Introduction
You are the declarer in a No Trump contract. Your partner’s cards are the dummy hand, displayed on the table for everyone to see. As the declarer, you are responsible for playing both hands. You will play the cards from dummy, or your partner will play a card only as you direct.
In a no-trump contract, the highest card in the led suit always wins. This page builds on the tactics described on the Playing Fundamentals page. You will know better if you need to apply a tactic and when a tactic is appropriate.
Many of the Bridge concepts on these pages comes from How to Play Bridge Like a Boss by Anthony Medley. I will try to denote the ideas that are my own.
Maintaining Control
Playing No Trump is about maintaining control. You have control when you have winners or stoppers in each suit, assuring that you will regain the lead when you win one of the next tricks. You lose control when you can’t get the lead back from the defenders. A stopper is a high card in a suit with enough supporting cards. In the suit Jxxx, the Jack is a stopper.
General Strategy
Communication between hand and dummy is important and takes constant planning before you take your winners. You get from hand to dummy by leading a suit from your hand that has a winning card in dummy. You get from dummy to hand by leading a suit from dummy that also has a winner in your hand. Before you play a card that breaks the communication chain, be sure to play all winners in the hand before leaving it for good.
When the left-hand opponent leads a card and you have honors on the dummy and in your hand, consider playing low from dummy. You have a good or certain chance to get an extra trick, and you may keep a stopper for another round. The same trick works in reverse if the right-hand opponent leads a card.
Before each trick, count sure tricks as explained in Playing Fundamentals. If you have enough sure tricks to make your bid, take them. If you have lost control because you can’t stop your opponents from winning all the tricks in a suit, then you should consider cutting losses and take your winners. Otherwise, you should apply a tactic to make more winners. A good starting strategy is to set up a long suit. You may need to lose a trick. Consider finessing a King or Queen. Finesse the queen only if you have a total of 8 cards in the suit. Avoid playing winners in your short suits until your sure winner count is high enough to make your contract. Remember, the tricks you have already won should be included in your sure winner count.
If you lose control by using your last stopper in a suit, take all of your winners to minimize your losses.
Why a Long Suit
A long suit is important, because it can turn low-ranking cards such as 2 or 3 into sure winners as long as you can access those low cards after the suit is established. The extra tricks could make your contract and establishing 2 winners in a long suit with at least 8 total cards and 5 or 6 cards in one hand is more likely than getting extra winners from a short suit. Also, playing a long suit first is usually safer because the defenders have fewer cards for winning tricks.
Conversely, a long suit held by the defenders is dangerous, so playing your winners in short suits last preserves winners and control further into the contract. Should the defenders lead in one of your short suits, delay playing your stopper as long as possible to break up the communication between the defenders.
Making a No-Trump Strategy
The South hand is declarer at 3 NT. West leads the 10 of ♣. The first step is to work out a strategy.
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The North hand has 10 HCP and 11 points overall. The South hand has 17 HCP and 17 points. The combined points in the two hands are 27 HCP and 28 points.
There are 6 sure tricks. There is 1 more trick in ♣ and 1 or 2 more tricks in ♠.
♠ is the longest suit with 5 in your hand. ♥ are just as long as ♠, but you only have 4 cards in the North hand. The safest bet is to attack the long ♠ suit first, then try ♥ if you only pick up 1 trick in ♠. You will lose control if you attack the ♣ suit early.
Remember to plan how you will take any ♠ winners in your hand if the suit is established.
Review Questions
Some questions have more than one correct answer.
The South hand is declarer at 3 NT. West leads the Jack of ♠.
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Use the North and South hands to answer the next 3 questions.
1. How many HCP are in the 2 hands combined?
2. How many sure tricks are in the 2 hands combined?
3. What suit should you attack first?
The South hand is declarer at 3 NT. West leads the 7 of ♥.
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Use the North and South hands to answer the next 3 questions.
4. How many HCP are in the 2 hands combined?
5. How many sure tricks are in the 2 hands combined?
7 8 9 106. Which suit should be attacked to get the missing trick(s)?
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