can still use the
honors in the other suits to go to the long hand.
But you will not always have the chance to do that and that is why you should make sure
that you play correctly.
17
Lesson No 6 – the play of the hand
The aim of the lesson
1. Ways of overcoming a blockage – unblocking or swallowing an honor.
2. Leading from a sequence.
3. Suit development – friendly distribution.
In which suit can we enter dummy? Correct in Spades as we have the Ace.
18
The lead from the top of a sequence
Look at the example that you have just played. Could the defenders have prevented us
from going from the hand to the dummy in Spades? No, it is impossible.
But if the opening lead would have been the Q then the declarer would have had to win with
the Ace immediately on the first trick and so would have prevented us from entering dummy in
the continuation.
If this is the case then why did we lead a Diamond instead of a Spade? As you can see
the opening lead is vitally important. Sometimes it is helps the declarer to make his contract
and sometimes it is the reason why the contract fails.
We will teach you how to lead correctly but at this stage we will concentrate on explaining one
feature:
When we have a sequence we will prefer to lead from the top to develop our tricks
quickly.
Here are some examples of leading from the top of a sequence :
KQJT8 ,QJT8, JT987 ,AKQ87
KJ2 In this case the K "swallows" the Q and wins the trick. Now we can play
the J without needing to look for another suit. In this case we can
'swallow' an honor because we have the one that comes after it.
19
Friendly distribution
Example
2 A43 South is the declarer and South is the dummy. How many
tricks do you see in the suit? 3 tricks.
JT8 Is it possible to make more tricks? We hold 7 cards in the suit and
976
we are missing 6 cards. If the missing cards are distributed
equally between the defenders (3:3) we can win an extra trick.
KQ52
1) We play small to the A, 2) small to the K, 3) Q throwing a small
card from the dummy. After 3 rounds the defenders have no more
cards in the suit and our 4th card in our hand becomes high.
When we are looking for extra tricks, we can utilize friendly distribution from the
defenders
20
Lesson 7 – The play of the hand – The finesse
Aim of the lesson
1. Trick development – the finesse and the impasse.
2. Simple finesses and impasses
A simple finesse
Sometimes we are faced with the following situation:
What is the smallest number of tricks that we can make with
Example this suit? Correct 1, the A.
1סשצפךק
AQ Is there a way of making another trick? If the K is a singleton it
will drop on the A and so the Q will be established. But this is a
rare occurrence and we cannot take it into account. We will not
play the A (because there is no chance of catching the K). But if
the K is sitting on our left then we have a chance of winning with
42 the Q (Usually the player as West will not play the K, because he
will hope that we will play the A and his K will be established).
And what happens East has the K? Then the finesse fails, but
we have to play it this way presuming that we have a chance of
catching it, otherwise there is nothing to be done. This play of the
finesse gives us a 50% chance of success.
KJ6
How will we play to trap the queen? Correct we will play first
the A (maybe the Q is singleton) and then low to the J for a
finesse.
In order to make a simple finesse – "we have to identify the trap/ fork".
The trap is where we have an honor and another lower honor than the one missing
(AQ, KJ) and we play a low card towards the honor presuming that the low card is
trapped.
21
Exercise distribute board No.10
853 South dealer South deals and bids according to the
Distribution No. A86 South declarer table, declarer has to try to make it.
A653 Opening lead :
10 6
T42 The card instructed to be led. This will
KJ764 QT combine both a finesse and a friendly
942 QT53 distribution.
T2 J97
KJ8 Q973
A92
Finesse and
KJ7
friendly Contract 3nt
distribution KQ84
A65
The Impasse
Next example: Can we Now what will happen
Example Example
make 2 tricks? סשצפך when we play the Q? If
A4 4 A4 E the K is with W, we will
We will never be able to 3ק
always take 2 tricks.
make two tricks it does not
matter where the K is This is an impasse and in
sitting. order to succeed we
Q2 QJ need touching honors (in
this case the QJ)
An impasse – we play an honor from our hand towards a higher honor on the table
Impasse or finesse
Example Example
AQ What kind of play do we AK2 What kind of play do we
need here? Correct a need here? Correct an
finesse. impasse
32 JT3
K32
22
Exercise – Distribute Board 11
K82 Dealer : East East is the declarer, the card is led
Board JT3 Declarer : East according to the table and the
11 QJ74 Lead Q contract has to try to make.
Q65
654 A97 *Make sure that S leads from the top of a
A76 KQ84 sequence. The success of the contract
932 A85 depends on a combination of a finesse
A873 KJ8 and friendly distribution.
QJT3
Finesse and
952
friendly Contract 3 NT
distribution KT6
T42
23
Lesson 8 - playing with trumps
The aim of the lesson
1. Acquaintance with the terms: Stopper, trump suit, trump, ruff and a fit
2. The use of trumps, when? How?
3. Distribution and some basic terms: singleton, doubleton, void.
24
Ruffing
In the example the trump suit is Hearts.
example
1 E is the declarer and S plays the A, W follows suit, North
3
follows suit but E has not got a card to follow suit. He plays the
small trump card.
5 2
Who won the trick in your opinion? The Ace which is an
high card or the 2 of trumps? Correct, even when the trump
A
is a low card, it still beats the high cards in the other suits.
When we do not have a card to follow suit, we can put down a
trump – this is called a Ruff
The pupils will now try to play board no. 12 again. South is the declarer and has to
take10 tricks when Spades are trumps. The lead is the A. The pupils will now find
out that the contract is makeable.
Distribute board no 13
AKQT98 Dealer : West
Board ----- Declarer : West
T98 Opening lead: West is the declarer and has to make 10
13
A tricks when Hearts are trumps. The
T865
opening lead is the A
43 J
AK7643 T9853
KQ4 AJ63 *The pupils will make more than 10 tricks
A7 KQ9
7652
Points QJ
Contract 4
distribution 752
7432
Can you see that after the first trick the declarer can ruff and make much more tricks than
promised? The point is that because of the fact that the declarer was short in the opponent's
suit, this is what helps him. What would have happened if the contract would have been
played in NT? The defenders would have taken the first 6 tricks and the contact would have
been defeated. The fact that the declarer is short in Hearts would have been his downfall.
25
Distribution Points
When we play a contract in trumps shortness/void is a definite advantage. Therefore, we will
consider not only the high card points but also the "distribution points" according to the
following key:
5 points Void
3 points A singleton
1 point A doubleton
1 point An extra points for every trump above a combined total of
8
Why do we add points for every additional trump? Because the more we have the
less the opponents have and we can draw them quickly leaving us with more trumps for
ruffing if necessary.
26
Lesson No 9 - determining the type of game
Aim of the lesson
4. Use of bidding cards.
5. Determining the type of the game – trump or no trump?
Note: If the responder has less than 8 points – he will not fill out a bidding form but
announce how many points he has. The opener will calculate the combined points. If there
are 20 or more, he will ask his partner to fill out the form. If the partnership has less than 20,
he will PASS and allow his left hand opponent to begin the auction. Why do we need 8
points? If the opener has a minimum of 12 points, then his partner has to bring in 8 points
to make up the total to 20 in order to bid.
27
Bidding Form – Mini Bridge
Number
Number
TotalOf
Cards
Of in Number Of Number Of Total Cards in
Cards
The- Responder
Opener
Suit Cards - Responder Cards - Opener The Suit
HCP HCP
Shortness Shortness
Length Length
Final Total
Final Total
Contract Points
Contract Points
s s
28
Distribute board 16 + bidding cards
9876 Dealer: South
Q43 Declarer: South An exercise in bidding and play
Board 16
AKJ4 Lead J
A3
2 543
JT9 AK76
T8653 97
KT87 QJ94
AKQJT
Discarding a
852
loser on the Contract 3
Diamond suit Q2
652
Did everyone make it? It is possible to make more if we discard a club on the Diamond suit.
In the next lesson, we will learn how to plan the play and how to deal with losers.
Concluding questions
What is the difference between playing trumps and NT?
What are the advantages/ disadvantages of playing with trumps?
What are the advantages/ disadvantages of playing in NT?
Which one do you prefer to play? Why?
29
Lesson 10 planning the play in trumps
The aim of the lesson
1. Planning the play in trumps
2. Acquaintance with the terms – loser – identifying losers.
3. The disappearance of losers on high cards from another suit.
30
How to get rid of losers
Let's examine the Diamond suit – we can take 3 tricks in the Diamond suit. But look – South
has only 2 cards in the suit and North has 3. On the 3rd card from North, we can discard a
loser.
What is the best card to discard on the Diamond suit?
If we discard a club it will not help us because there are 2 clubs losers which we will lose
anyway – we will always have 2 losers in the suit. Therefore it is better to discard a and in
this way we will get rid of our 4th loser.
31
Lesson 11 – Planning the defense
The aim of the lesson
1. Planning the play in defense.
2. Learning about choices in playing a card with and without trumps.
3. Concepts – unavoidable losers, and winners that can "disappear".
Rule 1 – when we have a long suit with a sequence (at least 3 cards) in which the highest is
an honor – lead the top of the sequence – KQJ85.
Rule 2 – When we do not have a sequence, lead the 4th highest = J87542.
Rule 3 – When we have 3 cards with an honor – lead a small card = K82.
Rule 4 - When we have 4 small cards without honors – we lead the 2nd highest - 9752
Rule 1 – When we have a sequence in our hand (at least 3 cards) in which we have an honor
– lead the higher of the 2 – KQ4. (Develop quick tricks).
Rule 2 – Lead a singleton (not an honor) from a side suit when have enough trumps to ruff.
Rule 3 – When you have 2 cards (not honors) lead the higher of the 2 – 74.
Rule 4 – When you have a suit headed by an honor, lead a low card in the suit – K864.
32
Rule 5 – Don't lead a suit where you have to ace – if there is no choice then lead the A itself
33
Distribute board 19 + bidding cards.
QJT4 East dealer
K6 South declarer Don't interfere with the opening lead, let the pupil
Board
get to the contract by themselves
19 A763
Opening lead
653 At the end of the game check who succeeded
987 65 and congratulate defender's who defeated the
contract.
QJT8 753
K94 QJ52
J98 AT74
AK32
Ruffing in the A942
Contract 4
short hand T8
KQ2
Analysis of the Play
The opening lead is the Q. The declarer counts losers – 2 Hearts, 1 Diamond and one or 2
Clubs (it depends how the A is located). This is a total of 4-5 losers when we are only allowed
to lose 3. 2 losers out of the 4-5 cannot be avoided, and these are? Correct, the losers in
Clubs and Diamonds. On the other hand, 2 losers in Hearts can "disappear" or the can
be transformed into winners, how? By ruffing those hearts in the short hand.
34
Lesson 12 - Planning the play in Trumps
The aim of the lesson
1. Planning the play – making losers "disappear" – ruffing in the short hand.
2. Planning the play – the danger of "overruffing" – ruffing with a high trump
This hand shows less losers and it shows us to value our hand by the number of losers.
35
Distribute Board 20 + bidding cards
K62 Dealer :South
Q73 Declarer: South The pupils will bid and try to play the hand.
Board 21 They should go down. The defense should take
J4 Opening Lead: Q
3 tricks in and continue with the 2
QT764
The pupils that continue with trumps too early
QJ95 AT3 will not be able to ruff and will go one down.
5 984 Also those who ruff, if they ruff with small
T832 Q96 trumps, then East will overruff them and they
K952 AJ83 will go down too.
874
AKJT62
Overruffing Contract : 4
AK75
--------
Analysis of the hands of North-South
What is the base hand? Correct, South is the base hand because he has more trumps.
Let's count losers in ? 3 losers are inevitable (because of the opening lead).
In ? There are no losers because we hold the high cards. In ? 2 losers, and in ? No
losers. Total – 5 losers and we are allowed to lose only 3 tricks.
Let's move on to the plan of the play, which losers should we concentrate on Spades
or Diamonds? The losers in Spades are inevitable so we will concentrate our efforts to
remove the Diamond losers.
How will we get the Diamond losers to disappear? Correct, we can ruff 2 Diamonds in
dummy.
Should we draw trumps first? No, because if we draw trumps first we will not have enough
trumps to ruff Diamonds. So after winning the trick we have to play the AK Diamond and ruff
a 3rd Diamond.
Now we can return to our hand and ruff a 4th Club but what will happen then?
Whoever counted how many Diamonds were played will realize that East will overruff us.
If that is the situation what can we do about it? We have to ruff our 4th Diamond with a
high trump – one that is higher that the opponents have. (Since we are missing the 8 and
the 9, we have to ruff with the Q Heart. We are not afraid of wasting it, because apart from
the Q we have all the high honors in the trump suit
.
When there is a danger of an overruff by one of the defenders, it is
imperative to ruff with a higher trump than is held by the declarer.
36
Lesson No 13 – Planning the play in trumps
Aim of the lesson
1. The expass
2. Defense – 2nd hand low.
3. Defense – cover an honor with an honor
A53
A K32
It does not help to cover sometimes, and in the example it can
even be disastrous.
98764
38
Distribute board no. 22 + bidding cards
J4 Dealer West
J4 Declarer West
Board 22 J942 Opening Lead Q
QJT53 The pupils will bid and try to make the
contract.
AK952 QT73
KQ2 A53
Q76 A53
96 A42
86
An expass in T9876
Contract 4
Diamonds KT8
K87
39
Lesson 14 – Major and Minor suits
The aim of the lesson
1. Acquaintance with the full table.
2. The difference between major suits and minor suits.
40
Distribute Board 23 + bidding cards
9543 Dealer West
8 Declarer South The pupils will bid and try to make the
Board 23
J9652 Opening lead: contract.
AQ6
The play is relatively easy. Congratulate
those that make an overtrick. Ask the
QJ86 KT2 declarers to write down the number of
KT53 Q974 tricks they made.
3 A8
K952 JT84
A7
Contract in a AJ62
Contract : 4
minor KQT74
73
Analysis of the play
What is the base hand? Because we have the same number of trumps in both hands the
base hand should be chosen from the stronger of the two (the south hand)
How many losers does the declarer have? In – 1, in – 3, in 1 and in 1 loser.
Is it possible to reduce the number of losers? Yes, if we ruff 3 losers in Hearts in the
short hand, we can make the contract.
How many trumps will we need to ruff the Heart losers? 3 trumps.
Will we draw trumps immediately? Or should we ruff first? Since we have 10 trumps
and we are missing 3, we will have to draw 2 rounds and if all the trumps have been drawn
we will still have enough to ruff.
It is also possible to finesse in Clubs and this will reduce one of our losers. The Club finesse
will not endanger our contract so it is worth trying it. Whoever made a finesse in Clubs will
make an extra trick.
Always look for overticks, in order to get more points,
provided that it does not endanger the contract.
When will we make a finesse in Clubs? Before we ruff the losers, otherwise we will find
ourselves in the wrong hand and will not be able to take the finesse.
*Compare the results at each table and make a note that those who made 11 tricks got a better result than those who only
took 10 tricks.
41
1st choice major, 2nd choice NT, 3rd choice minor
We learnt that when we have a fit of 8 cards in the major, we will prefer to play in trumps
rather than NT.
If we have a fit of 8 cards in a minor, what is better in your opinion to play in trumps or
NT? Let's check: How many points will we gain if we make 7 tricks in NT? Correct 90
points.
How many tricks do we need to take in order to make the same number of points in
or ? Correct 8.
If we have 25 points combined, what is better to bid? 9 tricks in NT or 9 tricks in a minor?
Correct we will prefer to play in NT because we will be in full game and we will get more
points.
* Ask for more comparisons of points to make sure that the pupils know the difference
between the score in trumps, NT, between major and minor, between game and part-score
and in slam.
Most contracts will be played in trumps or in the majors. When will play in the minors?
If we do not have a fit of 8 cards in the majors,
If we do not have 25 points, and we cannot bid game in NT
If we have a fit of 9 cards in the minor (with 8 cards we will prefer to play in
NT.)
42
Lesson 15 - Hold up/ Duck
Aim of the lesson
1. Hold up / Duck.
2. Defense – 3rd hand high.
When we play in NT and we are attacked in the suit that we only have 1
winner, we have to win as late as possible in order to cut communications
between the defenders
43
Defense
After West led the 4 highest, what card will West play? The defense is a partnership and
so we have to help our partner to develop the suit that he wishes to establish. This is
especially true if he led a low card. Therefore, in the hand you played, East must play the
highest card that he has. If that is the case, what card will he play after winning with the
King? East has to play the J (a high card from the short hand), and only then the 3, in order
to avoid a blockage in the suit.
In this first example, West plays the 3 (it is clear the this is the 4th
Example highest as we have at least one honor in the suit)
סשצפק
862E
1 East has to play the K in order to force declarer to use his honor.
After declarer wins with the Ace, then West can win with his
3 K954 honors.
AJ73 K954
QT
In the 3rd example, the distribution is different. If he plays the K he
Example forces declarer to take with the A and in the continuation the
862 defense will take 3 tricks in the suit. If he does not play the K, he
will allow South to win 2 tricks in the suit.
QT73 K954
AJ
In this example, after the lead of the 3 in the suit, dummy
Example plays the K. Should East play third hand high according to
K4 the principle "3rd hand high"?
If a defender cannot play a higher card than the dummy, there is
3 Q72 nothing to be gained by playing the Q, and it should be saved for
the continuation in order to win tricks or to establish cards in the
suit.
44
Distribute board 26 + bidding cards
QJ3 Dealer East The pupils will bid and try to make the
A76 Declarer East contract.
Board 26
KT32 Lead 4
J97
98 A65
QJ82 KT93
QJ96 A8
A86 KQT4
KT742
54
Duck Contract 3NT
754
532
45
Lesson 16 - Suit Establishment
1. Establishing a suit when we do not have honors.
2. Establishing a suit by ruffing.
46
Distribute board 27 + bidding cards
Q63 Dealer East Phase a – the pupils will bid
Board 27
A3 Declarer East Phase b – instruct them to lead a card –
AQ853 Lead 2 emphasize that in a Grand Slam the lead
A94 should be neutral or passive in order not
T82 9 to help declarer guess the cards.
T875 KJ942 Phase c – Ask declarer not to play but to
T4 J972 identify the problem (2 losers) and the
QT87 532
solution (discard of a loser in, on the
AKJ754
suit or by a finesse.)
Suit establishment Q6
Contract 7
by ruffing K6
KJ6
47
Lesson no. 17 - The play of the hand
The aim of the lesson
1. Repeat finesse / Double finesse
2. Ruffing finesse.
How do we play a repeat finesse? In order to play a repeat finesse, we have to return to
dummy.
How will we return to dummy? We will use the K as an entry and play the finesse again.
After both defenders have followed suit in , then we know that the last 2 cards are winners.
Additional emphasis:
Do we need to hold-up? Whoever held up did no damage, but since we are going to make
the finesse in Diamonds towards the defender who has length in Diamonds, it does not make
much sense; the hope is that the finesse will succeed.
Anyway, if the finesse does not succeed, it is still possible to make the contract provided that
the Clubs are breaking 4-4. (Then we will lose a trick in Diamonds plus 3 Clubs, but we will
still make the contract, because we are allowed to lose 4 tricks)
48
Distribute board 30
KQJT
Dealer North
AJ6
Board no 30 Declarer South
KJ
Opening lead :10
Determine the contract for the pupils –
Q862 small slam in Clubs (12 tricks)
8642 93
8532 Q97
T9875 AQ643
----- KT5
A75
KT4
Repeating finesse Contract : 6
2
AJ9743
Analysis of the hand
South is the base hand, how many losers does the declarer have? 3 losers (1 inevitable
loser in , 1 in , and 1 in ).
How is it possible to avoid the other 2 losers? The loser we can discard on the 4th . In
we are missing the K and the T. In order to make the contract, we have to hope that the K
Clubs is with East and make a finesse against him.
Which type of finesse will we make? A forced finesse. We will play an honor (Q) and try to
force West to cover with the K of Clubs. After we see that West does not have any Clubs at
all, we will return to the dummy and make a repeat finesse to the T. If East does not cover,
then we will have won with the Q, and we can now repeat the finesse against the King by
playing towards the T Clubs. On the 3rd round, we will play the Ace and the King will drop.
Ruffing Finesse
You are declarer as East, trumps are , and you hold the suit
Example as shown in the example.
1
Is it worthwhile finessing? The chances of success are 50% so
maybe we will make it and maybe we won't.
4 AQJT6
Is there another way which gives us a better chance? There
certainly is and it is called a 'ruffing finesse'. After we win with the
A, we run the Q. If South covers with the K, we can ruff and then
all our cards are established in the suit without losing any Clubs
at all.
If after running the Q, and South does not cover, we can discard a
loser on the established suit.
49
Distribute Board 31
2 Dealer South
9865 Declarer South Determine the final contract of 4, (10
Board 31
T7653 Opening lead Q trick with hearts as trumps)
T98
KT3 8754 *Pupils will use the ruffing finesse
Q AT2 technique. On the established Spades
J942 KQ8 they will discard Diamonds.
QJ742 653
AQJ96
KJ743
Ruffing finesse Contract 4
A
AK
50