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Text © 1968, 2019 Eddie Kantar, Barbara Seagram

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Introduction to declarer play / Eddie Kantar.

Other titles: Introduction to declarer’s play
Names: Kantar, Eddie, 1932- author. | Seagram, Barbara, editor.
Description: Second edition. | New edition revised and updated by Bar-
bara Seagram. | Previously published under title: Introduction to de-
clarer’s play. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1968.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190186399 | Canadiana (ebook)
20190186402 | ISBN 9781771400565
(softcover) | ISBN 9781554946488 (PDF) | ISBN 9781554946945
(HTML) | ISBN 9781771408936 (Kindle)
Subjects: LCSH: Contract bridge.
Classification: LCC GV1282.3 .K228 2019 | DDC 795.41/53—dc23

Editor Ray Lee

Copy editor/interior format Sally Sparrow
Cover design Olena S. Sullivan/New Mediatrix

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 22 21 20 19
 Foreword
The game of bridge revolves around the bidding for and the
taking of tricks. In this book we are not worried about the
bidding — just the taking. In fact, this is the part of the game
that most people like best. As declarer, you are no longer at
your partner’s mercy (although of course, his bidding may
have landed you in a bad contract, but you are good enough
to recover, surely!). No, you are finally in control, with twen-
ty-six cards that are yours to play as and when you will, and
with which to frustrate your opponents’ efforts to defeat you.

In this book, you’ll learn the fundamentals of declarer play:

counting winners and losers, and the various methods at
your disposal for creating enough extra winners to reach
your goal before the opposition can get to theirs. If you al-
ready know all these things, there is no need to buy a copy
of this book. Instead, buy one for your partner, who must be
lacking in some of these categories or you would be winning
every time you play.

One word about the text: in dealing with the dreaded ‘he/
she’ problem, I decided to use ‘he’ for simplicity. If this of-
fends any woman reading the book, I apologize.

Finally, if anyone had written a book like this when I was an

emerging player, it would have saved me a great deal of ef-
fort, he added modestly.

Eddie Kantar
 Foreword to the Second
Edition
This book and its companion book, Introduction to Defense,
are in my opinion the two best bridge books ever written.
Eddie Kantar has been my mentor and guru for many years.
He is the kindest, most wonderful man who has always been
very generous with his time to teachers everywhere. Without
Eddie, I would not have had the success that I have had in
teaching bridge. His bridge hands are legendary and a joy
to work with. His pearls of wisdom have taught so many so
much. We constantly have AHA! moments from our students
when we use them.

I was asked to tweak and modernize this book. This was a

privilege. I just wanted to see these books back in the mar-
ketplace so that students of today have access to this won-
derful learning tool.

If you are fairly new to the game, read this book, use the
techniques and then play a lot. Try to play duplicate as
much as you can. It is the way to get better. Go over two or
three hands each time after playing. Try sometimes to play
against and with better players — that way you can ask for
advice. Sometimes you will need a thicker skin. Bridge is a
game of mistakes; it is impossible to be perfect. You will have
good days and bad days… it’s all in a day’s work. Keep com-
ing back for more; the good always outweighs the bad. It is a
wonderful game and such good exercise for the brain.

Above all, have fun!

Barbara Seagram
 Contents

Part I — Playing a Hand in Notrump

Chapter 1: Sure Tricks�������������������������������������������������� 9

Chapter 2: Establishing Tricks������������������������������������ 17

Chapter 3: Taking Tricks with the Spot Cards������������� 27

Chapter 4: Taking Tricks by Finessing ������������������������ 37

Chapter 5: The Hold-up Play���������������������������������������� 53

Chapter 6: The Rule of Eleven�������������������������������������� 65

Chapter 7: The Danger Hand �������������������������������������� 77

Part II — Playing a Hand in a Suit Contract

Chapter 8: The Trump Suit������������������������������������������ 93

Chapter 9: Counting Losers ���������������������������������������� 97

Chapter 10: Creating Extra Winners�������������������������� 111

Chapter 11: Long-suit Establishment������������������������ 133

Chapter 12: Ruffing in the Short Hand���������������������� 151

Index ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 166

Contents 5
PART 1

Playing a Hand
in Notrump
 Chapter 1

Sure Tricks

After looking over both hands carefully, it should be an

easy matter to see how many tricks are a certainty and
how many are probable. R.F. Foster

What you’re going to learn:

»» What a ‘sure trick’ is
»» How to count your sure tricks
»» Play the honors from the short side of a suit first

The most important single move that you must make before
starting to play a hand as declarer is to count your tricks.
That seems easy enough, doesn’t it? Let’s take a simple ex-
ample:

Dummy
 A43

You
 K52

Whenever you declare a bridge hand, you get to see all of

your partner’s cards before you play. Your partner’s hand is
called the dummy — and that term has nothing to do with
the way he may have bid his hand.

Chapter 1: Sure Tricks 9

So what you do when playing a hand in notrump after the
opponent on your left makes an opening lead, is to look at
one suit at a time; look, for example, at your spades and at
dummy’s spades and count the number of sure tricks you
have in that suit. Then go through the same process in each
suit and come up with a figure. That is a very important fig-
ure. It tells you how many tricks you can take at a moment’s
notice. Remember that term — sure tricks — because we are
going to work with it for a while.

Now let’s go back to our example. In dummy we have the

A43, and in our own hand we have the K52. The ace will
take one trick and the king will take another, so we have the
two sure spade tricks. This may seem elementary, but you
will never learn to play a hand unless you do this.

Counting tricks has its hazards. Let’s try this one:

Dummy
 KQ

You
 A2

Now how many sure tricks do you have in spades? Even

though you have the ace, the king and the queen, the answer
is two, not three. You see, when you play a card from your
hand, you must also take a card from the dummy. Let’s say
you play the ace; then the queen must be played from dum-
my. That leaves you with the two in your hand and the king
in dummy. In other words, you have two tricks, not three.

The important thing to see is that you can never take more
tricks in a suit than there are cards in the longer of the two
hands. Look:

10 Introduction to Declarer Play

 Dummy
 AKQ

You
 J 10

Between you and your dummy you have the ace, king, queen,
jack, and ten. But you can only take three tricks. That is be-
cause the dummy, which is the longer hand in spades, has
only three cards.

Let’s have a quick quiz so you can practice counting sure

tricks. In each case, count your tricks, and decide in which
order you should play the cards.

Test Yourself
1) Dummy 2) Dummy
 K Q 3  A Q J 8

You You
 A 5 2  K 7

3) Dummy 4) Dummy
 A J 3  Q J 10 5 4

You You
 K Q 5 4  A K 3

Chapter 1: Sure Tricks 11

Solutions
1. Three tricks. You can take them in any order you like.
You could play the king, then the queen, and then the
three to your ace; or you could play the ace, and then a
little one to the king, and then the queen. Or you could
play the king, then the three to your ace, and then a little
one back to your queen. You see, when you have an even
number of cards in both hands (e.g. three cards on each
side), you have quite a bit of flexibility. You would have to
see all twenty-six cards before you knew which hand you
wanted to end up in. I am merely showing you that you
don’t always have to play the ace first when taking tricks.

2. Four tricks. Now this situation and the following ones are
a little different because you do not have an even number
of cards on both sides. In this case the dummy has four
and you only have two.

TIP: As a general rule, whenever you have a bunch

of good tricks in a suit that is unevenly divided,
you should play the high card(s) from the short
side first.

Here, this means playing the king, which will take the
eight from dummy, and then leading your seven over to
the ace, queen, and jack in dummy. When cards are high
it does not matter which one you play first. In this case,
when you have played the king and are about to lead the
seven over to the dummy, it doesn’t matter if you play the
jack, queen, or ace — they are all the same. In this little
game we are playing, we are always assuming that the
opponents have led some other suit and we have taken
the trick. Now we are about to play our suit. Sometimes
we will have won the previous trick in dummy. If the lead
is in the dummy, we must play the 8 over to our king
and then the seven back to the dummy. But in either
case we are playing the high card from the short side
first.

12 Introduction to Declarer Play

3. Four tricks. If the lead is in the dummy (from the prior
play), we should first play the ace, then the jack, and
then the three over to our king and queen. Notice that,
as always, we played the high cards from the short side
first. Things would be exactly the same if the lead were
in our hand. We would play the four over to the ace (or
jack), then the jack, and then the three over to our king
and queen. It is conceivable that the opponents might
lead this suit themselves, in which case we would still
play it the same way.

4. Five tricks. This time we would play the king and ace (or
the ace and king) from our hand and then lead the three
over to the queen, jack, and ten in the dummy.

Playing the high card or high cards from the short side
first allows us to end up on the long side, where we can
take the maximum amount of tricks.

Chapter 1: Sure Tricks 13

Now let’s practice counting our sure tricks in an entire hand:

Dummy
 A43
 K4
 10 8 7 5
 AKQ3

N
W E
S

You
 752
 AQ3
 A432
 J42

Let’s pretend the contract is 3NT and West, your left-hand

opponent, leads the K. How many sure tricks do you have
in the entire hand?

You should have come up with nine sure tricks. You have
one in spades, three in hearts, one in diamonds and four in
clubs.

Sometimes counting tricks and taking them are two different

things. But if you remember about always playing the high
card from the short side first, you will not have any trouble.
In clubs, you would play the jack first from your own hand
and then play a little one over to the ace, king and queen in
dummy. In hearts, you would play the king first and then the
four over to the ace and queen in your own hand.

14 Introduction to Declarer Play

Here are a couple more hands for you to try on your own.
Count your sure tricks and see what you come up with:

Test Yourself
5) Dummy 6) Dummy
 K Q 3  K Q J
 A J  Q J 10 9
 A J 7 6  J 10 9
 K 4 3 2  K Q J

N N
W E W E
S S

You You
 A 4  10 9 8
 K Q  K 8 7 6
 K Q 8 3 2  K Q 8 7
 A 7 6 5  10 9

Chapter 1: Sure Tricks 15

 Index
Bath Coup 63 Establishing tricks in notrump
Counting by fours 139-140  17-20
Counting losers in a suit contract in long suits 17-36
 97-110 to precede taking of sure
quick vs. slow losers tricks 23-25
 101-103 Evenly vs. unevenly divided suits
Counting tricks in notrump in suit contracts 114-115
sure tricks 9-16 finessing and 119-120
tricks to be established18-23 Extra winners in suit contracts
Counting trumps 95-96  111-132
Danger hand in notrump created by establishing long
 77-84 suits 133-150
definition of 80 created by finessing 117-126
finesses and 81-89 established by force 112-117
Drawing trumps 95-96 throwing losers on
before or after playing extra  99, 109, 149-150
winners 101-103 when in long hand 160
long-suit establishment and whether played before or
 134-139 after drawing trumps
when declarer plans to ruff  102-103
losers in dummy 153 Finessing
Ducking in notrump 32 in notrump 37-52
See also Hold-up play into non-danger hand 83-84
Dummy repeated finessing 40, 41,
entry to, in establishing long 116-117
suits 135-141 in suit contracts 117-126
even and uneven division of with no losers in the suit
suits between declarer and  123-126
 114-120, 129, 156, 159-160 unevenly divided vs. evenly
ruffing losers in 151-161 divided suits 119-120
Equal cards, playing of 26 Free finesses 124-126
Establishing extra winners Hold-up play 53-64
by establishing long suits Honors, rules for leading 46
 133-150 Long-trump hand
by force 112-117 counting losers from 98
definition of 98

166 Introduction to Declarer Play

Long suits long suit establishment
in notrump 27-36 and 134-139
in suit contracts 133-150 when declarer plans to
Losers in suit contracts trump losers in dummy
counting of 97-110  153
quick vs. slow losers102-103 extra winners in 111-132
getting rid of created by establishing
by throwing on extra long suits 133-150
winners 99 created by finessing
by ruffing in short hand  117-126
 151-164 established by force
Low cards, see Spot Cards  112-117
Non-danger hand, throwing losers on
see Danger hand  99-100, 109, 149-150
Repeatable finesses when in long hand 160
in notrump 39-40 whether played before or
in suit contracts 121-123 after drawing trump
Ruffing, defined 96  102-103
in short hand 151-164 ruffing in short hand
Rule of Eleven 65-76  151-164
Short-trump hand risk of going down extra
definition of 98 tricks vs. making contract
ruffing in 151-164  125
Spot cards, taking tricks with Rule of Eleven in 76
in notrump 27-36 same hand played at
in trump, by establishing different levels 110
long suits 133-150 Sure tricks in notrump
Suit contracts counting of 9-16
counting losers in when to take 22-25
 97-103 Trumping (see Ruffing)
quick vs. slow losers Voids in trump play, free finesses
 102-103 and 125-126
counting trumps in 95-96
defenders’ leads of trumps in
 157
difference between notrump
and 93-96
drawing trumps in 95-96
before or after playing
extra winners 101-103

Index 167
 Don’t Miss the Essential Companion to
Introduction to Declarer Play

Introduction to Defense
by Eddie Kantar
Whether you are a beginner or just looking to improve,
Introduction to Defense will teach you the fundamental
concepts you need to become an accomplished player.

Chapter 1: The Opening Lead against Notrump

Chapter 2: The Opening Lead against Suit Contracts
Chapter 3: Third-hand Play to the First Trick
Chapter 4: Signaling against Notrump
Chapter 5: Signaling against Suit Contracts
Chapter 6: Second-hand Play
Chapter 7: Further Tips on Defensive Play

Available Now from Master Point Press

www.masterpointpress.com
NEWCOMER/INTERMEDIATE

The classic introductory book on declarer play at

bridge, covering all topics with clarity, skill and
humor. More than fifty years after first publication,
this book has been revised and updated by
Barbara Seagram, one of North America’s best-
known bridge teachers, to bring it into line with
modern methods of play and bridge education.

eddie kantar (California, USA) is a member

of the Bridge Hall of Fame, and former world
champion. He is the author of numerous
bestselling books on the game, and his columns
appear regularly in bridge magazines around the
world.

BARBARA SEAGRAM (Toronto, Canada) travels

the world teaching bridge. She is author or co-
author of more than a dozen well-known books,
the most popular being 25 Bridge Conventions
You Should Know.

MASTER POINT PRESS