Welcome back readers!
Bridge is a brilliant game—full of logic, creativity, and endless discovery.
These quizzes are here to help you sharpen your skills in both declarer play and defense. Each hand presents a real-world challenge: you’ll only see your own and dummy’s cards, just as at the table. Along the way, I’ll pose questions—clues to guide your thinking and help you work through the hand.
In a way, it's like solving a riddle.
The goal? To train you to ask the right questions at the right time. Whether you’re declaring or defending, success often hinges on knowing what to look for—and what you need to figure out.
Try each hand on your own before checking the solution.
As before, you’ll find a “Things to Remember” section at the end—highlighting key lessons in bidding, play, and defense that you can carry into your next game.
I hope you enjoy—and keep growing on your bridge journey.
First Question:
You've agreed to play standard carding with your partner - for attitude, high encourages, and low discourages; for count, high–low shows even, and low–high shows odd.
West lead the ♠K.
- How many sure tricks does the defense have?
- How many points does partner have?
- What does your partner’s lead suggest?
- When you win a trick, should you shift to clubs (the weak suit in dummy) in an attempt to promote a club trick for partner? If yes, which card will you play? If not, why not?
- Where is the setting trick most likely to come from?
- Which spade will you play at trick one, and how will you help partner understand your plan?
Solution
- How many sure tricks does the defense have?
Three: two spades and one heart.
- How many points does partner have?
Between 3 and 5. Declarer showed 15–17, dummy has 10, and you have 10. That leaves 3–5 points with partner.
- What does your partner’s lead suggest?
It’s the top of a sequence—partner must also hold the ♠Q.
- When you win a trick, should you shift to clubs (the weak suit in dummy) in an attempt to promote a club trick for partner? If yes, which card will you play? If not, why not?
No. By counting the points, you can already see that partner’s 5 points come from the ♠KQ. They have nothing in clubs—or in any other suit—so there’s no benefit to attacking clubs.
- Where is the setting trick most likely to come from?
A diamond ruff
- Which spade will you play at trick one, and how will you help partner understand your plan?
Play the ♠A. Yes you should overtake partner’s ♠K and return your singleton diamond. That should clearly signal your plan. Declarer will likely win that trick and continue with hearts. Once you win the ♥A, return a spade to partner’s marked ♠Q. Partner will then return a diamond for you to ruff—setting the contract. One down.
Things to remember:
- Important tips for defense: COUNT.
- Start by counting the sure tricks for the defense. In this case, you could see three: two spades and one heart.
- Count partner's points. That is very important to do, to understand what you can expect from partner. Here you counted that partner has a maximum of 5 points.
- Count partner's distribution –Sometimes the bidding reveals declarer’s distribution. From there, you can often infer partner’s shape as well.
- Does the Lead mean anything?
Yes. The ♠K lead suggests partner also holds the ♠Q—top of a sequence. This helped you locate an entry to partner’s hand and confirmed that they hold no additional strength in other suits.
- Think of the timing (the right order of the tricks) of the defense:
In this hand, the setting trick came from a diamond ruff, which means that you need to play your singleton diamond, and then find an entry for partner to ruff the second diamond. If the defense carelessly plays two rounds of spades first, the entry to partner’s hand is lost.
- Help partner see your plan:
By overtaking trick one and switching to a diamond, you send a strong signal. When partner sees dummy, they’ll realize you must have a singleton—otherwise, such a play wouldn’t make sense.
- Normally, when dummy is on your left (you’re playing first, before the dummy), play toward dummy’s strength. When dummy is on your right (you’re playing first and the dummy is the last to play), play through dummy’s weakness. The idea is to position your strength over the opponents’ strength. Example:
You are West and North is dummy. Play a diamond toward dummy’s strong suit. The full hand:
This play puts your partner over declarer. If you play club, you'll help declarer as their strength is over your partner's.
Note: If declarer holds the ♦K, they already have three diamond tricks—so leading a diamond does no harm.
Another example:
You are East and North is dummy. Play a club now, toward dummy’s weakness—your partner’s strength lies over declarer’s. The full hand could be:
This play will position your partner after the declarer in the play order, allowing them to react to the declarer's choice. If you lead a diamond instead, you'll be helping the declarer, since their strength lies over your partner’s. In that case, your partner would have to play before the declarer, putting them at a disadvantage.
Second Question
West led the ♥K. East overtook it with the ♥A and switched to the ♦9 at trick two.
- How many losers do you have?
- How are opponent's points divided?
- Why did East overtake trick one and play a diamond?
- Who has the ♥Q?
- Who has the ♠A?
- Who has the ♣K?
- What's the danger here?
- What's the solution?
Solution
- How many losers do you have?
Three: one spade and two hearts.
- How are opponent's points divided?
About 12 in East and 6 in West, based on East's opening and West's response.
- Why did East overtake trick one and play a diamond?
They likely have a singleton diamond and are then planning to ruff a diamond.
- Who has the ♥Q?
West. From the bidding, West has 3 hearts. With ♥KXX, West would have led a low heart. The lead of the ♥K promises the ♥Q.
- Who has the ♠A?
East. West has already shown 5 points (the ♥KQ), so the remaining high cards must be with East.
- Who has the ♣K?
East
- What is the danger here?
As all your diamonds are high, you need to pull out trumps to enjoy the diamonds. BUT, if you draw trumps now, East will win with the ♠A, return a heart to West’s ♥Q, and West will lead a diamond for East to ruff.
- What is the solution?
Since the ♣K is surely with East, there’s no point in taking a club finesse to try discarding a heart on the ♣A. To make the hand, you must cut communication to West’s hand and prevent the diamond ruff:
Win the ♦A at trick two, then play a club to the ♣A followed by the ♣Q. When East covers the ♣K – discard your heart loser from hand. Now West’s hand is "dead," and the defense will get only 1 spade, 1 heart, and 1 club. (Win any return and play spades.)
Things to remember:
- The Double by North is called "Responsive Double". The "Responsive Double" (abbreviated as "responsive Dbl") is a bid made by the advancer (the overcaller’s partner) in response to the overcaller’s bid or a takeout double. This bid typically occurs after both opponents (the opener and responder) have bid the same suit.
While it resembles a negative double, the responsive double generally indicates the other two unbid suits, along with some tolerance for the partner’s suit. Additionally, it shows a certain number of points, suggesting that the advancer is willing to compete for a part score or potentially issue a penalty double if the opponents bid too high.
Example:
South's double is a take out double , showing 12+ points , short hearts, and tolerance to all other suits.
North's double is a responsive double, indicating both minors (and likely 3 cards in spades, though not necessarily), along with some points, like:
♠ QJ2
♥ 32
♦ K1065
♣ A1043
Note that with 4 spades, after South's double, North should bid 2♠ rather than doubling.
- Lead to Partner's suit :
With KQX, QJX, or J10x – lead the top of the sequence.
From Kxx, Qxx, or Jxx – lead your lowest card.
From xxx – lead the middle card (if playing Attitude leads) or the low card (if playing Count leads).
- If the opponent overtakes their partner's sure trick and switches to another suit, there’s a good chance they have a singleton in that suit (though it could also indicate they are attacking a weak suit in the dummy). However, if that suit is not weak in the dummy, it's clear they likely hold a singleton.
- To prevent ruffs by the defenders, consider a loser-on-loser play as declarer to sever communication between the opponents. This maneuver, in this hand, is known as "the scissors coup."
- As declarer, COUNT! Count your losers (or tricks), count the opponent's points (based on the bidding), analyze the lead (whether it's a sequence, shows an honor, or denies an honor, etc.). This count will help you to place the missing cards and allow you to play the hand as if it were open. As is the case here, you can place all the missing honors after the bidding and West’s lead.
About the Author
Oren Lidor is considered one of the best bridge teachers in Israel, is the author of 5 bridge books, and teaches bridge to people from all over the world on BBO.
