Do the honor analyses based on the bidding
Do the distribution analyses based on the bidding
Analyze the suit of the lead
Analyze the trump suit
Analyze the distribution in remaining suits
Honor estimation
Counting tricks
Which suits to play/not to play
Q1: What is my partner's expected strength?
Q1-A: What is our strength? – before we start bidding
Q1-B: What is the declarer's strength? – during the bidding
Q1-C: What is the dummy's strength? – during the bidding
Q1-D: Is your partner limited? – during the bidding
Q1-E: Can you tell the deal balance? – when the bidding finishes
Q1-F: What is our partner's strength?
Q1-A: You have 11 HCP or 2.5 HT – ♦A, ♠K, ♥Q can win tricks in the defense.
Q1-B: West opens the bidding and promised 12+ HCP or 3+ HT.
Q1-C: East responded 1NT and limited his hand to 6-10 HCP or ~2 HT.
Q1-D: You partner didn't bid, he has most likely below 12 HCP or 3 HT.
Q1-E: The opponents stopped in the low-level part/score, the deal balance is strength equality (~20 HCP, ~5 HT).
Q1-F:
HCP method: 40 - (~20) - 11 = ~9 HCP
HT method: 10 - (~5) - 2.5 = ~2.5 HT
Q2: What is the declarer's hand type, pattern?
Q2-A: Is the declarer balanced, 1-suiter, or 2-suiter? – when the bidding finishes
Q2-B: Do we know any particular length? – when the bidding finishes
Q2-C: Can we figure someting out based on other players bidding? – when the bidding finishes
Q2-D: Can we estimate the declarer hand type? – when the bidding finishes
Q2-A: Repeating the suit shows primarily a 1-suiter hand
Q2-B: Declarer shows 6+♥. The responder showed a maximum of 2♥.
Q2-C: East denied 4♠ therefore, he has 8+ cards in the minor suits.
Q2-D: The bidding stayed low, we are balanced, and we expect the declarer to be semi-balanced with a 6♥. That means 6322 or 6331 pattern.
Declarer's hand: 6♥ (322 or 331)
Q3: What is the situation in the suit our partner led?
Q3-A: Did our partner lead actively or passively? – when we see the dummy
Q3-B: How are the honors distributed? – when we see the dummy
Q3-C: What is the distribution of this suit? – when we see the dummy
Q3-A: High card mean generally a passive lead, unless it is a shortness.
Q3-B: High card denies a top honor. We see AQJ10. The King is missing and the declarer must have it.
Q3-C: Depends on the first lead agreements.
1) Let's say we lead 3/5 and top from a doubleton. 9 is the doubleton or a singleton.
2) Let's say we lead 2/4 and low from a doubleton. 9 is the highest from a 3-card or a singleton.
Q4: What is the trump situation?
Q4-A: How many trumps does our partner have? – when we see the dummy
Q4-B: Do the trumps split well or badly for the declarer? – after Q4-A answer
Q4-C: Does the declarer need to ruff something in the "short hand"? – Based on Q2-D + dummy
Q4-D: Can we shorten the declarer so he loses the trump control? – Based on Q2-D and Q4-A
Q5-E: Can we give partner a ruff? – based on the lead and trump analyses
Q4-A: 13 - (6+) - 2 - 2 = ≤3. If the declarer has 6♥, our partner has 3♥.
Q4-B: Trumps split 3-2 which is good for the declarer. (4-1 will be bad)
Q4-C: NO. Dummy has no suit, respectively dummyhas no shorter suit than the declarer.
Q4-D: NO. Declarer has 3 more trumps than we do.
Q5-E: Maybe in diamonds, but we want to score our diamonds a winners and maybe play the 4th round to promote our partner's trump.
Q5: What is the expected distribution in remaining suits?
Q5-A: Do we know anything about our partner? – based on the bidding
Q5-B: Do we know anything more about the declarer? – based on the bidding
Q5-C: Can we make a targeted guess? – based on the hand type and suits we have already analyzed
Q5-A: Not actively. But it is likely that our partner doesn't have 5+♠ because he didn't overcall.
Q5-B: NO. Besides the declarer is likely to have a 6322 or 6331 pattern.
Q5-C: YES. If we lead top from 3 and low from 2 and other info, we expect the declarer to have 2♠6♥2♦3♣ pattern.
Q6: How are the honors distributed?
Q6-A: How many honors do we expect from our partner? – based on step 1
Q6-B: Could our partner lead from a complete sequence? – dummy + our hand analyses
Q6-C: Do we know anything about the declarer's honors? – based on the bidding
Q6-D: Can we make a targeted guess?
Q6-A: 2-3 top honors.
Q6-B: NO. He could lead from a partial sequence in ♠QJ. And that can be quite an appealing lead. Therefore, we expect our partner not to have both ♠Q and ♠J.
Q6-C: He has ♦K. The declarer is likely to have two ♥ honors. He has a minimum of 3 top honors. ♠J and ♥J are the wild cards.
Q6-D: Most likely the declarer has two heart honors and one club honor. But that is only a guess.
Q7: How many tricks can we make?
Q7-A: What's the honor count? – our HT & partner's HT
Q7-B: Which suits do we know sure? – based on previous analyses
Q7-C: What is the other ratio? – based on targeted guesses
Q7-D: Can we make any unexpected tricks? – expert card play techniques
Q7-A: 2.5 + 2.5 = 5-6 honor tricks
Q6-B: 1 diamond trick. The remaining diamonds will be ruffed by the declarer. ♠K if someone else play the suit.
Q6-C: Possible 2 heart tricks in combination with partners honor or two and the 10 and our Q. Maybe a club trick if partner has the ♣A. Maybe a spade trick if our partner has the ♠Q and we do not touch the spades.
Q7-D: Not very likely. But we must play passively to maximize our trick potential.
If you want to beat the contract, play for the honors you need from your partner to make more tricks: ♣A, ♠Q
