First Lessons
General Advice
- What Card To Lead
- Cue Bidding
- Jacoby
- Leading and Bidding
- More on Leading
- Lead Priority
- Splinter Bids
- Sputnik Bids (Negative Doubles)
- The Safe Hand
Lesson 1
Open all
balanced or semi-balanced 12 – 14 point hands
1 no trump, even with a small doubleton.
You may have a 5 card minor but not a 5 card major unless
it’s a very poor suit
Playing
4 card majors, the only time you open a 4 card major is if you’re
planning to rebid in notrumps so you must have 15+ points.
What do
I open with 12 – 14 points and a 4 4 4 1 hand?
Open the minor – with both minors open 1 club.
When
responding to an opening bid of 1 of a major treat it initially as a
5 card suit, ie with 6 -9 points raise to 2 of the suit with 3 cards
rather than bidding 1NT.
If you
open a major and rebid any other suit you promise 5 cards in the
first suit bid.
If
partner opens a major and rebids 2NT a bid of 3 of his major suit by
you promises 3 cards and is forcing – ie he bids game in the suit if
he holds 5 cards or 3 NT if not.
Play
When
leading, lead a low card from 3 or 4 headed by an honour.
From weak suits with no honour lead the second highest – with
3, use MUD with 4 or more play the 4th highest on the
next round – partner should be able to work out that it isn’t a
doubleton.
Against
notrumps avoid leading a suit they have bid unless
you have a very strong holding.
Prefer a short suit lead in an unbid suit.
In a
suit contract try to ruff with the short trump
holding if you can – that way you make extra tricks.
So if dummy has a singleton in another suit and 3 trumps go
for the ruffs before drawing trumps.
If you hold 5 good trumps in your hand and draw trumps you
make 5 trump tricks but if you ruff with the short holding you make
6 trump tricks or 7 if you score 2 ruffs.
When
‘cashing’ a suit play the high cards from the short holding first to
avoid ‘blocking’ the suit.
Eg with Qx
opposite AKx play the Q first.
When
defending against notrumps don’t keep switching from suit to suit –
it gives away tricks.
Unless a switch is obvious keep plugging away with your original
lead and hope to establish a long card in it – let declarer
do the work.
