If The Don't Hand looks familiar, it should. It's a repeat from Lesson 3 except that this time, the opponent's cards are shown.

Experienced tournament players know that how you play a hand frequently depends on the scoring method. In this case, let's discuss it in the Gaymster's context: Chicago party bridge scoring where making the contact is what matters. Overtricks are unimportant.

In general, all types of declarer play fall into two broad categories:

1. The Do Hand: You pull the opponent's trump immediately to protect your non-trump winners; or
2. The Don't Hand: You delay pulling the opponents trump to do one of two things:
   1. use your own trumps to ruff outside suit losers, or
   2. establish winners in a side suit on which losers in other suits can be discarded.

FYI #1: During your bridge career, the Don't Hands will outnumber the Do Hands by a very wide margin.
FYI #2: The Five Phases below apply to suit contracts. Notrump is a different ball game.

The Five Phases of Declarer Play

Phase One: Master Hand. Decide which hand is the Master Hand (No. Bridge players don't call the other hand the slave, as appealing as that might seem).

The master hand is usually the hand containing the longer trump length or the most established winners. We do this because 1) our ultimate goal is to make winners out of all of the cards in the master hand, or as close thereto as possible; and
2) it's easier to visualize getting to the goal if one hand or the other is almost there. This time, let's give this honor to South.

Phase Two: Count your losers. This is easy. Which cards in the master hand will have to lose to higher cards owned by the opponents?

Losers in the example hand are as follows: two small spades, at least one heart and maybe two, the A, and a club in the third round. Since we're in a ten-trick contract, that's one or two too many.

Phase Three: Improvement. Decide, in no particular order, how you might prevent the opposition from cashing these losers. Here, you might be able to lead two small spades from the South hand and trump them in dummy. You might discard the 5 on a diamond winner after the A has been driven out. You can't get out of losing the two red aces. If all of our potential improvements come to pass, we've made an overtrick.

Phase Four: Understand the Opening Lead. What are they trying to do to you? If you can understand the opponent's plan from the opening lead, you might be able to do something to foil them. Here, the Q is a common lead from the top of a sequence designed to drive out our higher cards and establish their lower ones. So we have to be on the alert to an eventual club loser, and to East's potential to trump one of our club honors.

Phase Five: Timing and Transportation. This is the toughest phase since it has the potential to change mid-hand. One crutch I employ on tougher contracts is to use the cards I hold and hide some cards behind others (just during my initial think-through) to see how the hand will look trick after trick. You can make this happen on the current hand by repeatedly clicking on the "next trick" button. To make the hand play backward, click the "previous trick" button.

1) Win the opening lead and immediately start the improvement process by leading a spade and putting a trump on it.
2) With the lead in the North hand, play a small heart from dummy. East will most likely play low and you'll win the lead in the South hand and two opposing trumps will be drawn in one swoop.
3) Lead the second spade and trump again.
4) Now that dummy's trumps have fulfilled their ruffing role, the hand becomes a "Do Hand" where it's OK to play trumps enough times to relieve the opponents of their trumps. You were only slightly lucky that the opponent's trumps were evenly divided, requiring only one extra round of play.
5) After East wins the trump ace (A), he will probably continue his partner's plan with a club return.
6) Win the club and start the diamonds, offering up the K first. Whether West wins this round or the next doesn't matter if East-West are using standard defensive leads and signals. East will start a high-low signal by playing his 9 on this trick, having already done the same in clubs. By convention, high-low indicates that one holds an even number of cards. If West can count, he knows his partner started with four minor suit cards and you have another club loser.
7) Continue with a small diamond toward dummy and make West prove his intelligence. Some Wests will surprise you and make a mistake - couldn't hurt.
8) So you concede the diamond and eventually have to give up a club.

You lost a club and two red aces — right on the money.

Guidelines for the "Don't Hand"

1. Evaluate whether the hand is a Do or a Don't before you call for a card from dummy at trick one. It's surprising how many hands need a critical decision that early (especially where entries are concerned).
2. Follow the exercise of the five phases (above) on every non-notrump hand. But don't feel it will always be such a chore: with practice, some of the phases become second nature.

Statistical Note: Holding nine trump cards, the opponents' four will be divided three-one 49.74% of the time*, and two-two 40.7% of the time.
This encourages us to forgo drawing trumps even more on a hand like this one.

Many books have been written on declarer play. One of my favorites is
How To Play A Bridge Hand by William S. Root.
Crown Publishers. New York. 1990. ISBN 0-517-57457-8.

* The Encyclopedia of Bridge, Third Edition by Richard L Frey, Ed. in Chief. .