Every bridge teacher you've ever had has told you to make a plan. Making a plan is key to being able to improve your play. If you have a plan, you can later go back and identify whether it worked and why or why not. The foundation for our plan is slightly different at suit contracts and notrump, but we should always be able to follow simple steps to set ourselves up for success.
Plan for Suit Contracts
1) Count Losers. You can look at both your hand and dummy for high cards (aces, kings, queens), but you should only count losers from one hand or the other. You'll usually count from the hand with longer trump.
2) How do you get rid of them? You might be able to ruff a loser in the hand with fewer trumps. You might be able to discard a loser on extra winners in the other hand. You also might be able to get rid of a loser with a finesse or a split.
3) Should you draw trump? You may be able to draw all the trump or just some of them. It's important to do this AFTER planning how to get rid of your losers. There are several reasons to delay drawing trump. The most common is if you need trumps in the short trump hand in order to ruff out losers.
4) Are there any other dangers? This fourth step is the least important (and, often, most difficult). It covers entries, potential ruffs by the opponents, or bad splits. It helps to be able to mentally play out a few tricks to see how the play might go and spot obstacles before they arise.
We'll test your planning and play in this quiz.
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You are South. You wind up declarer on the auction
West North East South 1 
2 All Pass Vul:None
Dlr: SDummy
K87
A832
97
J432Lead: 
2Declarer
QJ1093 Q6 A43 A95First step of our plan in suit contracts: How many losers do we have?
Choose One:1. -4
2. -5
3. -6
4. -7
5. -Other
Answer: 36. One spade loser (you get to include the honors from the other side). One heart loser. TWO diamond losers (DO NOT COUNT SHORTNESS FROM BOTH SIDES). Two club losers.
Your result so far: -
You are South. You wind up declarer on the auction
West North East South 1 2 All Pass Vul:None
Dlr: SDummy
K87 A832 97 J432Lead: 2Declarer
QJ1093 Q6 A43 A95Second step of our plan in suit contracts: What can we do about our losers?
Choose One:1. -Lead hearts from dummy
2. -Ruff diamonds in dummy
3. -Ruff hearts in our hand
4. -Nothing--draw trump
5. -Set up clubs
6. -Other
Answer: 2We can see how important it is to count losers properly in this step. If you only counted five losers, because you looked at the shortness in dummy, then you might draw trump. We counted 6 losers, though, and will attempt to get rid of one by ruffing in the dummy.
Your result so far: -
You are South. You wind up declarer on the auction
West North East South 1 2 All Pass Vul:None
Dlr: SDummy
K87 A832 97 J432Lead: 2Declarer
QJ1093 Q6 A43 A95Third step of our plan in suit contracts: Should we draw trump now?
Choose One:1. -Don't draw any trumps
2. -Draw one round of trump
3. -Draw two rounds of trump
4. -Draw all the trumps
Answer: 1Don't draw any trump. Our plan is to ruff in the short hand. If you draw any trumps, your opponents may draw the rest.
Your result so far: -
You are South. You wind up declarer on the auction
West North East South 1 2 All Pass Vul:None
Dlr: SDummy
K87 A832 97 J432Lead: 2Declarer
QJ1093 Q6 A43 A95Fourth step of our plan in suit contracts: Anything we should worry about from the opponents?
Choose One:1. -Our opponents might play trumps if we start trumps.
2. -Worried about a diamond ruff/overruff.
3. -Worried about a heart switch by East.
4. -Worried about clubs from East.
5. -Other
Answer: 1Our opponents might play trumps if we start trumps. We can afford for them to play ace and a trump (two rounds), but not three. Don't give them a chance. Other suits from the opponents likely help us or at least give us a free finesse, so that's not a concern.
Your result so far: -
You are South. You wind up declarer on the auction
West North East South 1 2 All Pass Vul:None
Dlr: SDummy
K87 A832 97 J432Lead: 2Declarer
QJ1093 Q6 A43 A95Notice that we didn't know what East did at trick one. That's because we planned BEFORE calling for a card from dummy. Now, armed with a plan, we play a diamond from dummy and East contributes the
J. What now? Choose One:1. -Win and play a diamond (or duck, to set up the diamond ruff).
2. -Win and play a club
3. -Win and play a trump
4. -Win and play a heart
5. -Other
Answer: 1Win and play a diamond (or duck, to set up the diamond ruff). Ducking is usually good technique in situations like this. You may need to use the diamond suit as transportation. In this case, we have entries back to hand and can get away with either play.
Your result so far: -
If you played correctly, you made 2
. What do we think of the bidding?West North East South 1 Pass 2 All Pass Vul:None
Dlr: S K87 A832 97 J432 54 K954 K10865 K8 A62 J107 QJ2 Q1076 QJ1093 Q6 A43 A95Choose One:1. -Looks good!
2. -West should have bid differently
3. -North should have bid differently
4. -East should have bid differently
5. -South should have bid differently
6. -More than one player erred
Answer: 2West should have bid differently. The first pass was normal, but in balancing seat West can summon up a call. I would bid 2NT here to show two suits, but even just guessing 3
could be better than defending. Your result so far: -
What do we think about West's opening lead of the
2?West North East South 1 Pass 2 All Pass Vul:None
Dlr: S K87 A832 97 J432 54 K954 K10865 K8 A62 J107 QJ2 Q1076 QJ1093 Q6 A43 A95Choose One:1. -Best lead (and lucky to hit partner's
QJ). 2. -Should have led a heart.
3. -Should have lead a club.
4. -Should have led a trump.
5. -Other.
Answer: 4West should have led a trump. Why guess which suit to lead? It turns out that heart and club leads both give up tricks, and a diamond lead could easily have done the same. Trump leads are safe (at worst conceding a finesse) and help cut down on ruffs in the short hand on occasion (such as this one). A trump lead would beat this contract. So West erred in the bidding AND the play.
Your result so far: