As I’ve said often in this column, declarer play is probably the most difficult of the three main disciplines in bridge (bidding, declarer play and defence) to learn.

Improving one’s declarer play comes from practice, but there are a number of “guidelines” one can follow which will tilt the odds in your favour.

An important part of declarer play is also “table presence” – how quickly or smoothly does an opponent play a card in a guessing situation, what would a “normal” defender do in certain situations, what can you read into the opening lead?

Also important is looking beyond the “obvious” play and looking for additional chances, especially if they come at no cost. This week’s hand (see Figure 1) is a good example of some of the above.

This deal came up in a Teams game where both South players became declarer in four hearts on the lead of the Queen of diamonds.

The first declarer was a simple player who was noted more for his speed of play rather than his planning of it. He took the Queen of diamonds with dummy’s Ace and played a trump.

East rose with the Ace of trumps and exited with his remaining trump. On winning this with his King, declarer played Ace and another club.

When West followed with a low club declarer called for dummy’s Queen. East took this with the king and exited with a low club. Declarer ruffed this and then led a spade to dummy’s Queen. When that lost declarer had to accept that he was down one while muttering, “That was unlucky – both kings were wrong.”

At the other table, declarer was a bit more experienced and a lot more patient – this declarer cashed the King and Ace of diamonds before leading the Jack of hearts. East made the excellent play of rising with the Ace and exited with the seven of trumps. Notice that if he ducked the first heart he would be end-played on the next round.

On winning his King of trumps, declarer now played Ace and another club. However, when West played low smoothly, instead of playing dummy’s Queen, declarer’s plan was to cover West’s card if he failed to produce the King.

Here, West’s eight was covered by the nine. East won the trick with the Jack of clubs and found himself end-played.

A spade return would give declarer an automatic tenth trick with the Queen of spades while a diamond return would do the same via a ruff and discard.

East decided to exit with a low club in the hope that declarer would make the mistake of ruffing it. Instead, declarer threw a spade from hand and had ten tricks, despite the King of spades being over the Queen.

Declarer’s spade discard was a no- lose play – if it turned out that West had found a clever duck with the King of clubs, the Queen of clubs would then be declarer’s tenth trick.

The Club play/decision will come up often in different guises – let’s say you are trying to make two club tricks from Q106 in dummy opposite A72 in your hand.

You cash the Ace and lead a low one towards the Queen-ten and West plays low – what card do you play? Do you play the Queen playing LHO for the King, or do you play the ten playing LHO to hold the Jack?

In the absence of any information it is 50/50, but given that a number of players on your left would play the King if they have it, the chance are that they don’t have the King if they play low – so your best play is the ten, hoping to draw the King.

If LHO hesitated before playing low that might make you think they have the King so the Queen would be the right play, as long as you know they are not the type to hesitate in order to make you go wrong! Against an expert LHO will play smoothly low whether they have the King or not, so it is 50/50.

The theme running through a lot of the above is patience – winning late is as good, if not better, than winning early, and if you allow the defenders to help you they often will!

• David Ezekiel can be contacted at davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Monday, August 5

1. Patricia Siddle-Diana Diel

2. Gertrude Barker-Jane Smith

3. Betsy Baillie-Charles Hall

Tuesday, August 6

1. Vivian Pereira-John Thorne

2. Tracey Pitt-Desiree Woods

Wednesday, August 7

1. Rachael Gosling-Judy King.

2. Charles Hall-Tony Saunders

3. Richard Gray-Wendy Gray

Thursday, August 8

1. Rachael Gosling-Clifford Alison

2. Linda Pollett-Kirsty Pollett

3. John Glynn-Gertrude Barker