TEST YOUR

BRIDGE TECHNIQUE

David Bird • Tim Bourke

♠52
3
♥A876
♦J2
♣Q953
♣J led
♠ K 10 8
5
♥KQJ9
♦KQ4
♣A2
 WHAT IS AVOIDANCE PLAY?

The term ‘avoidance play’ may seem intimidating. In fact it means no

more than preventing a particular defender from gaining the lead.
Suppose you have ♦K-7-2 in your hand and ♦8-5-3 in the dummy.
Since it will not suit for your right-hand opponent (RHO) to lead a dia-
mond through the king, you should arrange the play so that any tricks
you have to lose are won by the other defender. Alternatively, you
should make sure that if your RHO does win the lead in a different suit
he pays a high price for doing so. For example, he may have to rise with
an ace in the second seat, thereby allowing you to score an extra trick
with your honors in that suit.
One of the simplest forms of avoidance play is to duck an honor
lead made by the safe defender. Look at this deal:

♠83
♥ 10 4
♦ 10 7 5 3
♣KJ962
♠ QJ975 ♠ K642
♥ A5 N ♥ 873
W E
♦ AQ94 ♦ J86
S
♣ 83 ♣ 10 7 4
♠ A 10
♥KQJ962
♦K2
♣AQ5

You play in 4♥ after West has opened the bidding with 1♠. How will
you play when West leads the ♠Q?
Suppose you win the first trick with the ♠A and play a trump.
That’s no good. When West takes his ♥A he will be able to cross to
partner’s ♠K. It will not take a genius in the East seat to switch to a

AVOIDANCE PLAY | 1
diamond and you will go down. The answer is to allow West’s ♠Q to
win the first trick. You don’t mind West having the lead because he can-
not attack the diamond suit effectively from his side of the table. You
win the next spade and knock out the ace of trumps. The defenders are
powerless. With no entry to the East hand, the best that West can do is
to cash the ♦A to prevent you from discarding both diamonds and scor-
ing an overtrick.
Another simple form of avoidance play is to finesse (or duck) into
the safe hand. That’s what you need to do on this deal:

♠ 5
♥ AQJ4
♦ K 10 5 2
♣ 10 6 3 2
♠ A J 10 9 2 ♠ 8763
♥ 872 N ♥ 965
W E
♦ J7 ♦ Q84
S
♣ K97 ♣ QJ5
♠ KQ4
♥ K 10 3
♦ A963
♣ A84

West leads the ♠J against 3NT. You win with the ♠K and see that you
have eight top tricks. East is the danger hand because if he gains the
lead he can defeat the game by playing a spade through your remain-
ing ♠Q-4. You must therefore attempt to set up an extra trick in dia-
monds without allowing East to gain the lead. You cross to the ♦K at
Trick 2 and lead a low diamond towards your hand, covering East’s ♦8
with the ♦9. West (the safe hand) wins the trick and cannot continue
spades effectively. Nine tricks are yours.
Having seen these two deals, you may think that avoidance play is
a complicated name for a simple type of play. It’s true in a way, but
there are many forms of this technique and some of them are far from
easy to spot. Let’s look at a typical hand where the dangerous defender
can gain the lead, if he chooses, but he will have to pay too high a price
for doing so.

2 | TEST YOUR BRIDGE TECHNIQUE

 ♠ 653
♥ 985
♦ Q63
♣ AQJ3
♠ 10 7 2 ♠ QJ984
♥ Q 10 3 N ♥ AJ72
W E
♦ J985 ♦ A 10 4
S
♣ 976 ♣ 4
♠ AK
♥ K64
♦ K72
♣ K 10 8 5 2

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1♠ 1NT
pass 3NT all pass
West leads the ♠2 against 3NT, East playing the ♠J. You have seven top
tricks in the black suits and must set up two further tricks in the red
suits before East can enjoy his long cards in spades. How should you
arrange the play?
Suppose you lead a diamond to the queen at Trick 2. East will win
with the ace and clear the spade suit. When you attempt to set up a ninth
trick by leading towards the ♥K, East will leap in with the ace and cash
three spade tricks to put you down one.
A better line of play is to cross to dummy with a club and lead a
diamond towards your hand. East can win the lead if he chooses, by ris-
ing with the ace, but he will pay an unacceptable price. He will set up
both the king and queen of diamonds, giving you the contract. What
will happen if East plays low on the first round of diamonds? You will
pocket the diamond trick, which you have achieved without surrender-
ing the lead. You will then return to dummy with a club to lead towards
the ♥K. In our layout, East does indeed hold the ♥A, as you fully
expected after his opening bid, so you make the game.
Let’s see another deal where you need to develop a suit without
allowing a particular defender (the danger hand) to gain the lead.

AVOIDANCE PLAY | 3
When the safe hand holds a missing honor card, you can often force
him to win a trick with it, thereby establishing your suit safely. Look at
this deal:

♠ 10 3
♥ AK95
♦ 752
♣ A743
♠ KQJ86 ♠ 754
♥ 10 7 N ♥ QJ832
W E
♦ J 10 4 ♦ K9
S
♣ QJ9 ♣ 10 6 2
♠ A92
♥ 64
♦ AQ863
♣ K85

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1♦
1♠ dbl* pass 1NT
pass 2NT pass 3NT
all pass
West leads the ♠K against 3NT and you hold up the ace until the third
round to cut the link between the defenders. You have six tricks on top
and will have to develop the diamond suit. You need East to hold the
♦K, otherwise West will gain the lead and cash two more spade tricks.
That’s not enough, however. You must arrange the play so that you lose
a diamond trick to East rather than to West. How can you arrange this?
At Trick 4 you cross to dummy with the ♣A and lead a diamond
towards your hand. If East rises with the ♦K, you will allow that card
to win. He will have no spade to play after your hold-up in the suit and
your remaining diamonds will be good. East is more likely to play the
♦9. In this case you will finesse the ♦Q, pleased to see the card win.
You must be careful now. If you play the ♦A next you will go
down. West will win the third round of diamonds and defeat you. It’s
true you could succeed by playing a low diamond next, to the singleton

4 | TEST YOUR BRIDGE TECHNIQUE

king, but that would simply be good guesswork. When diamonds are
breaking 3-2, there is no need to guess! You should return to dummy
with the ♥A and lead a second round of diamonds towards your hand.
If the king appears from East, you will duck. When East started with
♦K-x-x and he plays low on the second round, you will win with the
ace and concede a third round to the safe (East) hand.
There are many similar positions where you can allow a high card
to win in front of your higher honor. Let’s see one more of them:

♣82

♣ J 10 3 ♣Q76

♣AK954

When West is the danger hand, you lead clubs twice towards the South
hand. Your plan is to duck if East plays the ♣Q and otherwise to win
the first two rounds and exit to his queen on the third round. It is not
good enough to play ace, king and another club, of course, because East
can unblock his ♣Q on the first or second round. West would then be
able to win the third round.
We have looked at some of the basic ideas behind avoidance play.
In the thirty-six problems that follow, you will encounter a wide vari-
ety of these plays. You will be able to test yourself, to see whether you
are capable of employing such techniques at the table. If a particular
problem defeats you, don’t worry. After reading the answer and the
explanation of the winning play, all similar deals will become easier in
the future. Take a deep breath and… good luck!

AVOIDANCE PLAY | 5
Problem 1 To Solution

♠ 52
♥ A8763
♦ J2
♣ Q953
♣J led
♠ K 10 8
♥ KQJ95
♦ KQ4
♣ A2

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1♥
1♠ 3♥ pass 4♥
all pass
West leads the ♣J against your heart game. How will you play?

Problem 2 To Solution

♠ Q52
♥ K83
♦ KQJ5
♣ QJ6
♥9 led
♠ K 10 6 4
♥ A64
♦ 82
♣ A K 10 5

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1♥ dbl
pass 2♥ pass 2♠
pass 3♦ pass 3NT
all pass
West leads the ♥9 against 3NT. How should you tackle the play?

6 | TEST YOUR BRIDGE TECHNIQUE

Problem 3 To Solution

♠ A32
♥ 85
♦ KQJ762
♣ 65
♥2 led
♠ J 10 8 6
♥ AK
♦ 5
♣ AK9842

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1♣
dbl 1♦ 1♥ 1♠
2♥ 3♦ pass 3NT
all pass
How will you play 3NT when West leads the ♥2?

Problem 4 To Solution

♠ KQ7
♥ Q J 10 6
♦ 742
♣ 10 9 6
♦K led
♠ A J 10 9 6 4
♥ A
♦ A65
♣ K72

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1♠
dbl 2♠ pass 4♠
all pass
West leads the ♦K against your spade game. How will you play?

AVOIDANCE PLAY | 7
To Problem
SOLUTION TO PROBLEM 1

♠ 52
♥ A8763
♦ J2
♣ Q953
♠ AQ764 ♠ J93
N
♥ 4 ♥ 10 2
W E
♦ A9853 ♦ 10 7 6
S
♣ J7 ♣ K 10 8 6 4
♠ K 10 8
♥ KQJ95
♦ KQ4
♣ A2

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1♥
1♠ 3♥ pass 4♥
all pass

How will you plan the play when West leads the ♣J?
It is quite likely that West’s clubs are headed by the J-10. Looking
at the club suit in isolation, you would normally cover the ♣J lead with
dummy’s ♣Q. If this were covered in turn with the king and ace, you
would subsequently lead towards dummy’s ♣9, expecting to set up a
second club trick. On this particular deal, however, an extra trick in
clubs is worthless because you have no useful discard to make (neither
your third spade, nor your third diamond is a loser anyway). It is more
important to make sure that East does not gain the lead in clubs, which
would allow him to lead a spade through your king.
You should therefore play a low card from dummy at Trick 1 and
allow West’s ♣J to win. From then on, the play will be straightforward.
You will win the next round of clubs and draw trumps in two rounds.
When you set up the diamonds it will be West, the safe hand, who

8 | TEST YOUR BRIDGE TECHNIQUE

produces the ace. He cannot attack spades profitably from his side of
the table, so your game is secure. If West does not play ace and another
spade when he takes the diamond ace, you will discard one of dummy’s
spades on the third round of diamonds.
As you see, it would be fatal to play differently on the first trick. If
you cover with the ♣Q, East will eventually gain the lead in clubs and
you will lose two spades, one diamond and one club. The same fate
awaits you if you play low from dummy and mistakenly win the first
trick with your ace.

AVOIDANCE PLAY | 9
To Problem
SOLUTION TO PROBLEM 2

♠ Q52
♥ K83
♦ KQJ5
♣ QJ6
♠ J83 ♠ A97
N
♥ 95 ♥ Q J 10 7 2
W E
♦ 10 9 7 6 3 ♦ A4
S
♣ 872 ♣ 943
♠ K 10 6 4
♥ A64
♦ 82
♣ A K 10 5

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1♥ dbl
pass 2♥ pass 2♠
pass 3♦ pass 3NT
all pass

West leads the ♥9 against your 3NT contract. How should you tackle
the play?
Suppose you win the heart lead and play a diamond. East will take
the ace immediately and clear the heart suit. When you subsequently
seek a ninth trick in spades, East will win with the ace and cash his
remaining hearts to put you down one.
To have any chance of making nine tricks you must use an avoid-
ance play. As we mentioned in the introduction, there are two basic
types of avoidance play. In the first you try to prevent the danger hand
from gaining the lead in a suit. In the second you cannot prevent the
danger hand from gaining the lead but you make sure that he has to pay
an unacceptably high price for doing so. This is an example of the sec-
ond type.

10 | TEST YOUR BRIDGE TECHNIQUE

 You win the first trick with dummy's ♥K. (There is no point in a
hold-up because you know from the bidding that East holds the two
missing aces). You then lead a low spade from dummy. If East plays his
ace on thin air, he will pay heavily for doing so. You will score three
spade tricks, enough for the contract. If instead East plays low, you will
pocket a spade trick with the king and turn to the diamond suit for the
two extra tricks that you need.

AVOIDANCE PLAY | 11
THE
‘TEST YOUR BRIDGE TECHNIQUE’
SERIES

Elimination Plays
Planning in Suit Contracts
The Simple Squeeze
Entry Management
Planning in Notrump Contracts
Endplays and Coups
Defending Suit Contracts
Safety Plays
Avoidance Play
Reading the Cards
Defending Notrump Contracts
Deceptive Play

Master Point Press

416-781-0351
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Email: [email protected]

92 | TEST YOUR BRIDGE TECHNIQUE

 TEST YOUR AVOIDANCE PLAY!
This book is designed to accompany the Bridge Technique
series.
The term avoidance play may seem intimidating, but in
fact it means no more than preventing a particular
defender from gaining the lead. You may think there is
nothing particularly difficult about this, but of course,
everything seems easy once you understand it yourself.
There are plenty of players who would fail to make the
majority of the contracts featured in this book.
The basic principles of avoidance play are straightfor-
ward, but applying them is not always so easy. Rest assured
that some serious challenges await you in these pages!

DAVID BIRD has written more than fifty previous books,

including the award-winning Bridge Technique series (with
Marc Smith). A regular contributor to many bridge magazines,
he lives near Southampton, England.

TIM BOURKE is a world-renowned collector of interesting

bridge hands, whose previous books include Countdown
to Winning Bridge (with Marc Smith) and Saints & Sinners
(with David Bird). He lives in Canberra, Australia.

MASTER POINT PRESS