1. Plan before you play
Read the opening lead. Ask why this suit and why this card.
Count sure winners. Count tricks you can cash now without losing the lead.
Find the gap. Tricks needed minus sure winners tells you how many tricks must be developed.
Choose the source. Long suits, promotion and finesses are the usual ways to create the missing tricks.
2. Defence strength
Choose the level of defence you want to practise against. Both levels obey the rules of play; the difference is how actively the defenders try to disrupt declarer’s plan.
- Intermediate: straightforward, competent defence. Defenders follow suit, win economically and make sensible returns. They do not deliberately hold up, unblock or attack declarer’s entries and communication.
- Advanced: active No Trump defence. Defenders may hold up, switch to a danger suit, preserve communication by unblocking or refusing to overtake, and keep forcing a vulnerable stopper.
Use Intermediate while concentrating on counting and establishing tricks. Move to Advanced when you want your timing, entries and danger-hand planning tested.
3. Count sure winners
In No Trumps, count winners rather than losers. A sure winner is available immediately.
- Count the unbroken top honours in each suit.
- Do not count a finesse until it succeeds.
- Do not count length tricks until the defenders’ cards have been cleared.
- Keep recounting after every trick.
4. Read the opening lead
- Top of a sequence: expect touching honours below the card led.
- Near sequence: usually two touching honours with a useful card just below.
- Internal sequence: the sequence sits below a higher honour.
- Fourth highest: often from length headed by an honour; consider the Rule of 11.
- MUD: middle-up-down from three small cards; normally a passive lead.
5. Rule of 11
When the lead is fourth highest, subtract the rank of the card led from 11.
11 − lead rank = number of cards higher than the lead in the other three hands.
After dummy appears, subtract the higher cards you can see in dummy and declarer’s hand. The remainder are with the third hand.
6. Develop the long suit
Your longest combined suit is often the main source of extra tricks.
- Drive out missing high cards early if you can afford to lose the lead.
- Estimate how the missing cards may break.
- Preserve an entry to the hand holding the eventual long-card winners.
- Avoid cashing side winners too early if they are needed as entries later.
7. Finesses and promotion
- A finesse tries to win a trick with a lower honour by placing a missing higher honour in the favourable defender’s hand.
- Examples include A-Q against a missing K, and A-K-J against a missing Q.
- Promotion means deliberately losing to a higher card so that your remaining honour becomes a winner.
- Prefer certain tricks first unless the timing of the hand demands otherwise.
8. Hold up in the danger suit
If the defenders attack a long suit and you have only one stopper, winning the first round may let them run the suit when they regain the lead.
A hold-up—ducking one or more rounds—can break communication between the defenders. Use it when you must lose the lead while developing your own tricks.
9. Entries and timing
- An entry is a card that lets you reach the other hand.
- Ask which hand will contain the established winners.
- Keep enough entries to reach those winners after the opponents’ stopper has been removed.
- Unblock honours when necessary so a suit can run freely.
10. A useful order of play
Lead → count → plan → develop → cash.
- Decide what to do at trick one.
- Hold up if communication must be cut.
- Develop the suit that will provide the missing tricks.
- Only then cash winners, watching entries and blocked suits.
11. Keep the contract in view
No Trump declarer play is a counting exercise. You do not need every possible trick—only enough to make the contract.
- 1NT needs 7 tricks.
- 2NT needs 8 tricks.
- 3NT needs 9 tricks.
When you have enough tricks, avoid unnecessary risks.
12. Advanced defence in action
With Advanced selected, good defenders are not simply trying to win the next trick. They are trying to damage your timing and communication.
- Defensive hold-up: with A-x or A-x-x in the suit you are establishing, a defender may duck one or two rounds before taking the ace.
- Attack the danger suit: when a defender gains the lead, expect a switch or return to the suit that threatens your contract most.
- Keep communication: defenders may unblock an honour under partner’s winner, or refuse to overtake, so the long defensive hand stays on lead.
- Force the stopper: against one remaining stopper, defenders may keep leading the suit even when a round appears to concede a trick, because the long cards may then run.
Watch the defenders’ carding as part of your plan. Their aim is to make your entries disappear before your long suit is ready.