(564) Improve Your Card Play: Establishing Length

This Week in Bridge

(564) Card Play – Establishing Length 

© AiB                                               Robert S. Todd
Level:  5 of 10                                robert@advinbridge.com

General

We usually win tricks with little cards (other than in the trump suit) by setting up our long suits. To establish these little cards in our long suits into winners, we need to play the hand well.  This requires using our large cards in the best way possible to establish our little cards. That means we need to play our combinations as best as we can, manage our transportation, and have some good luck in the way the cards divide. Let’s see how we can properly manage our cards to take our tricks.

 Good Split!?!

One of the ways we set up our long suits is to depend on good luck. When we play on a suit and are trying to turn the little cards into winners, we need for the suits to behave themselves.

Example 1

♣ AKQ54

♣ 643

Here we expect to take five tricks from this ♣ suit – three tricks from our honor cards and two tricks from the little cards - but this assumes that the suit splits 3-2. If the suit splits 4-1 then we will only be able to establish one of our small cards into winners, taking four tricks instead of five.

Example 2

What if we have no outside entries to get back to the long suit?

♦ AKQ54

♦ 643

If we need five tricks to make our contract, then we play the same way (from the top.)  If we need only four tricks, we should consider playing the Ace and then playing a low card – giving the opponents a trick, but ensuring four tricks for us, even if the suit splits 4-1. If we play from the top and the suit splits 4-1, we will go down.

Building the Suit

Another key part of taking tricks from small cards is patience. When we have a long suit with lots of honors we build tricks relatively quickly, but if we have a weak suit it may take much longer to develop tricks.

Example 3 – Certain Losers Early

♥ A7643

♥ 852

Here, even if the suit splits 3-2, we will lose two tricks. The best way to maintain communication is to give up the first AND second rounds of the suit. Then we can play a third ♥ to the dummy and run the rest of the suit.

Example 4 – Hard Work

♠ 97643

♠ 852

If this suit splits 3-2 then we can lose the first three rounds of the suit and finally the last two cards will be winners. Of course, we will need a way back to partner’s hand to collect these final two winners, but still, we can eventually produce tricks from this suit.

Most of the time we do not have enough time, especially in a NT contract, to set a suit like this up.  Sometimes in a suit contract though, the opponents are nice enough to lead their honors and set this suit up for us.  If we play in a contract like 1NT, we often do well to work hard and slowly develop a long suit like this.

Ruffing a Suit Out

Another way that we turn little tricks into winners can be by ruffing out a suit to establish it without losing any additional tricks.

Example 5

♣ AK643

♣ 52

If this is a side suit in a suit contract, then we can play the ♣A and ♣K and ruff the third round of ♣ in our hand. If the suit is 3-3, then we will be left with two small cards that are winners (as long as we can get back to the dummy to collect them). If the suit splits 4-2 we may have to ruff two rounds of ♣ and return to finally get one additional winner.

Conclusion

Establishing our little cards in our long suits can be done in a variety of different ways, but we need to make sure to play our cards in a way that allows us to easily take our tricks. This may mean unblocking our suits, ruffing out our suits, or handling our card combinations properly. We also need to be patient when it comes to building our long suits, especially in a contract like 1NT. Make sure that you work hard to produce tricks from your long suits and give yourself every opportunity to take “extra” tricks.