Since we are in the summer doldrums as far as bridge is concerned I thought it might be an idea to help you master certain popular suit combinations that come up time and time again at the table — and even “advanced” players get wrong time and time again! If you are happy with your bridge game and don’t want your head clogged with knowledge, even truth, now is the time to stop reading. If, however, you want to take some easy steps to better scores read on.

Before I get to the actual cards a little bit more on improving at bridge. Remember that bridge is probably the toughest “mind game” game to learn as evidenced by the attrition rate during beginners’ lessons, as the new players get demoralised at not being able to pick it up as quickly as other games such as backgammon or even chess which, as complicated as it is, is easier to get a grip on the basic moves. Bridge needs work — you cannot improve without looking back at what you did and building on the good stuff and trying to cut out the bad. It is a thinking game and thus requires … thought! Turning up on a Tuesday and then turning up next Tuesday with nothing in between is not a recipe for success — to use a golfing analogy, you need to go to the practice range in between!

A famous Florida bridge teacher who taught hundreds of players each year, and saw many coming to his lessons year after year without doing any work in between used to open his lesson season with the brutal phrase “Welcome — this year we will teach you new ways to lose!” Make sure he isn’t talking to you!

So, on to the most frustrating errors I see — I am only going to cover a few common combinations as covering all of them takes up 58 pages in the Bridge Encyclopaedia! In all cases assume this is the trump suit in a pairs game and that you have ample entries to both hands and that there is no opposition bidding to guide you — and you want to make the maximum tricks from the suit.

1) The most common error. Let’s give you A653 in dummy opposite QJ42 in your hand. Yes, of course, you play the Queen hoping the King is on your left … wrong! Before I go on, indulge me in something. Try and find ANY suit combination of the opposing cards that will allow you to avoid a loser in this suit. Correct, there are none! So, once you accept that you have at least one loser in this suit, which you do, you must find a play that helps you avoid two losers. That will be the theme in all the combinations I discuss.

The answer to this one? Play a low card to the Ace and a low one back towards the QJ4. When does this gain against the other play? When the suit is distributed as so:

K 10982

None K10982

X K109X

In each of these cases starting with the Queen costs you a trick.

Notice those spot cards (cards lower than a 10) as they often change the percentage play. For instance if you add a 10 to your hand and have A653 in dummy opposite QJ102 in your hand the finesse becomes right as you can now pick up Kx or Kxx with LHO and have no losers.

1) Now let’s add another low card to the dummy and you have A7653 in dummy opposite QJ42 in your hand … by playing the Queen you can now pick up Kx on your left — three chances out of 16 possible combinations of these cards — so if you want the maximum tricks that is your play (there are different plays if you can afford to lose a trick and want to avoid losing two).

3) Then you have the wonderful AQ32 opposite 7654 combination … again there is no way to avoid one loser and fewer ways to avoid 2! Low to the Queen holds your losers to one if LHO holds Kx or Kxx, but with ANY other distribution of the cards you lose two tricks and if there is a singleton King on your right you actually lose 3 tricks in the suit. So, in order to avoid the only avoidable bad result you should cash the Ace first and then come back to your hand and lead towards the Queen … if LHO plays takes the King all is well and good and if he doesn’t you have a choice — play the Queen or just play low hoping for a distribution where RHO started with Kx as below:

N AQ32

W J109

E K8

S 7654

Often, finding the right play here usually depends on whether you think LHO is a strong player (where it is 50-50), or whether you think LHO is a weak player who would normally take the King if they had it, which makes ducking in dummy a huge favourite.

4) Now once again let’s add a card to dummy and give you AQ832 opposite 7654 … once again you have nine cards and if Kx is on your left (so that would be KJ, K10, or K9, three possibilities) you can bring the suit in for no losers by leading a low one to the Queen. If, unluckily, the Queen loses to the singleton King on your right you will now have two losers in the suit but since that is only going to happen once out of all the distributions playing the Queen is a good risk as it wins in three possibilities of distribution. Sorry for the detailed analysis but it might help you work stuff at a later date … usually after the hand is over!

5) Right, I think that is (almost) enough for now but I must leave you with some thoughts on the classic “eight ever, nine never” rule for finessing a Queen when you have eight or nine cards in total such as AKJ10 opposite 9876 or AKJ105 opposite 9876 … in both cases you must cash the Ace first in case there is a singleton Queen in either hand … assuming there isn’t you must come to your hand and lead a low one towards dummy ... in the first case, with eight cards it is correct to play the Jack when LHO plays low ... in the second case, with nine cards, the odds favour playing for “the drop”, ie play the King.

Hence the saying “eight ever, nine never” which talks about whether you finesse or not when you are just missing the Queen.

So there we are ... seems like a lot but it really isn’t … read it a few times and most of it will sink in!