Wolperts on Declarer Play

Ruffing losers in the short hand creates extra trump tricks.  In every trump contract, declarer should stop and consider if its possible to ruff in the short hand.  Sometimes we have other options to discard our losers, but sometimes ruffing our losers is the only way.  This class is designed to help you build a good thought process as dummy comes down to help you identify if you need to ruff losers in the short hand.

4-4 Fits are unique in that there is no long hand in trumps.  This means we will often have multiple options for how to play the hand.  In this class we go through the process of deciding which hand to set up.  We will also discuss preparing for bad breaks, and how to play some important card combinations.

The skills learned in this class come up in almost every session of bridge.

An endplay is executed when you put an opponent on lead, with no safe exit cards, forcing them to make a lead that will help you.  In some cases, we must prepare for an endplay by stripping our opponent of their safe exit cards. In others the opponents have no safe cards very early in the hand and our most important job as declarer is to let the defense break suits for us.  

In this class we will go through different techniques we can use to identify possible endplays.  We will isolate specific suit combinations and talk about how it will help for the opponents to lead them first.  We will then put those suit combinations into hands and talk about how identifying "frozen" suits can help us visualize more endplays.  

Opening leads are the most difficult (and random) part of the game.  We are taught to lead top of honor sequences because the sequence often protects us from giving away a trick.  Sometimes that isn't the case and declarer can use the sequence lead to their advantage.  This class practices capitalizing on sequence leads by finessing the opponents out of their remaining honors.     We also discuss how to take advantage when we can recognize that the opponent's honor lead is from shortness. Every declarer must understand these fundamental situations.

Declaring hands with 7 card fits can be very tricky. You begin the hand with just one more trump than your opponents.  This can dramatically change the way you approach hands. There are common themes that can help guide your play.   This lesson will talk through how to plan your play with a 7 card fit.    We will take a good look at 6-1 fits, 5-2 fits and 4-3 fits and talk through the different approaches needed for each type of 7 card fit.

There is no video for Board 5, but it is covered in the lesson notes.