The Fun Way to Serious Bridge

The finesse is not a sure thing. It is a percentage play. If one of the opponents has the key card, you succeed; if the other opponent has the key card, you fail. But not taking the finesse can often guarantee failure regardless of who holds the key card. A 50-50 chance of success is far better than a 100 percent guarantee of failure.

It is often a good idea to exhaust the opponents of their trumps, by playing the trump suit, if you can safely do so and still maintain control of the hand. The prime reason for pulling trumps is to prevent the opponents from making unnecessary tricks by trumping your high cards in the side suits.

A common error with beginners is to block the suit. This can be prevented by playing the cards in the proper order. When you have cards of equal value in the same suit you can run the suit by playing the high cards first from the hand that has the fewer cards. (See chart on next page.)