Читать книгу The Times Beginner’s Guide to Bridge - Andrew Robson - Страница 44

When there is no trump suit, in each round of play the highest card in the lead suit wins the trick. A player unable to follow suit cannot win the trick so must throw away a card in a different suit.

As declarer you must plan your strategy before you play from dummy at Trick one. First count how many tricks are ‘off the top’, i.e. how many you can make before losing the lead. Note that you don’t play out these ‘top tricks’ at this stage.

Let’s return to a previous example:

Between the two hands, declarer has four top spades (provided he plays his top cards in the right order) and two top hearts: a total of six. Note that he doesn’t have any top tricks in diamonds and clubs – he’ll have to lose the lead before establishing tricks in these suits. In the bidding he has contracted for 3NT (six plus three = nine tricks out of a total of 13) and he can now work out that he needs three extra tricks to win (six + three extra = nine). He has two options:

(a) To take the six top tricks (i.e. ♠AKQJ and ♥AK) straight away, then look around for the three more he needs. (b) To focus first on generating those three extra tricks. The wisest strategy on almost all deals (and particularly no-trumps) is (b). The two strategies can be likened to a tortoise and a hare.

Tortoise and hare

I often equate the choice of strategies in a bridge deal to a race between a tortoise and a hare. The hare loves to get off to a flying start; cashing his top tricks straight away. The tortoise, on the other hand, is happy to lose the lead early, knowing he’ll polish up later on.

In the example on p. 40, let’s see what happens to the hare. He cashes all his spades and hearts, then, unable to cash any more tricks, turns to diamonds. The difficulties arise because when his opponents win the lead – as they’re sure to with ♦A – they’ll go on to cash promoted low-card winners in hearts (and perhaps spades) with cards left over in their hands. Together with ♦A and ♣AK (tricks he has no choice but to lose), the hare will lose too many tricks and fail to make his contract. There’s no bonus for taking early tricks.

The tortoise, on the other hand, wins ♥K, then focuses on establishing the three extra tricks (additional to his six top tricks) needed for his nine-trick contract. He works out that these can all be made by forcing out ♦A. At trick two, he leads ♦Q (he could equally well lead ♦10, or ♦2 to ♦K/♦J). His opponents are likely to win ♦A on this trick; if they don’t, the tortoise’s ♦Q is promoted into a trick and he leads a second diamond to force out ♦A. The beauty of flushing out ♦A early on is that the tortoise retains control of the other suits. If his opponents decide to cash ♣A and ♣K, this will promote the tortoise’s ♣Q and ♣J. More likely, they’ll lead a second heart. The tortoise then wins ♥A and has three promoted diamond winners. All he needs to do is cash his four top spades without blocking himself, to give him his nine top tricks. He plays ♠K first (highest card from the shorter length) and leads ♠3 to ♠AQJ. Nine tricks and game contract made.

must know

Before play commences, as declarer you should:

• observe the very important etiquette of saying ‘Thank you partner’ as dummy tables her hand;

• count up how many top tricks you have (i.e. tricks you can make before losing the lead);

• work out how many extra tricks you need;

• go for those extra tricks as soon as possible. We have learnt two methods so far: (a) by force (flushing out opposing higher cards), and (b) by length (exhausting the opponents of their cards in a suit, enabling you to make tricks with cards you have left over).