Bridge Bites Index by Topic

Declarer Play

Remembering the Auction: As Declarer plays the hand, he bears in mind the bids that the opponents made and also the bids that were not made, as he builds up a picture of the whole hand. 19 20 25 33 74 108 128 130
Counting the Distribution: Counting out the defenders’ distribution is possibly the most valuable technique at Declarer’s disposal. So it’s not surprising that successful Declarers never stop counting! 1 10 22 24 25 35 37 70 89 99 131 141
Counting the HCP: Good Declarers also routinely count the HCP that appear in the opponents’ hands … closely related to Remembering the Auction. 5 18 20 21 33 34 70 105
Entry Management: In these hands the route to success requires that Declarer organizes transportation between her hand and Dummy in optimal fashion. 2 12 46 49 51 56 69 71 115 118 124 125 137 142
Fishing for Clues: The clues don’t always come gift-wrapped, sometimes you must go fishing for them. The posh name is for this activity is “making discovery plays”. 21 25 44 45 74 99
Deduction: Deals in which Declarer uses diverse clues to figure out the lie of the cards. 1 19 73 74 85 87 102 105 107
Ruffing: Cross-ruffing, dummy reversals, maintaining trump control, when to postpone the drawing of trumps, you will find it all here! 18 34 48 51 53 54 57 58 63 81 86 95 98 100 109
Card-Play Technique: Some deals don’t come with a neat label, and here we have a grab-bag of unlabeled odds and ends in which Declarer gets the chance to show superior technique. 2 4 10 18 31 53 55 62 64 80 82 88 104 112 123 132 134
Throw-In Plays: Hands where Declarer forces the opponents to break open the key suit. Many of these hands involve “elimination play” in which the defender’s safe exit cards have been removed. 11 13 52 65 77 79 96 120 122 136
Deceptive Plays: Deceiving the opponents is the bridge player’s favorite occupation, here are a few delightful examples. 7 9 38 60 85 101 116 121 138 143
Hold-Up Plays: Declining to take winners early can disrupt the enemy communications, especially in No Trump contracts. 24 40 43 75 114
Card Combinations: Where we examine individual suit layouts and see how to extract the maximum number of tricks from them. 5 11 13 22 28 83 110
Matchpoint Decisions: In duplicate play we strive mightily for overtricks, sometimes at risk to life, limb and contract. 76 90 95 119
Squeeze Play: The connoisseur’s favorite, see how tricks can sometimes be conjured up out of thin air! 50 65 70 84 89 92
Trump Magic!: A handful of deals where we enjoy the exotica of Trump Coups and Coups en Passant! 37 72 93 105
Assorted Gems: A collection of brilliancies, such as the Crocodile Coup, Morton’s Fork, the Striptease Coup, and other gems 9 35 36 39 41 42 78 117

Defensive Play

Opening Leads & Deadly Shifts: Opening leads are tough! It’s often pretty much a guess. Here are a few deals where sound logic comes up with the winner! And also some requiring a deadly shift. 4 17 26 40 61 66 68 102 113 133
Count Signals: When Declarer plays a suit the defenders are advised to give “count signals” in order to help Partner figure out the distribution. Here are some examples. 12 15 30 43 73 85
Counting the Distribution: Yes, this is just as important for the defenders as it is for Declarer, maybe even more so! See also Count Signals 30 80
Suit Preference: Another signaling device, this one intended to tell Partner where our strength lies or to which suit we’d like Partner to shift. 4 26
Partnership Defense: In which we give examples of the defenders operating like a well-oiled machine, as they conspire for the ultimate demise of Declarer. 7 17 23 27 29 32 35 66 103 106 129 135 140
Smooth Ducks: When Declarer takes a losing finesse, it is sometimes a good idea to lure him to his destruction by letting the finesse win! 47 49 59 90 126
The Art of Concealment: Those Declarers will go to great lengths to figure out what you’ve got, and your job is to thwart them in their efforts! 21 33 44 111
Delicious Deception: It’s always gratifying to hoodwink Declarer, so check out these gems! 6 8 12 21 50 67 90 97 106 127
Trump Promotion: A collection of deals where the defense can create an extra trump trick with the aid of an “uppercut” or by forcing Declarer to ruff high or by attacking his trump control. 14 15 16 17 94 139
Attacking Entries: Sometimes the route to success is to attack the entries in Dummy or Declarer, ruining their communication. Here are some such hands. 39 43 88 115

Bidding

Bridge Bites is mostly about the play of the cards, but there are a handful of Bites with subject matter
of interest in the area of bidding. They are: 2 3 5 10 13 50 87 91 102