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Archived Tip of the Weeks  

 (updated  3rd September 2010)
 

 

NOVICES TIP 1
When you are initially counting winners BE PESSIMISTIC and only count DEFINITE tricks eg AKX  opposite QXXXX  is only 3 winners with the potential of  2 extras if the suit breaks 32 , with  KQJ109 opposite 543  this is NO WINNERS (even if this is trumps suit) since you haven't dislodged the Ace yet

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP 1
If you aren't sure what to overcall try using a Take-Out Double-it covers many more permutations that you would not normally bring to mind. 

eg a) you have more than 18 points and you are balanced - so double first then bid No Trump. Partner should be able to deduce that you have in excess of 18 otherwise you would have made an immediate 1NT overcall, Wouldn't you ?

b) you have a very powerful suit of your own and again around 18/19 points both too strong for a simple overcall or strong jump overcall so DOUBLE FIRST then bid your suit 

 

ADVANCED TIP 1
In card play there is the rule "8 ever 9 never", whereby if you have only eight cards in suit and you are looking for the Queen it is best to finesse and if you have 9 then you play for drop. Larry Cohen has turned this rule on its head for COMPETITIVE BIDDING and the rule he has come up with is totally the opposite 

in competitive bidding 8 never 9 ever- when you and your partner are known to hold only an eight card trump fit don't compete to 3 level when the opponents are pushing you up But with a 9 card fit then take the push to the 3 level- further examples of this can be found in his Bols tip http://www.haroldschogger.com/lcohen.htm

 

 

NOVICES TIP 2
 When Counting LOSERS BE OPTIMISTIC- with AXX  opposite X   you have No  Losers since you can ruff after one round 

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP 2
Be aware of the importance of 8's 9's and 10's especially in finesse positions that you thought might not have existed.

eg a) when you have 543  opposite AJ92 if you need tricks from this suit lead the 3 and when next player plays low try inserting the 9 leaving your Ace Jack in tact for a further finesse, in other words you are now finessing against 3 cards the KQ and 10 

 

ADVANCED TIP 2
If declarer or dummy has bid two suits and you are strong in one of the suits then lead a trump. The reason for this is that declarer could very easily try and ruff this suit out and by leading a trump you are removing two trumps.
 

NOVICES TIP 3
If declarer is running a long suit and both you and your partner are discarding MAKE SURE you DON'T both DISCARD the SAME SUIT. You protect one suit and partner should protect a different suit

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP 3

Keep length with dummy ie if you are not sure what to keep when discarding keep the same long suit as you can see in dummy. This can also be applied to the closed hand - keep same long suit that declarer might have bid during the auction.

 

ADVANCED TIP 3
If you have made a limit bid, then be respectful and leave all decisions to partner - Dont bid again unless forced or invited
 

NOVICES TIP4
  If you can't remember what has gone or how many has gone in a suit, try and work backwards by remembering what you had to start with, eg you can't remember how many trumps have gone- you have only three trumps left and you know you started with 5 so you probably have drawn 2 rounds only so far

 

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP 4
 Standard Stayman is for finding 44 fits so if you have good hand with 5 card major either bid it weakly at 2 level, use a transfer or bid it strongly at 3 level, but don't pussyfoot around using Stayman when you have 5. The reason for this is that if you have five you now only need three card support from partner not four!!

 

ADVANCED TIP4
  If you think you are in a good contract don't now be silly and go for an overtrick when making your contract is going to produce all the Match points. The corollary  applies that if you think you are in lousy contract, maybe 3NT and you think everybody else will be in 4S  making an overtrick, Now you have to go for that overtrick in order to compete for some sort of reasonable score.
 

NOVICES TIP 5
AIM TO HAVE A FIT :-

Minimum fit is 43 to obtain majority  holding of 7 cards in suit

IDEAL FIT is 44 or Better bringing total to MAGIC EIGHT

Magic eight can also be achieved by 53 or 62 or 71 or more cards in suit

It is necessary to recognise these fits especially in Majors otherwise many 53 and 62 fits get lost. As soon as partner bids 2 suits, partner’s first suit is likely to be FIVE (unless he was 4441 in first place) then if you have 3 card support for partner’s first suit the  the 53 fit comes to light – support partner now. As soon as partner repeats a suit he is likely to be showing 6 unless he can’t make any other bid now with 2 card support the 62 fit comes to light so be quick to support partner now with 2 card support. If partner pre-empts and is know to hold 7 if you have good outside hand but singleton in partner’s suit the MAGIC EIGHT is still there so raise the major as soon as possible.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP 5
If opponents open 1NT (especially weak) and the partner of the 1NT opener makes a weakness takeout and the auction is just about to subside at the 2 level - make sure you bid at all costs. Protect on as little as 7/8 points. You will be pleasantly surprised how often the opponents now take the push to the 3 level, go one down when you were just about to let them play a comfortable 2 level contract BALANCE  

 

ADVANCED TIP 5
1.  If you have AXXX in dummy and KJ10X in the closed hand and you are looking for the Queen- try leading the Jack from the closed hand, and you will be surprised how many people will cover. If there isn't a cover come up with dummy's Ace and finesse on the way back

 

NOVICES TIP 6
TIME IS IN THE EYE OF BEHOLDER 2 minutes is a long time so don't worry about holding people up and 2/3 minutes is an adequate of time for the auction and 2/3 minutes is also an adequate amount of time for the play. In  tournament bridge 8 hands an hour is allotted time. Normally people only get held up through being too talkative, not because of taking too much time over planning a hand - TAKE AS MUCH TIME AS YOU LIKE

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP 6
Long in Trump Lead Length- if you have 4 trumps and the you are on lead it is best to lead your other long suit. By doing this there may be the possibility that declarer will need to trump in before he wants to. Now he may lose control of the trump suit itself. Certainly don't lead from shortage since you will be coming to natural trumps anyway with you length.  

 

ADVANCED TIP 6
If you are trying to place cards in a CRITICAL suit and one opponent is already known to be long a a suit that he may have bid or led then in the CRITICAL suit assume that the same opponent will be short in this critical suit, particularly helpful when looking for a Queen and you have a two way finesse available.

 

NOVICES TIP 7
 Once you decide on plan, try and play in tempo so that you can keep track of what has gone. If you have long periods of trancing midway then you will lose track of your plan. By playing out semi-quickly now, you will be able to count much better

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP 7
Don't lead a singleton with a goodish hand  since you might not be bale to get partner in for a ruff so make a positive lead instead.

eg you hold 

ª

QJ104

©

 952

¨

AKJ53

§

 3

and the opponents bid to 4© then lead A¨or Qª  not the 3§ assuming the opponents are reasonable and they get to 4©  with about 26 points and you have 11 so how many can partner have so make a positve lead from your own hand instead of trying to find an entry in partner's hand when he can't possibly have one.

 

ADVANCED TIP 7
3. Sitting over a KQ10  holding in dummy and you hold the Ace try ducking it more often and you will be pleasantly surprised when

a) declarer uses up valuable entry to return to hand to finesse again

b) he now finesses the Queen assuming the other defender had missing Ace and now you partner scores the Jack. if you go up with the Ace immediately declarer will have no choice but if you duck you give him losing option.

in situations like this

  dummy  
  KQ10  

J54

   A82 (you)
  9763  

Now when the king holds declarer is bound to assume west has missing Ace. it is even more satisfying if you can do this with a doubleton Ace holding very SMOOTHLY

 

NOVICES TIP 8
As declarer make sure you LEAD UP TO HONOURS eg

lead low towards AQX or KXX or KQX or KJX (never start the play from these holdings)

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  8
 Remember to only cover an honour with an Honour if you are likely to PROMOTE something for yourself or for your partner- this is most of time but if you see touching honours in dummy or you suspect that declarer has a good holding in the closed hand don't bother to cover.

 

ADVANCED TIP 8
 If you have shakey trump holding with maybe only 7 trumps between hand and dummy, try ducking a round and you will be surprised how less often you will lose control of the suit eg

with AKXX opposite XXX you have loser anyway so ducking can't cost and it can only gain when the suit break 42
 

NOVICES TIP 9
When leading against suit contracts don't lead away from tenaces eg avoid leading from AQX or KJX or A10X

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  9
Stayman Convention is mainly used to try and find 44 fits. If you have a five timer, either introduce it naturally or with Transfers.

 

ADVANCED TIP 9
Every time you make LIGHT OVERCALLS think of your bid as LEAD DIRECTING and then you will not overcall on trashy suits.eg

overcall on AQXXX or KQ10XXX or AJ109XX but not on JXXXX or QXXXX as its meaningless !!
 

NOVICES TIP 10
When you see dummy make sure you determine which hand is short hand and which hand is the long hand for each suit. Once you determine this then you can play each suit accordingly so that you DON'T GET BLOCKED. Make sure you play the high card(s) from the short hand first eg with AQ4 opposite KJ98 make sure you play AQ first. 

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  10
If you are thinking of overcalling and you aren't sure whether your suit is good enough to bid consider the Suit Quality Test (as laid out by Ron Klinger) The number of cards in the suit you are considering bidding plus the number of honours in that suit should equal tricks required

eg  with   ª AK762  © 76  ¨ 763 § Q65  yes overcall 1ª total is 5+2 =7 OK BUT

  with   ª Q7632  © A6  ¨ K63 § Q65  Now Pass  as total is 5+1 = 6 (despite having more points on this hand).
 

 

ADVANCED TIP 10
If the opponents bid and raise a suit and stop at the 2 level be quick to bid in the Pass out seat (for more details on this tip se Ron Klingers's A Guide to Better Duplicate

eg. if bidding goes   N     E     S      W  

                                    1©  NO  2©  NO

                                    NO  ?

as East holding ª 865432  © 10  ¨ A72 § K43 compete 2ª

or holding  ª 85  © 1053  ¨ KJ62 § AQ74 compete 2NT UNUSUAL (believe it or not !!)
 

NOVICES TIP 11
If you make any sort of LIMIT BID   DON'T BID AGAIN. Limit bids come in all sorts of guises and the most common ones are opening 1NT and 2NT or replying in No Trumps or in your partners suit. However if you make an pre-emptive opening bid of 3 of a Suit this is also a Limit bid and you certainly  must leave all decisions to partner. Other times that this manifests itself is when you open 1H and rebid 2H. Now your rebid is a limit bid. If responder now rebids his suit at the 2 Level it is Mandatory for you to now pass and not to fight it out with partner.  

eg 1©  - 1ª

    2©   - 2ª

Pass now by opener is your only option!!!  

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  11

In 4th seat this is time to bid protect yours and your partner's interest and this is why its called THE PROTECTIVE POSITION. In 4th seat a bid of 1NT shows only 10-14 points and a Balanced hand. If you just sit there and pass you will have some very happy opponents- Be competitive.

 

ADVANCED TIP 11
With a 6-5 pattern in touching suits, bid the higher ranking suit first if the suits are weak and you are minimum in high card points, whether you are opener or responder

egª AQ764  © J8432  ¨ - § KQ open 1ª and then you will get the chance to show both suits. (further details of this see 100 Winning Bridge Tips by Ron Klinger

 

NOVICES TIP 12
Don't forget to tell your partner whether or not you like a suit. If you like it make sure you play an ENCOURAGING SIGNAL, something like a 6 or 7 or 8. Conversely if you don't like your partner's initial lead play low, and BE ATTENTIVE to these cards. If you have choice of encouraging signal, i.e. you hold K962  and partner leads Ace play the 9 rather than the 6. The 9 is certainly likely to stir partner more than the 6. Would you prefer to have your aeroplane land  with small semaphore flags or large ones ???

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  12
Be aware of the RULE of 2O for light opening bids. If you are in doubt as to whether or not you can open then add your points and your 2 longest suits together and if the total comes to 20 or more then OPEN rather than  passing like a wimp.

eg ª AK7632  © K965  ¨ 3 § 32  total is 10 + 10  so open 1ª

or with  ª K7632  © KQ762  ¨ K3 § 5 total is comfortably 11 + 10 so open 1ª

 

ADVANCED TIP 12

The 5 level Belongs to the Opponents. This was one of the Bols Tips submitted by the American Ed Manfield. In a highly competitive auction when the opponents have ventured into the 5 level.- Let them be. You have probably  pushed them to a level higher than they wanted to be and if you now bid on you run the risk of a penalty when their contract was going off. (For details of this tip see The Complete Book of Bols Tips edited by Sally Brock and published by Chess and Bridge- alternatively you can go to http://www.haroldschogger.com/manfield.htm   where the rule is written up.

 

NOVICES TIP 13
On the other hand when Counting LOSERS BE OPTIMISTIC- with AXX  opposite X   you have No  Losers since you can ruff after one round 

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  13
1. a) Opposite a weak No Trump if you have a TOTALLY balanced 4333 hand and only 11 points do not invite - be happy to stay in 1NT. With a totally balanced 25 High card Points between the 2 hands you will be hard pushed to find a ninth trick.   

b) However opposite a weak No Trump and 12 High card Points and a five card suit treat the hand as if it is 13 points and go directly to 3NT. Now there is no need to invite as a 9th trick will materialize more often then not even opposite a minimum 12 count.

 

ADVANCED TIP 13
Partner leads from his 4th highest and the bidding has suggested that declarer has a certain stopper in the suit, sometimes it is correct to withhold your Ace in third seat and play your Queen instead if you have it. If partner has led from an original King holding then your queen will hold and if not it will be much more difficult for declarer to now hold up. In fact it might be too dangerous to hold up. More details of this can be witnessed by reading Shmuel Lev's Bols tip "WHEN YOU HAVE A HOLDING SUCH AS A-Q OR A-J IN THE SUIT LED BY PARTNER, DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY PLAY ‘THIRD HAND HIGH." 

(see his tip in full www.haroldschogger/shmuellev.htm)

in situations like this

  dummy  
  85  

J10732

   AQ9 (you)
  K64  

play the Queen. There are very few declarers who will duck this. Now communications between you and your partner will be kept open. If you had merely contributed your Ace at trick one. followed by your Queen declarer will have no problems in holding up will he ?

 
 

NOVICES TIP 14
Be Patient especially when you defend- the main problem that novices have with defence is that they are in too much of a hurry to take their Aces and Kings. Now its all well and good saying second hand plays high and third hand plays low but doing this is not enough alone. If one is extremely patient and wait for your tricks, you will be surprised that very often your original AQ9 or AJ8 holding will produce 2 tricks one of them being the setting trick as long as you are patient and don't go in with your high card too early.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  14

Against a small slam Favour an active lead from QXXX   or KXXX  suits rather than making a passive lead. By doing this you are well on the way to building a defensive trick for your side. All Partner needs to have is the other high honour you lack.

 

ADVANCED TIP 14
Playing Splinters is all well and good and can get you to good slams. But, also try and understand the inferences when partner doesn't splinter. If partners don't splinter then you know their holding is probably 5422  or 4432 as they didn't try and Splinter. Now you know there is much more chance that an outside suit can have 2 losers off the top

eg 

ª KQ98              ª   AJ43
© AQJ52              ©  K43             4 is limit of the hand maybe 5
¨ A2                     ¨  K654           LACK OF SPLINTER 
§ Q 4                    §  32               should alert you to this fact.
  1©                        1ª
  4ª
  BUT with less points the splinter allows you to bid the cold small slam
ª KQ98              ª   AJ43
© AQJ52             ©  K43              
¨ A32                  ¨  K654           
§  4                      §  32                
  1©                       4§
  now you are certainly interested!!!!!

 

 

 
 

NOVICES TIP 15
If you listen to the sounds of the auction or the sound of a bid it will often point you to its correct meaning eg. if you open 1¨ and partner bids 1ª and you then rebid 2© and he now rebids 2ª this can ONLY BE WEAK and must be showing 6 card suit and a minimum hand so don't panic if you only have 1 or less Spades.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  15
If you have the choice to lead from an AK suit and a singleton suit choose the Ace lead most of the time. If you lead your ace you can alsways switch but if you lead your singleton and it turns out to be wrong it will be too late 

ª

AK965

©

 952

¨

3

§

Q853

after an uncontested auction of  1© -3© - 4© prefer to lead from your Aª rather than you singleton Diamond. Many experts have an agreement that the play of an Ace followed by a switch shows a singleton in the suit you switch to.  

 

ADVANCED TIP 15

As declarer when an opponent has preempted assume that all the outstanding key cards such as any   Queens and Jacks you have missing to be in the other player's hand, since the pre-emptor should really have nothing outside his long suit. Now a lot of your 2 way finesses will no longer be mere guesses.

NOVICES TIP 16
So that you can think in "straight lines" try to line your hand up with the dummy. So if dummy is from  left to right Spades, Hearts, Clubs Diamonds you hand should be held correspondingly then you will find it much easier to count your winners and losers.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  16
If your partner replies to your 2© to your 1© opener and you have a reasonable 15/16 points you might think game is a possibility, if so ADOPT TRIAL bids . Bidding 3©  invitationally  to 4 is to be quite frank a total waste of  time and hardly constructive. A trial bid will pinpoint where you want help and allow you and partner to get to minimum games and to stop short of game where you have your values in the wrong suit. So after 1©  bid the suit you want help in  eg
ª AQ765 ª K954 ª AQ765 ª K954
© 76 © 542   but with the following  hand © 76 © Q42
¨ KQ5 ¨ J753   the bidding now goes ¨ KQ5 ¨ A3
§ A32 § K6 § A32 § 7654
1ª  2ª 1ª 2ª
3§ 4ª 3§ 3ª
and now we find a  and we stop short 
22 point game despite more points
TRIAL BIDS come in other guises and can be a lot of fun to play.
it also now frees up the immediate 3  rebid by opener as a disruptive pre-emptive measure thereby making life more difficult for the opponent who wants to balance.

 

ADVANCED TIP 16
Elimination Play can be very easy if you practice it even on the hands where an elimination play is not necessarily needed. In order to put an elimination play into play you must follow the following guidelines.

a. draw trumps. 

b. Take out a complete suit. 

c. Take out another complete suit. 

d. Now let them in and watch as they hopefully open a the crucial suit or give you a ruff and discard.

Maybe an elimination play is not necessary but by getting into good habits when it does come along and you pull it off you will have a rather wonderful feeling !!!

 
 

NOVICES TIP 17
If you can't remember what has gone or how many has gone in a suit, try and work backwards by remembering what you had to start with, eg you can't remember how many trumps have gone- you have only three trumps left and you know you started with 5 so you probably have drawn 2 rounds only so far

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  17

Next time you have support for a Minor THINK 3NT. Most of the time that you and partner will be able to make 11 tricks in Clubs or Diamonds you can probably easily make 9 or maybe even 10 in No Trumps. If you are playing in MP's pairs you want to be playing on an equal footing to the experts so that when you open the traveller you too are in 3Nt plus one for 430 rather than just 400 for a hard 5§ contract.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 17

If you do not know what suit to play next try holding up so that partner can give you a signal on the following trick !!

 
 

NOVICES TIP 18
Draw all the opponents' trumps unless there is one out and the one out is a master - don't be a TWO FOR ONE Merchant

with AKXX  opposite XXXX  draw two rounds and if hopefully they break 32 then leave the remaining Queen out and hopefully you can use your remaining 4 trumps separately.

or with AKXXX  opposite XXXX  if you draw  and the suit breaks 31 then don't bother to draw the last one as it will always make.

 

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  18

Next time you have support for a Minor THINK 3NT. Most of the time that you and partner will be able to make 11 tricks in Clubs or Diamonds you can probably easily make 9 or maybe even 10 in No Trumps. If you are playing in MP's pairs you want to be playing on an equal footing to the experts so that when you open the traveller you too are in 3Nt plus one for 430 rather than just 400 for a hard 5§ contract.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 18
If between the 2 hands you hold A J 10  and 2 low cards and the opponents lead this suit against your 3NT contract there is no need to hold up as you will get 2 tricks in this suit if you are patient. Some players hold up when they do not need to !!

eg

        J3  
 

N

  
Q9542     W             E   K87
 

     S

  
         A106  

when the 4 is led and East contributes the king at trick one there is no need to duck. Try it and see!! If you duck you will only obtain 1 trick instead of your rightful 2 !!  10's and 9's are much more important than you generally think.

 

NOVICES TIP 19

If you need to establish a second suit it might be wise to sometimes establish the second suit first if your trumps are a bit rickety.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  19

 If partner pre-empts and you have a good hand be prepared to raise partner to game with a singleton in his suit or even a void sometimes. Partner will not need help from you in his LONG suit so all the goodies you offer him outside will be dynamite. 

eg partner opens 1© and you hold

ª A854       raise to 4©
©  2              don't even consider 3NT 
¨ AK53     unless you want a new partner 
§ AK92     next week

 

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 19
Don't be lazy MAKE NO COST CUE BIDS when you can

eg

ª Q76             After  opening 1NT partner replies 3ª
© 76                bid 4 § cuebid agreeing the Spades and showing MAX
¨ AQ5         
§ AQ32                
 If you take this on board then every time your partner doesn't cuebid you will know they wont have an ace on the way !!

 
 

NOVICES TIP 20

Trumping losers in the short hand adds to your trick tally since you are not depleting your long suit. Conversely trumping in the Long hand doesn't always achieve very much and more often or not it weakens your control of "your" trumps suit. Trumping in is like eating chocolate not always that good for you. Next time you ruff something make sure you are actually achieving something and not just taking the chocolate !! 

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  20

 

If you bid in 3rd or 4th seat you can OPEN LIGHT. In third and fourth seat you do not have to have a rebid ready. Since your partner has already passed there is little fear of missing out on anything. You can certainly open all the following hands in 3rd and 4th seats and merely drop out of the auction thereafter.

ª AQ764  ª K9  ª AJ10765
© 762 © 542 © 76
¨ K5 ¨ AQJ753 ¨ K65
§  432 § 63 § 32
Open 1ª just  open 1¨ open 1ª

Opening with 1ª   is particularly pre-emptive

 

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 20
a) If you partner opens and next hand overcalls 1NT if you have 8/9 points then make a PENALTY DOUBLE immediately to show that you have balance of power. 

b) If you bid on after partner opens and the opposition overcalls 1NT you are now showing less than 8 points and could compete on all sorts of rubbish, either supporting partner or freely bidding your own goodish 5 card suits  or 6 six card suits

 
 

NOVICES TIP 21

If you aren't sure what to bid then best to bid NEW SUIT even if its a three card suit in most scenarios a bid of new suit should be treated as forcing for one round.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  21

 In a competitive situation DON'T PUNISH PARTNER for competing. Sometime partners are competing and balancing knowing that you have points. Do not go and spoil it by bidding on.

This is particularly relevant when partner balances in 4th seat causing the opponents to bid on to the three level and you now go and bid one more (UGH) be pleased you have pushed them to three level. 

eg 

ª AQ76            After  partner passes for 2 rounds he 
© 76                  suddenly dredges up a bid of 2ª
¨ Q5                 after 1© - 2©   by the opposition
§ A32               when they now bid 3©   be happy to now Pass

 

NOVICES TIP 22

The Double of 1NT opening bid is for PENALTIES  and promises one more point than the opponents maximum. Therefore if opponents are playing weak No trump you need 15 to double. and if they are playing 15-17 then you need 18 or more. Partners should stand the double and watch the opponents squirm. This is main disadvantage of weak no trump so make sure you take your penalties when you can. You will be at the receiving ends yourself sometimes.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  22

 If the contract belongs to you and your partner and they take a sacrifice 

a) make sure you double the final contract

b) lead a trump to cutback their powers of a possible cross ruff

 

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 22

If there seems to be no way to generate an extra trick, then try a dummy reversal, whereby the short hand will  eventually become the dominating trump drawing hand because you have done sufficient ruffing in the long hand that the short hand now has more trumps than the long hand originally started with.

 
 

NOVICES TIP 23
To Overcall the opponents 1NT opening bid requires a sensible suit either good quality 5 card suit or preferably 6 and LESS than 15 points (probably about 9-14). The reason its less than 15 points is because with 15 you would be doubling especially if you read tip 2 this month. (this tip is the corollary of tip 2)

you can make natural overcalls with all the following hands

ª AQ765 ª K9  ª  65
© 76 © 542 © 76
¨ K5 ¨ AQJ753 ¨ KQ5
§ A32 § 63 § AJ10953
overcall 2ª just  overcall 2¨ overcall 2§

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  23

 Looking for a missing queen and you have a two way finesse, If you want the defender to cover the honour, try leading an honour and if they don't cover as most players might then go up with the Ace or King and finesse on the way back

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 23

Even if you are not going to try an endplay it is often good  technique to get rid of as many suits as possible from both hands before letting the opposition in and then maybe you will get a pleasant surprise when one of the defenders  might give away a trick when  they get in

 

NOVICES TIP 24
If you are going to overcall with a minimum number of points then  make sure you SUIT QUALITY is up to scratch- you could even overcall with 6/7 points if you had  with 1ª

ª

 A K 9 7 6 4

©

 7 3 2

¨

 5 4

§

 3 2

 

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  24

 Lead back the higher of two remaining card in partner's suit so partner knows you started with three cards, otherwise play your lowest one back and then he can deduce that you started with 2 (and could not help yourself) or 4. This assumes he is watching all the small cards being played at tricks one and two.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 24

Partner has led a suit in which you have a potentially blocking situation, so seriously consider unblocking at trick 1. Partner leads King promising Queen and Jack and you have A6,  you need to play that Ace to avoid blockage or if partner leads the Queen and you have King doubleton again throw away that King on the King immediately.

 

NOVICES TIP 25
Support Majors but when partner opens a Minor  introduce your Major even if you have support for the Minor

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  25
Attack when your opponents bid a small slam in a suit. Lead from KXXX or QXXX  , you only need partner to turn up with the other high honour to establish one trick or even two for the defence.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 25

Don't take your aces too quickly when you defend, especially in second seat even if there is a singleton in the dummy and you are afraid your Ace might disappear. Declarer will often go wrong when  finessing if you are patient with those Aces you are not supposed to hold.

NOVICES TIP 26
Play the lower of touching honours when following suit - NB this is the opposite of leading

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  26
Try and work out what partner has led from, if they lead a two its probably 4th best from 4 card suit, if they lead a middling card and there are five in dummy and you have five too its probably a singleton.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 26

Covering Honours and not covering honours is not always easy. If you can see all the touching honours in dummy then don't bother to cover. If there are two touching honours you can cover the second one, but not the first.

 

 

NOVICES TIP 27
If there are two touching honours in dummy don't cover first time around. Cover second time around with

                                         QJ95                       if you cover the Queen first time around declarer will be able to finesse your poor partner's

                             1083              K62               10 in a moment. Cover second time around and partner makes his 10

                                        A74

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  27
Not sure what to keep then keep the same long suit you can see in dummy - it's known as keeping length with dummy and prevents dummy's long card

 becoming a winner

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 27

In third seat try to hold back your honour to cover dummy's honour so in situations like this

                                   Q64                  partner leads the 2 and dummy plays low play your 9 and hope for the best. If declarer

                         1032          AJ9          has all the remaining high cards it makes no difference BUT IF partner has the 10 you will now

                                  K875                   maintain two tricks for the defence rather than the tricks to declarer

 

NOVICES TIP 28
Only ruff if its producing extra tricks - ruffing just because it makes you feel good is like taking sugar it just gives you a high and

 doesn't necessarily mean you are generating extra tricks,  especially if you are ruffing in the long hand

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  28
You have 8 trumps but lousy ones including the Ace, why not duck a round of the suit and then you will not lose control of the trump suit.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 28

Counting your losers as well as your winners sometimes pinpoints hidden dangers on the hand. Where you thought you had an easy ride suddenly you see that there could be a problem. Now you can act on it and maybe keep one of the opponents off lead.
 

NOVICES TIP 29
No entries in the other hand why not ruff something to get to the other hand

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  29
Short of entries why not duck a round and keep that precious Ace in the dummy as your entry later, sometimes you might need to duck twice in situations like this                        A6543

                            KQ2               J10

                                       987

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 29

A ruffing finesse is often better than a simple finesse, because even if it fails you have been able to chuck a loser whilst doing it !!
 

NOVICES TIP 30
If you have high cards in a suit that you need to ruff do the ruffing early before cashing the high cards . You can always cash those high cards later once you have draw trumps

 AKQ65      opposite  7 play your  Ace then ruff a low one, return to West to ruff the remaining 5 and later on in the hand you can enjoy the KQ after drawing trumps.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  30
When the defenders try to make you ruff inn the long hnad so depleting your trump length consider discarding and in this way you will not lose control of the trump suit

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 30

If you have to make a decision about whether to take ruffing finesse or simple finesse the decide which "nasty" opponent you don't want to get the lead and then take the appropriate finesse through them so

                        AQJ10   if East is the safe hand and West the "nasty" opponent          AQJ10    if West is the safe hand and East is now

                                                do the simple finesse                                                                                 the nasty opponent do the ruffing finesse

                            9                                                                                                                       9   

NOVICES TIP 31
When you try and evaluate a hand don't just look at the points, look at the points and consider if they are "Good Points" or "Bad Points"  QJ54   is not so good as QJ109 and both these suits are "only" 3 points. Which of the following hands would you rather have ? a) ♠ A654 ♥ K86 ♦ Q32  ♣ J54  (10 points)   a) ♠ 54 ♥  86 ♦ 432  ♣ AKQ542  (9 points). The first hand has lousy balanced 10 points with no potential whereas the second hand has a great 9 points with potential of 6 tricks

 

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  31
Don't raise partner's second suit unless you have 4 card support

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 31

Playing Match Point Pairs, if partner offers two suits and the first suit is a Major promising five cards, prefer to  give "False preference" to the first suit holding two cards in the first suit and three in the second. You want to be playing in the 5:2 Major fit rather than the 4:3 Minor fit.

 

 

NOVICES TIP 32
Sometimes you need to get your second suit established before touching trumps. Leaving a  trump on the table by not drawing them means you cannot be as easily forced by the opposition

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  32
Most of the time when you have choice between a ruffing finesse and a simple finesse it is best to take the ruffing finesse option. Even if the rufing finesse fails you have managed to chuck a loser elsewhere and you have set up a winner from the ruffing finesse for later.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 32

If you think that there might be a chance that you will be overruffed throw away  a loser elsewhere instead- loser on loser. Now you retain all your trumps and the other loser disappears.
 

NOVICES TIP 33
If somebody initially passes and then turns up with 10 points you know he will not have any more since he didn't open in the first place.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  33
Once dummy comes down add your points to dummy's points and take the total from 40 to tell you have many points the opposition have between them (see Novices tip this week)

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 33

Before tackling trumps sometimes it is a good idea to try a finesse elsewhere to decide how to actually play the trump suit. If your finesse outside has worked then you can take the safety play in trumps, if the finesse has failed then you might need to take a straight finesse in trumps too avoiding any possible safety play.

 

 

NOVICES TIP 34
If partner leads a Jack against 3NT and there are only low cards in dummy and you have the Ace or King make sure you put it on partner's Jack. He might have led from KJ109 or AJ109 and you do not want declarer getting away with blue murder by winning the first trick with the Queen. If declarer doesn't have the Ace and Queen sticking your King on will not cost

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  34
If your partner didn't open 1NT then you can rule out that he has a balanced hand with 12-14 points. There is so much to learn form bids that arwent made as well as bids that are.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 34

Don't double borderline part scores that might only go one off. If they make you have given away a certain bottom and if they go off you will still get a relatively good score.

 

 

 

NOVICES TIP 35
Not sure what to lead then eliminate what you can't lead, avoid leading from tenaces and unsupported honours and more often than not you will arrive at what you can lead

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  35
Two suits of equal length and you are leading agaisnt No Trumps then lead from the better suit as you need less from partner to make the suit good so with choice of leading from J642  or K642  lead from the K642 suit

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 35

If you drop high honour on partner's Ace lead it shows either a singleton, and, of course you could not help yourself or that you hold the honour below it. If partner leads Ace and you have QJ64 play the Queen and then partner knows you have Jack and if need be he could underlead his remaining King to get you in. (You are telling him you have an entry)
 

NOVICES TIP 36
If Spades is your suit never be afraid of bidding one more because you have the boss suit and you will not need to increase the level when you outbid the opposition- Be competitive with this boss suit.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  36
Support with 3 card support rather than reply 1NT especially if you have a doubleton elsewhere. The doubleton and three card support gives you some ruffing values.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 36

After the opposition makes an informative Double you as partner of the opener should now be prepared to make weak rasies in opners's suit so now 1♥   - Double   2♥  shows 4-5  points     

1♥   - Double   3♥  shows 6-9  points

1♥   - Double   2NT should now show good raise in partner's suit

 

 

 

 
 

NOVICES TIP 37
With 4 or 5 rubbishy cards (a suit with no honours) against a No Trump contract prefer to lead 2nd highest and then a low one next and then partner will know you have not led from a good suit

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  37
If opponents end up in the third suit after bidding three suits lead a trump

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 37

A direct raise of 1♠ to 4♠    or 1♥  to 4♥   should be done with WEAK DISTRIBUTIONAL hands two five card suits and no more than 6/7 points. The aim of the bid is two fold. Firstly, you might make the contract. Secondly, you might cut the opposition out if the contract might belong to them should they have the balance of points.
 

NOVICES TIP 38
The only time you might think of overcalling on a four card suit is if you have three honours such as AKQ6 or KQJ7 or AKJ3. The hand just about meets the SQOT test.

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  38
If you are going to win a trump trick anyway with a holding such as K104 or Q104  consider not overtrumping and petrhaps your one trump tricks will turn into two trump tricks.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 38

Don't finesse empty honours. If you have J65 opposite AQ42 lead the low one towards the Queen. Leading the unsupported Jack will just mean the opposition will cover to promote their 10 or 9.
 

NOVICES TIP 39
1NT reply is not just a reply showing 6-9 points balanced , it is also a catchall dustbin bid showing poor hand when you aren't able to go to the 2 level with hands like  

♠  32                    or                   ♠  void

♥ 54                   even               ♥ 653

♦ Q9874                                   ♦ AJ654

♣KJ42                                      ♣ Q5432

 

INTERMEDIATES TIP  39
If you are going to win a trump trick anyway with a holding such as K104 or Q104  consider not overtrumping and petrhaps your one trump tricks will turn into two trump tricks.

 

 

ADVANCED TIP 39

If the opposition has found a fit at the 2 level make sure you balance as you cannot afford to let them make +110

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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