Susie Leo

Intermediate/Newcomer Coordinator

 Play of the Hand

If you attended the High Desert Regional in May and attended Jeff Roman’s amazing classes, you already know this information and don’t need to keep reading. However, if you missed hearing his brilliant lessons, here is a sample of something that might just help you as declarer with your play of the hand.

Let’s say you and your partner won the contract and you are declarer. Jeff said that once dummy’s hand is down, you STOP. Before you play even one card, you do these things.

Let’s pretend you are in 4♠.

1. Count your tricks. How many do you need to make 4♠? Of course that would be 10 tricks. Do you have those tricks right off the bat? Well, that almost never happens. Where can you find the extra tricks?
2. Count your losers. Missing the ace of trumps or the queen in your long side suit? Be aware of what tricks you will most likely lose and plan for it.
3. Review the bidding. (Clues) Did the opps both pass? Or did they bid? If so, what did they bid? Did their partner support at a low level? There are so many clues just from the bidding, even when they pass. That’s information too.
4. Entry management. Let’s say the dummy has a long side suit. How are you going to get there to take all those fabulous tricks? Make sure you plan for an entry to dummy’s hand.
5. Trump management. Do you need to draw trumps or use them for ruffing? I wish I had a crystal ball for this one. Short of that, there are many great books on this topic that we can study.
6. Danger hand? Which opp do you want on lead and which one do you need to keep OFF the lead? Did one of the opps bid or double? Aha! Another clue.
7. Make and execute your plan. Once you have designed the play of the hand, try your best to make it happen!

As you can see, before playing even one card, you have some thinking and analyzing to do. You say this will take too long and slow down the play? No worries. Just try adding these things one at a time. Before you know it – or maybe in a few years – you will do all these steps automatically within a few seconds.

Thanks again to Jeff Roman. It was wonderful to learn from such an experienced and hilarious guy.

Susie Leo