How to Avoid Taking Bridge Tricks before Establishing Them
You may hate to give up the lead in a hand of bridge for fear that something terrible may happen. And you’re right. Something terrible is going to happen — if you’re afraid to give up the lead to establish [more…]
How to Turn Small Cards into Winning Bridge Tricks
In bridge, deuces (and other small cards, for that matter) can take tricks for you when you have seven cards or more in a suit between the two hands. You may then have the length to outlast all your opponents’ [more…]
How to Drive Out High Honors in Bridge
When you play bridge, sometimes you have to drive out an opponent’s high honor card (could be an ace, a king, or a queen) before you can turn your frogs into princes [more…]
How to Duck a Trick in Bridge
No need to quack if you're ducking a trick in a game of bridge. When you know you have to lose at least one trick in a suit that includes the ace and king, face the inevitable and lose that trick early [more…]
How to Play a Bridge Hand of Small Cards
If your bridge hand contains only small cards for a given suit, don’t give up hope! Having any seven cards between the two hands in a game of bridge may mean an extra trick for you — if your opponents’ [more…]
How to Avoid Blocking a Suit in Bridge
If you don’t play the high honor(s) from the short side of your bridge hand first, you run the risk of blocking a suit. You block a suit when you have winning cards stranded in one hand and no way to enter [more…]
How to Finesse a King by an Ace in Bridge
A finesse in bridge is a technique for taking tricks with lower honor cards (jacks, queens, and kings) when your opponents have higher honor cards (queens, kings, and aces). You need to finesse your lower [more…]
How to Finesse a Queen Past a King in Bridge
A finesse in bridge is a technique for taking tricks with lower honor cards (jacks, queens, and kings) when your opponents have higher honor cards (queens, kings, and aces). You need to finesse your lower [more…]
How to Combine Length with a Finesse in Bridge
In bridge, when you take finesses in suits that have seven or more cards between your hand and the dummy — meaning your side has more cards in that suit than your opponents [more…]
How to Finesse with the King and Queen in Bridge
Sometimes, the honor cards that you hold in a hand of bridge dictate that you lead from weakness toward strength twice, such as when you have both the king and queen in a suit. The only thing better than [more…]
How to Finesse against Split Honors in Bridge
Sometimes your opponents have two important honors in the suit that you want to attack in a hand of bridge. If those honors are split and each opponent has one honor, you can finesse those split honors [more…]
How to Finesse when a Bridge Opponent Shows Out
Finessing, when you take tricks with lower honor cards, is a risky business in bridge. However, you can take some of the risk out of finessing by watching which cards your opponents play. When an opponent [more…]
How to Corral the King in Bridge
In bridge, the more honor cards you have in a suit, the better your chances of taking all the tricks. Sometimes you strike gold and have a suit with four of the top honors, including the ace, but you’re [more…]
How to Use the Bridge Hold-Up Play
In bridge, you have countermeasures to opponents with winning tricks in a notrump-contract suit. The hold-up play is a technique that may stop your opponents dead in their tracks. No, the hold-up play [more…]
How to Overtake One Honor with Another in Bridge
When you’re taking tricks in a hand of bridge, sometimes you can’t afford to be miserly with your honor cards. With equal honors between the two hands, you may have to play two honors on the same trick [more…]
How to Take Tricks with Trumping in Bridge
Playing a hand of bridge with a trump suit has its advantages. For example, if you play a hand at a notrump (NT) contract, the highest card in the suit led always takes the trick. If an opponent with the [more…]
How to Draw Your Opponents’ Trumps in Bridge
To draw trumps from your opponents’ hands in a game of bridge, play your higher trumps early on in the hand. Drawing trumps allows you to take your winning tricks in peace, without fear of your opponents [more…]
How to Divide Trump Suits in Bridge
Depending on how the trump cards are divided in a hand of bridge, you approach the game in different ways. Keep in mind that if you have eight or more cards in a suit between your hand and the dummy, particularly [more…]
How to Recognize Bridge Losers
When you play a bridge hand at a trump contract, you count losers and extra winners. Losers are tricks you know you have to lose. For example, if neither you nor your partner hold the ace in a suit, you [more…]
How to Identify Extra Winners in Bridge
When you play a bridge hand at a trump contract, you count losers and extra winners. An extra winner is a winning trick in the dummy (North), upon which you can discard a loser from your own hand [more…]
How to Trump in the Short Hand in Bridge
When you trump your loser(s) in the dummy, you’re usually trumping in the hand that has fewer trumps. For that reason, the dummy is called the short hand [more…]
How to Draw Trumps before Taking Extra Winners in Bridge
If you have enough tricks to make your contract in a hand of bridge, draw trumps (force your opponents to play their trump cards) before taking extra winners. By drawing trumps, your opponents can’t swoop [more…]
Taking Extra Winners before Drawing Trumps in Bridge
When you have more immediate losers in your bridge hand than you can afford to make your contract, but you also have an extra winner, use that extra winner immediately before you give up the lead in the [more…]
How to Establish Extra Winners in the Dummy in Bridge
To establish extra winners in a hand of bridge, a suit must be unequally divided, with the greater length (more cards) in the dummy. If you can create extra winners in the dummy, you’re on your way to [more…]
How to Finesse for Extra Winners in Bridge
When playing at a trump contract in bridge, you can take a finesse to create extra winners. You need the following in your hand and the dummy to take a finesse and establish extra winners: [more…]
