WELCOME TO ADVANCED DECLARER PLAY

You are experienced enough to know all the basic rules of declarer play. You know the kind…ruffing losers, taking finesses, taking the time to plan your line of play before the defense takes enough tricks to defeat your contract, and many others. These rules provide a sound platform from which you will make a fair percentage of the contracts you play. Now is the time to take that next step. You understand the rules and why they exist, but now it's time to learn why and when you should ignore them. And ignore them to the point of guarding against devious defenders, who will try to make you go wrong.

BRIDGE FORUM offers a 1.5 hour free assessment with the teacher of your choice. Lessons are geared to your level of expertise and projected goals. Whether you do such work individually and/or with a partner of your choice, in a supervised play group, (typically restricted to 4-6 players) or in a larger course format, you can expect lesson notes sent out prior, and on the spot feedback with analysis of hands played after each session. You can also make financial arrangements with your BRIDGE FOURM teacher to play in online tournaments.

FORESEEING PROBLEMS

If you are taking this course then you are likely to be familiar with the more common safety plays within individual suits. In this lesson we are looking at ways you might guard against nasty turns of events in the hand as a whole. The good player gains his edge by looking ahead and anticipating potential problems. This often enables one to minimize the effect of poor breaks and losing finesses. We have all taken our eye off the ball when the contract seems easy:

You reach 4© and West finds the best opening lead of ¨Q. You play the king but of course East takes the ace and returns a diamond to his partner's jack. You win the diamond continuation in dummy with the ten and cash the ace of hearts. Disaster! East plays a spade. Suddenly you have gone down in a contract that looked assured. Of course, you might complain that you were unlucky, and I suppose you were, in that the trumps happened to break 4-0 at the precise moment you took your eye off the ball. "Bad luck" is a handy whipping boy for careless players. We have all heard the expression that good players are also lucky, but for the most part good and bad luck even out fairly quickly. Expert players make their own luck.

Clearly, on the hand above you should have ruffed ¨10 at trick three and played a heart from hand. If West follows you cover with the nine, and barring highly improbable breaks (clubs 8-0 or spades 7-0) your contract is now 100%.

Always being aware of the potential pitfalls on a hand is one of the marks of the expert player. Regular winners do not achieve that status by doing brilliant things on alternate deals, but by doing the correct thing with monotonous regularity and by avoiding errors of this nature.

Bridge is one of those rare games at which a novice can achieve the same result on a hand as a multiple World Champion. The difference, of course, is that the expert will regularly achieve that same par result whatever the difficulties to be overcome. The novice, and to varying degrees all of those players between the two extremes, will not.

Try your hand at this next game contract. There are no catches and you are not required to do anything overly clever. Just ask yourself the question, "What can go wrong?"

You reach four spades with no opposition bidding. West leads ¨K. How do you play?

You are happy with the contract, and fully expect to make at least ten tricks. The plan is to draw trumps, knock out the top hearts, and later discard your club loser on dummy's heart winner.

It is at this point that many players call for the ¨A and promptly play a trump to their ace. When West shows out, they find themselves with nine tricks only.

Unlucky, yes. But also careless.

The answer to the question, "What can go wrong?" is obviously that trumps may break 3-0. If West has all three missing trumps there is nothing you can do (except take a club finesse at trick two, which would be totally bizarre). However, if East has the three outstanding trumps you can still survive by taking a first round finesse.

The danger of course is that, as the opening lead has removed your only certain entry, you may not be able to reach dummy's heart winner. If trumps break 2-1 then dummy's third spade will provide an entry and thus the club loser can always be avoided.

You win ¨A and lead a spade. Your contract is guaranteed as soon as RHO follows as you intend to put in the jack. The tricks are assured whether it wins or loses.

Finally, try your hand at a contract that the vast majority of players would misplay and never even notice:

You bid unopposed to four hearts and receive the ¨Q lead. How do you play?

What can go wrong? Of course, everyone will make the hand if clubs break 3-2. Can you succeed if they are 4-1?

Most players would ruff their diamond loser at trick two, draw trumps, and then set about clubs. Either they would make ten tricks because clubs break (or they happen to pick off a singleton ace) or they will go down when clubs are 4-1. Whatever happens, few players would notice that declarer has missed a chance to guard against the 4-1 club break.

If clubs are 4-1, you need trumps to split 2-2, but that's a not insignificant difference. Compare the likelihood of a 3-2 club break (68%) with the chances of a 3-2 club break OR a 2-2 heart break (79%). The difference is worth thinking about.

Let's start by playing a trump to dummy at trick two, just to make sure they are not 4-0. Once everyone follows to the first trump, you can now play two rounds of spades. If RHO wins and plays a third spade, you can afford to ruff high. Now is the time to play a second trump to dummy's king. If everyone follows your contract is now guaranteed.

Having ruffed dummy's last spade in hand, you have reached the time to ruff that diamond loser. These cards now remain:

You have lost just one trick so far. You now play a low club from BOTH hands. If the suit breaks 3-2 you will have no problems. When they are 4-1, then whichever defender wins the trick will be endplayed.

If you spotted the correct line of play, you are to be congratulated. If you did not, don’t worry: you would be in good company even in a quality field. By the end of this course you will be thinking along the right lines, and that is 90% of the battle.

HAPPY BRIDGINGJ

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