Real World Bridge 3: Declarer Play

Less experienced players tend to play suit contracts rapidly and by a formula, only stopping to think after pulling trumps. Following is the formula approach (by less experienced players) that we observed in our research:

Do the following without pausing for thought:

1. Declare as if the auction had not occurred.
2. If you can win the first trick, win it. Win it as cheaply as possible. If you can win it cheaply in either hand, win it in your hand, not in the dummy.
3. Play trumps next. First exception: if you have less than eight combined trumps, don’t play trumps at all. Second exception: if you don’t have either the Ace or King in the trump suit, don’t play trumps at all.
4. If, looking at the trump suit in isolation, it’s normal to take a finesse, take the finesse, without regard to the auction, the lead, or the layout. If it’s a two-way finesse, assume it’s exactly a 50-50 choice, and use your intuition.
5. If you can extract all of the opponents’ trumps, do so. Exception: but not if doing so would require using your last trump.
6. Don’t stop to think until you’ve pulled trumps.

We acknowledge that, if we were teaching beginners, it might be reasonable to start with a formula approach, giving the beginners a place to start. We’re not suggesting that you, personally, follow this specific formula approach. But, in our research, we observed that lots of players are – perhaps unconsciously – influenced by many parts of the incorrect formula described above.