Reading The Cards

Simple Card Reading.

No.  Not a lesson in Tarot – a short lesson in how to make the most from the bidding and from the opening lead in a game of bridge.

Use them to your advantage.  Notice who passed on the first round of bidding before the opening bid was made.  Anyone that did so will probably hold fewer than 12 points.

Make sure to memorise the opening lead.  Good players choose their opening lead wisely as this can make the difference between losing and defeating the contract.

The cards in Dummy’s hand will be exposed after the opening lead has been played. Notice how many points are held by Dummy’s hand and add them to the points in your own hand.  There are a total of 40 points altogether in a game of bridge..

The final contract should give you clues about the total number of points held by Dummy and their partner – giving you clues about which cards might in your own partner’s hand and which might be in Dummy’s partner’s hand.

It’s easy for beginning players to overlook the importance of reading the cards when play starts and working out their likely distribution.  As with the opening lead, this can help your partnership win or lose the contract.

Expert players, such as Zia Mehmood rely on their card reading skills to give them the edge over ordinary players – you can read more about that here http://www.brecorder.com/weekend-magazine/0/1224456/