Play Bridge Like A Pro

We played bridge during our college days - NIT, Warangal, India - 1982-86. We are now connected online after 30 years and pooled a bunch of good old friends to play bridge on weekends. We decided to go an extra mile to share our knowledge and experience via 'Play Bridge Like A Pro' YouTube Channel.

We sincerely appreciate your support and feedback - Jai & Koti

Safety First - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

Safety play in contract bridge is a generic name for plays in which declarer maximizes the chances for fulfilling the contract (or achieving a certain score) by ignoring a chance for a higher score. Declarer uses safety plays to cope with potentially unfavorable layouts of the opponent's cards. In so doing, declarer attempts to ensure the contract even in worst-case scenarios, by giving up the possibility of overtricks.

Trust Your Partner - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

In contract bridge, the Rule of 11 is applied when the opening lead is the fourth best from the defender's suit. By subtracting the rank of the card led from 11, the partner of the opening leader can determine how many cards higher than the card led are held by declarer, dummy and himself; by deduction of those in dummy and in his own hand, he can determine the number in declarer's hand.

Avoidance Finesse - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

As an avoidance play, finesse may prove useful for keeping a particular opponent off lead.
♠ Q J 9 ♥ A 10 9 ♦ 10 7 5 4 2 ♣ 3 2♠ 3 ♠ A 6 5♥ 5 4 3 2 ♥ 8 7 6♦ Q 9 8 ♦ K J 6 3♣ A Q 10 9 5 ♣ J 7 6 ♠ K 10 8 7 4 2 ♥ K Q J ♦ A ♣ K 8 4
Against South’s 4♠ contract, West leads the ♠3. East plays two round of spades. South now leads a club from dummy. If East follows low, South should finesse the 8! This is an avoidance play, designed to keep East off lead and avoid the killing play of the third trump.If East has the ♣A, the next club lead will score the ♣K, and produce the game-going trick. However, if West has the ace, East can be prevented from leading the third round of trump. South later enters dummy with a heart, and leads a club to his king. This loses to West’s ace, but declarer cannot be prevented from ruffing his third club in dummy.
Source -- acbl.org

Desperation Finesse - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

Besides counting your winners in planning the play, you should also be aware of the number of tricks the opponents can cash off the top at any time. If this number is too high, you might be defeated before you can enjoy your winners.
If you have too many top losers, try to obtain an early discard — sometimes this requires that you try a desperation finesse.
Contract 4♠
♠ 2 ♥ A 9 8 ♦ A Q 8 5 ♣ K Q J 6 5♠ 7 5 ♠ K 8 6♥ Q 10 7 2 ♥ K J 5♦ K J 6 4 ♦ 10 9 7 3♣ 9 8 4 ♣ A 7 3 ♠ A Q J 10 9 4 3 ♥ 6 4 3 ♦ 2 ♣ 10 2Lead: ♥2
You count 6 trump winners and 2 aces. Given time it would be easy to establish two club tricks to make your contract; but the heart lead will knock out your ace, after which you are in jeopardy of losing two hearts, a spade and a club as soon as you surrender the lead.
The best play is to win the H A on the second round and lead a spade to the ace. The spade finesse should be rejected because, even if it works, you will not benefit unless East has precisely K-x. Next lead a diamond and finesse the queen — a 50-50 chance. If the finesse loses you will go down two instead of one, but when it wins you will make your contract.
Source: Important Suit Tactics by Richard Pavlicek

Eliminate to End Play - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

An elimination play is the deliberate removal of a side suit, usually by ruffing, to deprive the opponents of a safe lead. When declarer later gives up the lead, an opponent may be forced to surrender a trick.
The elimination play is especially valuable when declarer is left with a trump in each hand; then he can benefit from a ruff and discard.
The elimination play is common when you have at least 9 trumps and need to make a trick in a suit that involves a finesse.
Source: Important Suit Tactics by Richard Pavlicek

Tracking High-Card Points - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

Experts count everything: winners, losers, trumps and very important high-card points. Some players are better at bridge than others for a variety of reasons: card sense, concentration and knowledge, for example. But one factor is as important as the rest, and often more important -- "high-card points".
It pays to track everything at the bridge table, but never forget high-card points. Checking them will usually help you to place the unseen honor cards.
Source: NY Times article By Phillip Alder

Blackwood Convention - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

Blackwood is the most commonly used convention for Ace asking.
The Blackwood convention, developed early in the history of duplicate bridge, quickly gained popular approval. As many bridge teachers will point out, however, Blackwood may be responsiblefor more bidding disasters than any other convention developed. Understanding its proper use, therefore, is important for successful duplicate play.
The basic idea behind the Blackwood convention is to determine how many aces partner holds. In certain circumstances, this permits slams to be accurately bid — or avoided. The player whowishes to know how many aces partner holds bids 4NT, usually as part of a constructive auction.
following schedule of responses for 4NT Ace Asking:5♣ zero or four aces5♦ one ace5♥ two aces5♠ three aces
As an extension of the ace-asking idea, opener can ask for the number of kings responder holds by bidding 5NT. The responses:6♣ zero or four kings6♦ one king6♥ two kings6♠ three kings
Source: acbl.org

Card Split Percentages - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

Rules:2 cards out -- equal probability for 1-1, 2-0 splitOdd {3, 5, 7, 9} cards out -- higher probability for even split 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, 5-4Even {4, 6, 8} cards out -- higher probability for odd split 3-1, 4-2, 5-3
Following are the percentages for card division presume that there is NO evidence from bidding or play to alter the probabilities.....
2 1 - 1 52% 3 2 - 1 78% 2 - 0 48% 3 - 0 22%
4 2 - 2 41% 5 3 - 2 68% 3 - 1 50% 4 - 1 28% 4 - 0 10% 5 - 0 4%
6 3 - 3 35% 7 4 - 3 62% 4 - 2 49% 5 - 2 30% 5 - 1 15% 6 - 1 7% 6 - 0 2% 7 - 0 0.5%
8 4 - 4 33% 9 5 - 4 59% 5 - 3 47% 6 - 3 31% 6 - 2 17% 7 - 2 9% 7 - 1 3% 8 - 1 1% 8 - 0 0.2% 9 - 0 0.1%

The Coup - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

This is an excerpt from Milton C. Work's book "Auction Developments", published in 1913. The play by Mr. J.P. Gregg, of Philadelphia, during an important game at the Racquet Club in that city during January, 1913, was documented by Milton as most Brilliant Play Ever Made. Do you agree?

Good Deal - to Play Bridge Like A Pro

Interesting 6♦ bid and card play. Pure joy playing bridge with friends.

Bridge Resources

Auction Developments by Milton C. Work 1913