The Times Beginner’s Guide to Bridge: All you need to play the game. Andrew Robson

is his first-choice trump suit, as he bid them first.

      Over to West, who has heard his partner overcall One Heart, indicating five+ hearts. With three-card support, West knows that his side has an eight-card fit. He bids Two Hearts. Now North. He has four-card support for partner’s spades (making a fit) so bids Two Spades. East would much rather make hearts trumps – even at the cost of needing to make nine tricks, so competes with Three Hearts. It pays to be bold with a fit, and South, using the same logic, competes to Three Spades. Everybody now passes – having bid their cards to the full.

      good to know

      It pays to be bold when you have a fit.

      Here is the bidding sequence:

      The play:

      By bidding spades first, South becomes declarer (he will do this a lot in written deals – for the simple reason that it is easier to orient yourself as declarer when in the South position). West must make the opening lead, and has two good choices. He could lead the suit his side has bid and supported, hearts, and would select the queen (top of a sequence – showing the jack); alternatively, he could lead his singleton diamond, in the hope of using his trumps to trump later rounds of diamonds. Which way to go?

      It is one of the beautiful uncertainties of the game that some days one choice will work out better; other days the opposite applies. But I’d probably opt for the singleton. Such a lead can be spectacularly successful, and, furthermore, West knows that he can win the first round of trumps, preventing declarer from drawing his trumps and avoiding the threat of him trumping a diamond. West leads the two of diamonds.

      Can East interpret the lead correctly? He wins the ace of diamonds, and reflects that West must have a good reason not to lead hearts – the suit East bid. That reason must be that his diamond was a singleton. East promptly leads back a second diamond at Trick Two. Bingo! West trumps it. At Trick Three West switches to the queen of hearts in an attempt to put his partner on play. The lead of the queen (top of a high-card sequence) denies the king, so East plays the ace. Note that even though his partner is currently winning the trick, East knows that declarer has the king, and will win the trick unless East plays the ace. His ace fells declarer’s king (you can see that East would have ‘gone to bed’ with his ace if he had not played it at this juncture). At Trick Four East returns another diamond, and West trumps again. His ace of trumps is bound to take the setting trick.

      Although play continues until the end, declarer can make all bar that ace of trumps by playing trumps, losing to the ace, drawing East’s second trump, then playing club and diamond winners. Eight tricks made, against nine bid. Down one.

      Everybody is happy with this result. East-West are happy because they defeated South’s Three Spade contract. But North-South are also happy – for East would almost certainly have made Three Hearts, and it is much better to go down one than let the opponents make a contract. Points below the line (resulting from a making contract – and counting towards game) are far more valuable than points above the line which do not count towards game (see chapter 5: Scoring). Hence the expression ‘Down one is good Bridge!’.

      If you remember just one thing about …

      Bidding: Try to declare when both sides have a fit. Even if you go down one in your contract, it is preferable to letting the opponents make their contract.

      Declaring: Play carefully to the bitter end, even if you are already down. Loss limitation is an important part of the game.

      Defending: If partner makes an unexpected play (e.g. West’s failure to lead a heart), he should have a good reason (here West’s diamond is bound to be a singleton).

       Deal C

      Dealer South

      The bidding:

      South has a balanced hand (5332) with 12-14 points: perfect for a One No-trump opener. West passes: to overcall at the Two-level requires much more, both in the way of points, and strength of suit. North knows that his partnership has the values for game – but which one? Game in clubs is two more tricks than game in no-trumps, so North makes the clear-cut bid of Three No-trumps (mistaken even to mention clubs, as you know what the final contract should be).

      The sequence has been brief but effective (the fewer the bids, the less chance to go wrong!):

      The play:

      The defence must focus on length against a no-trump contract, so West leads a low heart. Declaring a no-trump contract, it is particularly imperative that declarer starts by counting up his ‘top’ tricks – the ones he can make before losing the lead. He is not going to play them all out – like our hare – but he needs to see how many extra tricks he must make. Looking at dummy’s holding in conjunction with his own in each suit, he counts three top tricks in spades, two in hearts, and three in clubs: total eight. He needs one more, and the length in the clubs offers by far the best chance. He will need to count the opponents’ clubs as they fall, but he notes that they begin with six clubs.

      Declarer plays a low heart from dummy, and beats East’s jack with his king. Focusing on clubs, he cashes the queen first (high card from the shorter length), and leads a club to dummy’s king. Both follow suit twice, but when he next leads the ace of clubs (discarding a heart from his hand), West also discards (a spade). Had both opponents followed a third time, meaning that clubs had split three-three, dummy’s two remaining clubs would be length winners. But they did not – instead splitting four-two. Should he abandon clubs?

      Absolutely not – you have lose to win in bridge. Declarer leads a fourth club from dummy, losing the trick to East’s jack (and throwing a diamond from his hand, as West sheds another spade). If the defenders could see each other’s hands, East would switch to a low diamond at this point, enabling them to win the king, then the ace (taking dummy’s queen), then the jack; but this would not defeat declarer as he would have the fourth round master with the ten. In practice, East is likely to return his partner’s hearts. Declarer wins dummy’s ace (note how important it was that declarer saved this card, as a way of getting back to dummy), and can now proudly lead the promoted fifth-round length winner in clubs. This is his extra trick, and now he can play like a hare, grabbing the ace-king-queen of spades, to bring his trick tally to nine. Game made.