Stop before you play
When the opening lead is made and dummy appears, do not play a card yet. Count the tricks you can take without losing the lead — your sure tricks — and compare them with the contract. The difference is the number of tricks you still have to develop.
Four ways to make extra tricks
- Promotion: drive out the opponents’ higher cards so yours become winners (lead the K to knock out the A, then your Q and J are good).
- Length: a long suit produces tricks once the opponents run out — a 5-card suit opposite 3 often gives two extra tricks.
- Finesse: lead towards a high card hoping the missing honour is in front of it — the A-Q finesse wins half the time.
- Ruffing: in a trump contract, trump the opponents’ winners in the short hand (usually dummy).
Suit contracts: draw trumps?
Usually yes — take the opponents’ trumps away so they cannot ruff your winners. Wait with drawing trumps when you need dummy’s trumps for ruffing, or when you must set up a side suit first.
No-trump contracts: the hold-up
Against 3NT the defenders lead their longest suit. If you have one stopper, hold it up until one defender has no more cards in the suit, so that when that defender gets in later they cannot return it. The Deal of the Day on the home page shows exactly this.
Safe hand, danger hand
Once you know which defender can hurt you (the one with the long suit), arrange your finesses so that if they lose, they lose to the other defender — the safe hand.
A simple habit that wins: say to yourself "I need N tricks; I have M; I will find the rest from ___" before touching a card.