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 leads the ♠ ace.
- Which card do you play from your hand?
- You encourage with the ♠10 and partner continues with the ♠3. You play the ♠K and declarer follows with the ♠Q. Where is the ♠J?
- What will you play now?
- You continue with the ♠2 and partner ruffs with the ♥2, then continues with the ♣10. You win with the ♣K and declarer follows with the ♣2. How many tricks do you count for the defense?
- Where is the best chance for the setting trick to come from?
- How will you continue?
Solution
- Which card do you play from your hand?
A high spade, to encourage partner to continue. There is a good chance partner holds ♠AX, and since you have the ♠K, there may be a spade ruff available.
- You encourage with the ♠10 and partner continues with the ♠3. You play the ♠K and declarer follows with the ♠Q. Where is the ♠J?
With declarer. If partner had a remaining ♠J3, they would have played the ♠J first, showing high then low from a remaining doubleton. Also, with ♠AJ3, partner would likely have bid 2♠. If they passed your 1♠ opening, they could still bid 2♠ after South’s 2♥ and describe their hand well.
- What will you play now?
Continue with the ♠2 and allow partner to ruff. That card, the ♠2, also acts as suit preference, asking partner to continue with the lower-ranking side suit, which is clubs here. A high spade would ask for diamonds.
- You continue with the ♠2 and partner ruffs with the ♥2, then continues with the ♣10. You win with the ♣K and declarer follows with the ♣2. How many tricks do you count for the defense?
Five. ♠AK, a spade ruff, and ♣AK. Partner’s ♣10 denies the ♣J, which means declarer holds it, so there is no risk that declarer will ruff your second club.
- Where is the best chance for the setting trick to come from?
By trying a trump promotion. The ♦K is certainly with declarer, since partner passed your opening bid and you have already seen them with the ♠A. They cannot also hold the ♦K, or they would have bid 1NT.
- How will you continue?
Cash the ♣A and play a fourth round of spades, hoping partner has a high heart to help promote your ♥Q. Partner cooperates and ruffs with the ♥J. Declarer overruffs with the ♥K, but your ♥Q is now promoted as the setting trick.
Things to remember:
- If you lead an ace in partner’s suit and want to continue the suit, and you have a remaining doubleton, play high on the second round. This helps partner count the suit. Playing a low card means it is either your last card or that you have at least two higher cards remaining.
- When you let partner ruff, you can signal suit preference. A low card asks partner to return the lower-ranking side suit after the ruff, while a high card asks for the higher-ranking side suit. Only two suits are possible, since one suit has been ruffed and the other is trumps. In this case, partner no longer has spades and hearts are trumps, so a low spade signals clubs and a high spade signals diamonds.
- A promotion is a defensive technique used to create a trick in the trump suit, even when it initially appears that no trump trick is available.
Example one:
Hearts are trumps, and it appears declarer has no heart losers. West, who overcalled 2♣, leads the ♣K to East’s ♣A and receives a club return to the ♣J. West then plays a low club. East ruffs with the ♥J, forcing declarer to overruff with the ♥Q, which promotes West’s ♥10.
Example two
Hearts are trumps, and again declarer seems to have no heart losers. East overcalled 2♣ and West leads the ♣A, then continues with a second club to East’s ♣J. A third club from East forces declarer to ruff with the ♥Q, since otherwise West would ruff with the ♥9, thereby promoting West’s ♥10.
- When the defense is trying to promote a trump trick, it is very important to cash all side-suit winners first before playing the suit that enables the promotion. If this is not done, declarer may discard a loser from that suit and ruff from the other hand, causing the defense to lose a sure trick.
- In the hand above, it was important to cash the ♣A before playing the fourth spade. If you do not, declarer can discard the ♣J from hand on the fourth spade and ruff West’s ♥J with dummy’s ♥K. Your ♥Q is promoted, but the ♣A will no longer take a trick. Declarer can then continue with the ♥A and another heart, endplaying you. You must either lead a diamond and concede the ♦J, play the ♣A which declarer will ruff while discarding a diamond loser on the ♣Q, or play another spade, allowing declarer to ruff and discard the diamond loser.
- At any other vulnerability, West might consider bidding 1NT with five high-card points and good spot cards. This is a matter of style and not mandatory.
Second Question
West led a high ♠ and continued with another ♠.
- How many losers do you count?
- What is the plan?
- How many entries to hand do you need?
- How will you continue?
Solution
- How many losers do you count?
Three or four. Two clubs, one spade, and possibly one diamond if diamonds are 3–0.
- What is the plan?
You need to hope diamonds are 2–1 and then avoid a club loser by trying a double finesse against West.
- How many entries to hand do you need?
To make a double finesse, you may need to play clubs twice from hand, unless West holds both top club honors. For that, you need at least two entries. Two are enough if clubs are 3–2, but you may need an extra entry if West has four clubs and East has a stiff honor.
- How will you continue?
Ruff the second spade with the ♦8 and keep the ♦6 as a future entry to hand. Cash the ♦AK and, when you see the ♦Q drop, continue with the ♦6 to your ♦7 in hand.
Note. Although you appear to have only two entries to hand, you can save an entry and still cope with a 4–1 club split. Continue now with a low club to dummy’s ♣10. East wins with the ♣Q and returns a heart. Win the ♥A in dummy and continue with a diamond to your ♦J. Now play the ♣9 and run it when West plays low. The ♣9 keeps you in hand, saving an entry, and allows you to finesse again to the ♣J, then play the ♣A to drop West’s ♣K and claim eleven tricks.
Things to remember:
- A normal double finesse succeeds 75 percent of the time. It fails only when the same opponent holds both missing top honors behind your top card. It succeeds if the honors are split, or if both honors are in front of your top card, since your top card can capture one of them.
- When you plan a double finesse but are short of entries to the hand from which you start the finesse, consider not leading the top card from that hand at the first opportunity. Save it for the second finesse. The first finesse is expected to lose anyway, and the second finesse may win the trick and preserve an entry, as in this example with the ♣9.
- Defense against two-suited bids. When the opponents use a Michaels cue bid and show two known suits, such as the 2NT bid here showing both minors, it is best to agree on the following meanings.
- Double shows a desire to punish at least one of their suits.
- A low cue bid, 3♣ here, is forcing in the lowest available suit not held by the opponents. In this case, a 3♣ bid by East would show at least five hearts and forcing.
- A high cue bid, 3♦ here, is forcing in the higher available suit. In this case, a 3♦ bid by East would show spade support and forcing.
- A new suit is natural and non-forcing. In this case, a 3♥ bid by East would show hearts and not forcing.
- Raising partner is natural and non-forcing, as in the bidding above.
- Note that if North had held six clubs and five diamonds, they could have rebid 5♣ to show a 6–5 shape with longer clubs. With a 5–5 shape or longer diamonds, North would need to rebid 4NT to force partner to bid 5♣ or 5♦. A double would show strength and be optional.
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.
Another point to board 1: since we know where dK is and declarer knows that dQ is with us, perhaps we should have signaled diamonds rather than clubs when giving partner spade ruff?
On Board 1, the promo only works if partner has JH - against the odds. If declarer has JH and 3433 shape without the TD, doesn't the sluff-ruff attempting the promo disastrously give away the easy setting trick? Simply exiting with a club or trump beats the contract.
I also though a trump return rather than leading a 4th round spade would work at first.
But it is easy make then. Declarer pulls the trumps and lead the club to promote a discard in diamond.
How could declarer pitch a diamond if he were 3433?
Good point. That is why partner should signal to the second club. Either with count, so you know the shape, or with suit preference to let you know which suit you should play. This is the matter of agreements.
I agree. Best defense depends on declarer's distribution. I would consider partner's C10 return as count and give declarer a 4333 hand. In that case a safe return is better.