Whatever their level of experience, most notrump declarers know something about forgoing the winning of the opening leader's suit, at least the first time around. This is called a Holdup play because declarer holds up on winning the lead until a later time. But why do you do it and when do you stop doing it? Those are tougher questions for players who have tried to learn it from seeing others do it rather than having it explained. So let's explain it and see it done.

The Gaymster who held today's hand evaluated it in the usual way.

1) He holds six cashable winners: 3 spades, 1 heart, 1 diamond, and 1 club. ("Holey holding, Batman!")

2) Assuming a fourth-best lead, five from eleven leaves six. (See "Rule of Eleven" in your favorite bridge book.) This exercise pegs East with three cards higher than the opening lead.

3) If West started with five hearts, West is the danger hand. We don't want him to win the lead later in the hand for a chance to cash the rest of his hearts. Four hearts and a diamond are one too many winners for the opposition. So, we hold up on the A twice and play it on the third round in order to remove all three hearts from the East hand at the outset. East will not be able to reach his partner via that suit.*

4) In a nine-trick contract needing three more tricks than are currently established, we must turn to the diamonds - our best suit - knowing that if the K is guarded in the West hand we have no hope. So let's assume it isn't.

The Play

Click on the navigation buttons to step through the hand trick by trick. You can also click on "Click" to jump to a particular trick.

Click 1. Duck the opening lead.
Click 2. Duck the heart continuation.
Click 3. Cover the third.
Click 4. Lead small toward the Q, breath on hold, and take note of the seven and five.

Now for tough part.

With East undoubtedly holding the K, the critical question on this hand is: who now has which of the other diamonds?

Only three of the four possible distributions matter. Reason: If East has all three diamonds, dummy is one entry short and you won't reap your diamond reward.

In all three other cases, we'd love to see another card from the East hand before we have to commit to playing from the South hand, so we
Click 5. Enter the dummy with a vulgar spade unblocking play and,
Click 6. Lead a small diamond from dummy.

Had East played the 10 on this round, we would be obligated to pop with the A to prevent the possibility of West getting in with the J (choice II above). Nevertheless, seeing East's K on the second round doesn't end our work. We still have to cover possibility IV by allowing the K to win - our second holdup play of the hand. Notice how this holdup also covers all choices, II through IV.

When West follows suit, we can no longer be prevented from winning 3 spades, 1 heart, 4 diamonds, and 1 club - just the total we were looking for.

Bottom Line

Holdup plays can be found in every suit, not just the opening lead suit. In both suit and notrump contracts, holdup plays in any suit can achieve a number of goals: 1) preventing the danger hand from getting into the lead, 2) cutting communication between the defenders' hands, 3) rectifying the count to prepare a squeeze play (very advanced), and more.

*Yes, East could have the three of hearts also, but then the danger of West having five of them vanishes. So the holdup does no harm.

Thanks to Dr. Paul Taylor for the original source hand.