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Prepared games - Bridge - Game Plan 1 |
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Learning to make a good game plan
Learning to make a good game plan is essential to becoming a good bridge player. Around the table, once the opening lead has been played, it's customary to give declarer two or three minutes to make his game plan. Declarer never rushes to call the first card from dummy, because he knows that a contract can be lost with the very first card played. Establishing a game plan isn't just about deciding how to play the first trick, nor is it about more or less predicting which suit to play first once you've got the lead. It's about analyzing what you'll need to make your contract, what actions are possible (including distribution probabilities, chances of winning tricks, dangers to avoid, etc.), and finally, the order in which the chosen actions should be carried out.
Who is this page for?
If you are a beginner at the Beginner 2 level, you will definitely benefit from playing and replaying the prepared games of this page until you never go down again. These are simply basic game plans, perfectly within your reach. There is no pressure, so take your time and calmly practice the analyses and reasoning necessary for playing well. Adopt this small discipline, which will require some effort at first, but will quickly become automatic and help you progress in ways you can't imagine.
If you are an experienced player who has already played a lot, you can use these prepared games to check that you make your game plan correctly and that you don't fail to make contracts that a beginner accustomed to the right line of reasoning would easily make. If you fail to make one of these contracts, it means you have a flaw in your game plan. Don't tell yourself: "I played a bit too fast, that's my playing style, etc.". Instead, tell yourself: "I can't afford to go down on this contract".
Very good bridge players may also be interested in these prepared games if they want to offer them to students or average players having difficulty progressing. I tried to make the deals simple, almost trivial, but if the player has a major flaw in his game plan (or doesn't plan at all), then he is very likely to go down. At the end of the comment of each deal, I point out the mistakes to avoid. Some of them might seem unthinkable. And yet, we find players making them on practically every contract they play as declarer.
While playing against the computer offers excellent training conditions, it carries the risk of developing bad habits. Even when playing poorly, you can often make your contract and be quite satisfied. You may have taken unnecessary risks, weakened your hand or dummy's by cashing winning tricks for no reason or by making fruitless ruffs with trumps that were sure tricks. And yet, the final result didn't penalize you, and you think you're on the right track. But at other times, you'll go down on trivial contracts by making the very same mistakes that seem negligible or that completely escape your notice. These analytical errors, these bad reflexes—all these flaws that you will mistakenly come to consider winning strategies—will become so ingrained in your playing habits that soon you won't even want to correct them.
We all have the right to make mistakes, especially when playing against the computer, where no one will criticize us. And if we've developed a style of play that brings us pleasure, why change it? But around a table, with human players, we're no longer playing alone. Even when we're declarer, our partner in dummy is very attentive to the game. He participated in the bidding and wants the contract to be successful at least as much as we do. We owe him respect. And this respect requires us to (1) acknowledge our mistakes, (2) apologize for them without trying to excuse ourselves, and (3) make a minimum effort to improve. Without this mindset, we'll play selfishly for our own enjoyment, without considering the pain and inconvenience we'll very often inflict on our partner. Learning to make a good game plan isn't difficult. It just requires a little discipline and thought.
If you want this comment to appear only after the comparison, open the General preferences on the Play page and check the box In a prepared game, display the comment only after the comparison. Note that even if the comment is not visible, clicking the message bar at the bottom of the window can display it if needed.
Counting your sure tricks
When ducking whether to break or preserve communications, you must learn to recognize the most dangerous opponent. For example, it might be the one who, by getting the lead, will have enough tricks to make you go down. But it could also be the one who, by returning his partner's long suit, will jeopardize the only stopper you still hold there. Once you have identified the dangerous opponent, you will be careful not to let him get the lead.
With these few values, you can easily compare the chances of success of a length establishment with those of a honor establishment (100%), of a simple finesse (50%), and of a double finesse with 1 trick to lose (75%).
With this quick calculation, the opening leader's partner and declarer, who see 2 hands (their own and dummy's), can determine how many cards above the opening lead are in the 3rd hand. The rule of 11 also helps identify low leads that cannot be 4th best. For example, an 8 that shows 3 higher cards in the other hands, while 4 are visible in dummy, is not a 4th best lead. This is a top of nothing lead showing that the opening leader has no long suit to start with. Finally, note that a 9 is never a 4th best lead, because the opening leader would then choose a higher card in sequence. And the opening lead of a 2 (or a card you know to be the opening leader's lowest) shows a suit of only 4 cards.
Click a game, then Open or Open with
The advantages of the Rule of 11
In defense, the rule of 11 will often allow you to realize that your partner's opening lead of a low card is not a 4th best, and therefore does not come from a strong long suit. This will then be the moment to decide whether to make a switch to your own long suit, if you have one. But declarer must also know the rule of 11, because if he can spot a top of nothing lead from his left, he must then be wary of a possible switch from his right. If he has a weak suit with only one stopper, he must sometimes avoid ducking the first trick, for fear of a switch that could be fatal to his contract. Finally, in some rare but existing cases, the rule of 11 gives a clear advantage to the defense. Take, for example, the lead of the 7, which shows 11-7=4 higher cards in the other hands. If right from the opening lead the opening leader's partner sees 4 cards higher than the 7 between his hand and dummy's, he concludes that declarer has nothing higher than the 7! Admit it, that makes it easier to play the right card in third seat and defeat the contract!
The rule of 11 is easily explained: if the first numbered card was the 1, the number of cards above the 1 would be calculated as 13-1=12, 12 cards above the 1. Since the lowest card is the 2, the calculation must use 14 to obtain 14-2=12 cards above the 2. Finally, since we are only interested in the cards that do not belong to the opening leader, we must subtract the 3 cards that are higher than his 4th best. The calculation is therefore done starting from 14-3=11. That's the reason for the 11.
Counting the losers of the base hand
This way of counting losers in the trump suit is extremely important. It helps you understand that with 8 trumps in your line and the likely 3-2 break of the missing trumps, a base hand with 5 trumps necessarily has 2 length tricks in the trump suit (the 4th and 5th cards). These two trumps (often low cards) should not be used to ruff with the idea of winning 2 tricks, since they are already sure tricks. Ruffing urgently with these two trumps considerably weakens your base hand without winning any tricks. It's as if, in NT, you rushed to cash two Aces, congratulating yourself on having at least taken those first two tricks.
Do count 4 losers in a suit like KQJ10. Because they actually exist if you have to discard them to avoid losing any tricks in the suit, or if you're not sure to get the lead back after losing the Ace. So, intuitively, there's only 1 loser in the suit (the Ace), but keep in mind that there are conditions to meet and playing actions to prioritize.
Analyze whether any losers of the base hand can be discarded on the extra-winners of the secondary hand. If these losers are immediate and you risk losing the lead very quickly, discarding becomes urgent (but only in this case).
Analyze whether any losers of the base hand can be ruffed by the secondary hand. If the secondary hand will no longer have enough trumps after drawing the opponents' trumps, ruffing becomes urgent (but only in this case).
Also, don't forget to analyze the extra-winners of the base hand. These can sometimes allow you to discard cards from the secondary hand and create a possibility for a ruff (urgent or not). For example, take a suit with AKx opposite xxx. At first glance, this suit doesn't offer a possible ruff. But if you discard a low card from the side with xxx, you suddenly see a ruff appear without losing the lead (Ace, King, and low for a ruff). The base hand can therefore, through its own extra-winners, help eliminate its losers.
Before starting this type of establishment, you will often need to have drawn all opposing trumps. And the low trumps of your base hand (which you will have carefully kept) will serve to prevent the opponents from taking their own tricks.
Once you've analyzed the different ways to eliminate the losers of your base hand, you still need to decide which ones will be ruffed, which ones discarded, and which ones eliminated through a more conventional establishment. It's crucial to determine this in advance, so you don't later discard losers that could be ruffed or established. If you have losers to ruff or discard, this is when you must analyze whether ruffing is urgent (your secondary hand will run out of trumps if you play them too early), or whether discarding is urgent (your losers will be immediately lost if you give the lead to your opponent).
*Method invented by Bertrand Romanet, from the book "Bridge total" by B. Romanet.
Click a game, then Open or Open with
Even though there are many similarities between the game plan in a suit contract and the one in NT, the differences are significant. In No Trump, can you prevent the opponents from taking tricks in a suit where you have no stoppers? NO. Can you get to dummy in a suit where it has no cards left? NO. Can you establish a long suit where you are missing many honors without losing tricks? NO. But all of this becomes possible thanks to trumps. If, in a suit contract, you rush to make tricks by ruffing from both sides with low trumps because they are easy tricks and you think, as in NT, that the more tricks you make with low cards the better, you are making a grave mistake. By ruffing in a disorderly manner, you lose all the advantage that trumps gave you. And even though you might make your contract on certain deals that can be played equally well in a suit or NT contract, on others you'll go down, whereas a beginner who correctly makes his game plan will tell you from the opening lead: "This contract has a 100% chance of success". You must not, you cannot accept that.
In a suit contract, it is essential to avoid the trap of what could be called the ruffing frenzy. The method consisting in defining your base hand and analyzing its losers, a method described in most bridge books, will greatly help you with this. It will allow you to determine which losers you can ruff from the secondary hand, which you can discard, and which you can eliminate through a simple establishment. Make this work your own; it's not intuitive and you need to learn how to do it. Play and replay the deals of this page until the steps involved in developing a game plan in a suit contract become second nature. You'll see your level of play improve considerably, as well as your enjoyment of the game.
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