Playing the contract - Declarer

The hints we gave you about declarer play for Level 1 bridge also apply here but now you also have to think about how to use your trumps:

• do you want to take out the defenders’ trumps as soon as you can or do you want to use your trumps in one hand to trump losers from the other? 

• figure out how many trumps the defenders have at the start of the hand and count down as they play them to keep track of how many they have left

• watch out for high cards that matter to you - if you have a king, notice when the ace is played in that suit because now your king is a winner

• if you are looking to make extra ticks from a long suit, keep count of how many cards in that suit have been played

Playing the contract - Defenders

Again, all of the tips we gave you for Level 1 bridge still apply but you, too. need to think about trumps: 

• when you are leading to the first trick, is there a suit other than the trump suit where you only have one or two cards? If so, leading your short suit right away might mean you will get to trump one of declarer’s winners before they can draw your trumps.

• If your partner led to the first trick, you should lead back their suit when you get the chance

• can you figure out which important cards your partner might have from the play? If partner plays a king and declarer doesn’t beat it with the ace, then partner probably has the ace too.