Notrump Fundamentals
Robert Todd
(620) NT Play: Developing Winners – Choice of ...

Once we learn the core techniques of NT declarer play, promotion, length, and finesse, then we need to develop the skills of implementing each of them to take tricks when they come up at the table.  But unfortunately, declarer play is not always as simple as finding one of these techniques and putting it to use. Sometimes we have multiple techniques to choose from, and we need to construct a line of play that is going to be successful. Let’s look at how each of these works.

(620) NT Play: Developing Winners – Choice of Techniques
Notrump Fundamentals
Robert Todd
(619) NT Play: Developing Winners – Types of ...

When we declare in a notrump contract, we need to produce winners. We begin by counting our immediate winners, cards like Aces and Ace-Kings, that can be used to take a sure trick. We then turn our focus to how we can develop other cards into winners, called potential winners. The traditional methods for developing winners are Promotion, Length, and Finesse. These techniques are not certain to produce winners, but they give us a chance of producing additional tricks if lucky things happen for us. Here we look at each of these methods in detail to help us understand our options and determine when to make use of the different trick development techniques.

(619) NT Play: Developing Winners – Types of Winners
Play of the Hand
Robert Todd
(618) Fundamentals of Trick Taking - FInesse or ...

When we declare in a suit contract, there is a trump suit, and hopefully, we have more of these cards than the opponents (if not, please reconsider the bidding!) That means that when we gain the lead, we have the option of attempting to remove all of the opponents’ trump, or “draw trump.” Let’s look at our options and considerations for how and when to do this.

(618) Fundamentals of Trick Taking - FInesse or Drop
Play of the Hand
Robert Todd
(617) Fundamentals of Trick Taking - Finesses

When it comes to taking tricks, immediate winners are our starting point.  Then come the winners that we can develop using Promotion, Length, or Finesse.  Here we look in detail at the technique of finesse.  A finesse is an act of taking a trick in a suit with a card that is not the “master” card in that suit.  We do this by taking advantage of the location of the card that is higher-ranking (by finessing against it).  A finesse usually requires a tenace of honors that allows us take advantage of a favorably located honor of the opponents (a holding like AQ with the King in front of it).  There are other kinds of finesses as well.  Let’s look at this method in detail.

(617) Fundamentals of Trick Taking - Finesses
Play of the Hand
Robert Todd
(616) Fundamentals of Trick Taking - Ruffing ...

When we declare a hand in a suit contact, we usually look at our number of losers.  We start by counting our certain losers (the ones we know we cannot avoid), then estimate our potential losers, and make a plan for trying to get rid of as many of our potential losers as possible.  We start by approximating our losers from the long trump side (which is frequently declarer’s hand). When we have potential losers in a side suit, one of the ways that we can get rid of these losers is by trumping them with the short side’s trump.  Ruffing losers in the short side is a useful declarer play technique and one we need to make sure to make use whenever possible.

(616) Fundamentals of Trick Taking - Ruffing Losers

Play of the Hand

(122) Declarer Play - Suits: Counting Losers

(122) Declarer Play - Suits: Counting Losers

Suit Contracts play differently than Notrump Contracts.  Specifically, in most suit contracts we are in control of the hand, because we have a trump suit.  This allows us to count our losers instead of worrying about our more immediate winners.  This week, we begin our discussion of suit contracts by taking a look at how this works in more detail.

(121) Declarer Play - Notrump: Length vs. Strength

(121) Declarer Play - Notrump: Length vs. Strength

In all contracts, but especially in Notrump, developing a long suit into winners is a highly effective way to make our contract.  We will look at these options and compare them to establishing tricks the old fashioned way (with our High Cards) and see how we can combine these two skills to improve our play.