Bridge strategy: bidding, play and defence

The two halves of bridge skill

Bridge splits cleanly into bidding and play, and most players are much better at one than the other. Bidding is about describing your hand within a shared language; play is about counting.

The single most useful idea in the whole game: count your tricks before you play to the first one. As declarer, count winners in no trumps and losers in a suit contract. As a defender, count what declarer can take and work out where your tricks must come from.

Level 1 — Basic: point count, opening bids and simple play

Evaluate your hand

Use the standard point count: ace 4, king 3, queen 2, jack 1 — forty points in the pack, so an average hand is ten. Add points for long suits, and for shortages when you have found a trump fit.

Open your longest suit

With 12 or more points, open. Bid your longest suit first; with equal length, bid the higher one (in most systems) and plan to show the other later.

Support your partner

Finding an eight-card fit — four cards opposite four, or five opposite three — is the main job of the auction. A major-suit fit is worth more than a minor: 4♥ needs ten tricks, 5♦ needs eleven.

Three rules for the play

• Second hand low, third hand high. The second player to a trick usually plays small; the third plays high to try to win it.
• Draw trumps — unless you need them in dummy for ruffing. Leaving trumps out is how beginners lose makeable contracts.
• Lead fourth highest from your longest and strongest suit against no trumps. It is the standard opening lead for a reason.

Level 2 — Intermediate: conventions, declarer play and defence

The conventions everybody uses

A convention is a bid with an agreed artificial meaning. Four will carry you a long way:

Declarer play: make a plan

Before playing to trick one:

1. Count winners (no trumps) or losers (suit contract).
2. Work out where the extra tricks come from: length, finesses, ruffing, or promotion.
3. Check entries — can you reach the hand where those tricks live?
4. Decide the order. Many contracts fail because the right play was made at the wrong time.

The finesse

Holding A-Q opposite small cards, lead towards the queen and hope the king is in front of it — a 50% chance of an extra trick. Finesses are the workhorse technique, but they are a last resort: look first for a line that does not need one.

Defence: signals

Defenders cannot talk, but they can signal with the cards they play:

• Attitude — a high spot card says "I like this suit", a low one says "I do not".
• Count — high-then-low shows an even number of cards, low-then-high an odd number.
• Suit preference — in specific situations, an unusually high or low card points to the higher- or lower-ranking of two other suits.

Defence is the hardest part of bridge, and signalling is why: you have to give your partner information while denying it to declarer.

Level 3 — Advanced: counting the hand, endplays and judgement

Count the distribution

Expert declarer play is almost entirely counting. From the bidding, the opening lead and the cards that appear, you reconstruct the exact shape of both defenders' hands — and once you know the distribution, finesses become certainties. Practise by counting one suit per deal until it is automatic, then two.

The endplay

Instead of guessing which opponent holds a key card, force them to lead the suit for you. Strip their safe exits, then throw them in: whatever they lead gives you the trick you could not take yourself. Endplays turn a 50% guess into a 100% line, and spotting them is the clearest marker of an advanced player.

Squeezes

When an opponent has to guard two suits and cannot keep both, the last trump or winner squeezes a guard out of them. The basic requirements: you must be able to count the hand, you must have all but one of the remaining tricks, and the entries must be right. A simple squeeze is more learnable than its reputation suggests, and it is worth a trick a session.

Bidding judgement beyond the system

• Losing trick count — with a good fit, count losers rather than points. Seven losers opposite seven usually means game.
• The Law of Total Tricks — the total number of tricks available to both sides is roughly the total number of trumps. It tells you how high to compete.
• Vulnerability and form of scoring — at matchpoints, overtricks matter and a part-score battle is worth fighting; at IMPs, bidding a vulnerable game with a 50% chance is right and overtricks are nearly worthless.

Defensive carding as a system

Strong pairs agree far more than attitude and count: opening lead styles (fourth highest, third and fifth, attitude leads), discarding methods, and what an unusual card means at trick one. The gain is not in any one agreement but in never having to guess what partner means.

Where tricks and matchpoints go

1. Playing to trick one without a plan. The commonest declarer error at every level.
2. Failing to draw trumps — or drawing them when they were needed for ruffing.
3. Taking a finesse when a safer line was available.
4. Bidding without a fit and ending in a 4-3 trump suit.
5. Ignoring partner's signals and leading the suit they told you not to.
6. Ignoring vulnerability when deciding whether to compete or sacrifice.
7. Playing matchpoints like IMPs — or the reverse. The form of scoring changes correct play.

Common questions