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.
Partner led the ♦J.
- What is the meaning of the lead?
- How many points does partner have?
- Regarding the question above, where does the best chance to beat the contract lie?
- Do you win the trick with the ♦A? If yes, what do you continue? If no, why not?
- When declarer plays Spades, when will you take the ♠A?
- Which cards will you keep until the end?
Solution
- What is the meaning of the lead?
Depends on the agreement. Some play that a J lead denies a higher honor (so top of sequence from a long suit). Others play that J could also be from KJ10 or AJ10. (As declarer, you may ask your opponents about their leading system.)
- How many points does partner have?
A maximum of 3 points. Declarer has at least 15 points, dummy has 10 points, and you have 12 points.
- Regarding the question above, where does the best chance to beat the contract lie?
Even if you play that J could be from KJ10, there is no chance for partner to hold that, as they have max 3 points. That means there is no chance to develop the Diamonds, as declarer holds ♦KQ and partner has no entry to their hand. So the best chance to defeat the contract is not by developing our own suit, but by sabotaging declarer’s plans. Kill their entry to the long suit in dummy.
- Do you win the trick with the ♦A? If yes, what do you continue? If no, why not?
Win ♦A and continue with the ♥K! The only chance to deprive declarer of getting their Spades is to remove their entry to dummy here and now!
- When declarer plays Spades, when will you take the ♠A?
Depends on partner’s count signal. If partner showed an odd number of cards, meaning three cards (likely from the bidding, as declarer didn’t support partner’s 5-card Spade suit), take ♠A on the 2nd round. If partner shows an even number, meaning two cards, win your ♠A on the 3rd round. It could be that declarer is 3-3-3-4 and prefers 3NT over 4♠.
- Which cards will you keep until the end?
Hearts and Clubs. After holding up Spades as much as needed—once declarer has no more—and knowing partner is long in Diamonds, it is likely declarer is long in Clubs and Hearts, so you need to keep length in those suits. With this defense, declarer will make 1 Spade (as you win ♠A on the 2nd round), 3 Hearts (as you sacrificed your ♥K and kept Heart length to prevent declarer from making their 4th Heart), 2 Diamonds, and 2 Clubs (even if declarer ducks a Club, you still keep length to prevent them from scoring their 4th Club) for a total of 8 tricks for declarer, which is one down.
Things to remember:
- Discuss and agree with your partner on the meaning of your leads.
- Do you lead 2/4 (4th best shows an honor, 2nd best denies) or 3/5 (you can agree 2/4 against NT and 3/5 against suits to help show count)?
- Agree what the J means: Does it deny a higher honor, or could it be from KJ10 or AJ10?
- Agree what a 10 lead means: Does it show the 9 and a higher honor (like Q109 or K109), or is it top of nothing?
- You can also agree to play the 10 lead as either top or “two higher” (for example, from 109xx or KJ10x).
- What about the 9 lead: top of nothing, top or two higher (98xx or Q109x), or 2nd best (109xx) which denies an honor? You may also ask your opponents about their leading system when you are declarer and such a lead appears.
- Count partner’s points while on defense. That way you can know what to expect from their hand and plan your defense accordingly.
- No Trump is a race between the two sides: Which side will develop its suit first? If you see there is no chance to develop your long suit ahead of declarer, try to sabotage them developing their suit by attacking entries to that suit. In the hand above, it is clear that declarer is going to develop Spades and use the ♥A as an entry, so you must attack that ♥A at once.
- Count signals are very important. You give count as 2nd and 4th hand when declarer is developing a long suit. Count is given so that we will know when to take our top card (normally the ace). We want to take it on the last card of the short hand. So if declarer has two cards, we want to take the ace on the 2nd round. If declarer has three cards, we want to take it on the 3rd round. That will cut communication between declarer’s hand and dummy. In standard carding, low–high shows an odd number of cards. Here, West will follow with the ♠2 to the 1st Spade round, indicating an odd number of Spades (three). That way East can conclude declarer has ♠xx and hold up once before winning the ♠A on the 2nd round. If West follows with a high card to the 1st Spade round, they show an even number of Spades (likely two), and East can count that declarer has ♠xxx and hold up twice before winning the ♠A on the 3rd round.
- When you need to discard cards, always keep length in suits that dummy has (if declarer has an entry) or in declarer’s bid suits. If you discard from this length, you might promote tricks for declarer. Example:
You are East and need to discard. Don’t discard a Diamond (unless dummy discards a Diamond), or else you will promote the 4th Diamond in dummy.
Second Question
Against 4♦, West led the ♣A and ♣K. When all followed suit, West continued with a third club, which East ruffed with the ♦7 and then continued with a Spade. You won the trick and played the ♦Q, on which West followed with the ♦8.
- How are Clubs divided?
- How are Hearts divided?
- How are Spades divided?
- How are Diamonds divided?
- Where is the ♦K?
Solution
- How are Clubs divided?
West has 4 and East has 2. West ruffed the third club.
- How are Hearts divided?
West has 4 and East has 5. West opened 1♣ and then supported with 2♥, which shows exactly 4 cards. Therefore East has 5.
- How are Spades divided?
Spades must be 4-4. With 5 Spades, West would have opened 1♠, or East would have responded 1♠ if they had 5-5 in the majors. Since neither of them bid that suit, it breaks 4-4.
- How are Diamonds divided?
One with West and two with East, based on analyzing the rest of the suits.
- Where is the ♦K?
With East, as West has a singleton ♦8. Therefore, play the ♦A and see that the ♦K falls. East ruffed a Club and was left with a singleton ♦K.
Things to remember:
- Count tricks, losers, and points, but also count the distribution of your opponents’ hands based on their bidding, the lead, and other clues. Many times, you can also place the missing honors from the bidding or the opening lead.
- If you are missing 8 cards in a major suit and both opponents bid but did not bid this suit, it is split 4-4. This is certain in Spades and also in Hearts, unless the opponents found a Spade fit.
- If you are missing 9 cards in a suit (for example, Hearts) and both opponents bid but did not bid this suit, it is split 4-5 and the responder has 5-5 in Spades and Hearts — 5 cards in their bid suit and 5 cards in the unbid suit.
- If West had only 3 Hearts, they would have doubled 2♦, which shows a Support Double. If they had fewer Hearts and 12-14 points, they should pass. Note: a 2NT rebid by West here shows 18-19 points, as East changed suit at the one level.
- East’s 3♥ bid is just competitive and is normally done with an extra Heart card but not with more points. To invite game, use a game try bid or double as a general game try in competitive auctions.
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.
Thanks Oren. Waiting for tne next one.
Kj10