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Contract Bridge LESSON 10a The Dangerous Opponent General The Unprotected King The Opponents' Long suit The Opponents' ruff Recap

In many contracts the Declarer finds that there is a particular threat from the Opposition that may endanger making the required tricks to fulfill his contract. In these situations it is often one of the two opponents in particular who is the "Danger Man" Declarer must avoid giving him the lead, or avoid giving him the lead at a specific stage in the game.
Typical threats of this nature are :

1. The Unprotected King
   Usually Kx (in either Dummy or Declarer's hand) opposite xxx
   
   
2. Opponent's Long suit, in No Trump contracts
   
   
3. Opponent's early Ruff in a trump contract
   When one opponent appears to be holding a void, singleton or doubleton.

We will look at these three common cases individually in the following Chapters.

I strongly recommend that you take a pack of cards, lay out all four hands, then play each Deal a couple of times so that you get a good grasp of the strategies employed.

You (South) are in a contract of 3 Not Trump with West making an opening lead of the Queen of Hearts.
How can you make sure to make your contract ?

First thing to do of course is to count your sure winners. They are 2 in Spades (A and K), another 2 in Hearts (A and K) and 4 in Clubs (A K Q and J). This makes 8 winners in total. You need one more trick to fulfill your contract. This can come either from an indirect finesse to Declarer's lone ("unprotected") King of Diamonds, or a direct finesse in Spades.
The Diamond finesse would be suicide, because if it fails you will immediately lose at least 4 tricks in that suit. So you must decide to take the finesse in Spades. But which way are you going to take it ???

Normally, after gaining the lead, you would first play Declarer's King of Spades, followed by the Spade Jack for a direct finesse against West. But not in this case ! . If the finesse fails and East gains the lead he will immediately lead a Diamond against your unprotected King. If West holds the Diamond Ace you will lose 4 Diamonds tricks at least, plus the lost Spade trick that makes one down or more. East is therefore the Danger Man who must not gain the lead.
Here is the worst case scenario of the complete Deal :

The correct Declarer play is as follows :
Capture West's opening lead of the Queen of Hearts with Dummy's Ace, then lead the Spade 10 from Dummy. If East plays low, Declarer plays the 8. If Dummy's 10 holds the trick Dummy leads the Spade 4 to trick 3. If East plays low again Declarer plays the Spade Jack. If the Jack holds, Declarer then cashes his Spade King, returns to Dummy with a small Club to Dummy's King. Dummy then cashes the Spade Ace and returns to Declarer's hand via a Heart or Club for the remaining winners.

If West holds the Spade Queen instead (as shown below, after trick 1), Declarer's Spade finesse will obviously lose, but his Diamond King remains safe and cannot be captured. The best West can do is lead another Heart, as cashing the Ace of Diamond followed by a small Diamond will give Declarer an extra trick.

STRATEGY 1
When holding and unprotected King (K x [x] opposite x x [x]) the Opponent which can lead through the King is the DANGER MAN. Plan you play (and finesses) so that that player does not gain the lead.
This strategy is most important in No Trump contracts, but can also be relevant in Trump contracts when you can not afford to lose 2 tricks in the suit concerned.

Once again you (South) are in a contract of 3 No Trump. During the auction East made an overcall in Diamonds (showing a good 5-card or longer Diamond suit). West therefore leads a small Diamond.
Plan your play :

Declarer can count 5 sure winners, A of Spades, A and K of Hearts, and the Aces of Diamonds and Clubs. The bidding suggests that East holds 5 or 6 Diamonds headed by K Q. East will also hold at least one of the two black Kings.

Declarer will surely make a 2nd Diamond trick with his Jack.   Three more tricks are therefore required to make his contract. If the Spade finesse succeeds all three extra tricks will come from that suit, but if it fails Declarer must also finesse the Clubs for the vital 9th trick.
EAST, with his long Diamond suit, is obviously the DANGER MAN here. He must not be allowed to cash his winners in his suit.

On West's opening lead Dummy plays a low Diamond, East his Diamond Queen and Declarer ducks, playing his 10 !! (playing Declarer's Ace now would be suicidal : can you see why ?)

At trick 2 East leads a small Diamond, which is covered by Declarer's Jack (on East's lead of the Diamond King Declarer would this time of course play his Ace, promoting his Jack to a second Diamond stopper).
The situation is now as shown below. What next ?

When you still hold one stopper in the danger suit (Diamonds), but are likely to lose the lead twice while establishing your winners : lose to the DANGER MAN FIRST !!!. This means that Declarer must take the Spade finesse first. He leads the Queen of Spades, plays low in Dummy and loses the trick to East's Spade King.
East now leads another small Diamond, Declarer wins with his Ace and West plays his last remaining Diamond ! This ensures that when West later gains the lead with the Club King he has no Diamond left to lead back to his partner the DANGER MAN, and East will be unable to cash his two Diamond winners (K and 8).

If instead Declarer (after switching the lead to Dummy via the Ace of Hearts at trick 3) had taken (at trick 4) the Club finesse first, West would still have had a small Diamond to lead out, removing Declarer's Ace. Now, after East gains the lead with the King of Spades he can cash his two Diamond winners (K and 8), defeating the 3NT contract.

STRATEGY 2
When you still hold one stopper in the long enemy suit and you need to lose the lead twice in order to establish your winners : LOSE to the DANGER MAN (holding the long suit) FIRST !
This way the DANGER MAN will lead his long suit next, and in the process remove his partner's last remaining card in that suit.

This principle also applies when one of Declarer's 2 losers is an Ace.
For example :

In above situation force out the Spade Ace first, regardless who holds it (because it could be East). Then when regaining the lead take the Club finesse.

In the case below, take the Spade finesse first, and hope that you will find West with the Club Ace later when tackling the Club suit. If East holds both the Spade K and Club A you will lose your contract no matter what you do.

Here is a third common scenario involving a Dangerous Opponent and a Declarer strategy concerning a finesse.
You (South) are the Declarer in a contract of 4 Spades, while during the auction period West overcalled Hearts (showing a good 5-card or longer Heart suit).
West leads the King of Hearts. Plan your play.

At first glance everything looks fine. You can see a possible loser in Spade (to the Q), a certain one in Hearts (Q) and one to Opponent's A of Diamonds. If the Clubs break very badly (West holding 4 Clubs including the Jack) you might lose a trick to the Jack, but that is rather unlikely. Probably 3 losers at the most ?

But wait a minute, West overcalled Hearts ! He must therefore have at least five of them, with Dummy's three and your own four that makes 5 + 3 + 4 = 12 Hearts at least. This means that East has at the most only 1 Heart. West is therefore the DANGER MAN, for if he is allowed to lead again he will lead another Heart, giving his partner (East) the chance for a rough.

Declarer must therefore take the first trick with the Ace of Hearts and immediately draw trumps. But how ? He has a possible two way finesse in his trump Spade suit.
If Declarer leads to Dummy's Spade Ace, then finesses East for the Queen and it loses to West (the DANGER MAN), West will immediately lead Hearts, first his Queen which wins the trick, then a small one giving East a rough and the contract goes one down for sure.
But if Declarer plays his Spade King at trick 2, then finesses West for the Queen and it loses to East he is not safe either. For East will surely find the Diamond lead to West's Ace, after which West can still lead his two Hearts (first the Q, then small).

Declarer must therefore not finesse at all, but draw two rounds of trumps with his King and Dummy's Ace. Provided the trumps break 2-3 his contract will be safe, for he can afford to lose one trump trick but not two !
If in the process he catches the enemy's Spade Queen and gains an extra trick so be it, but that is purely of secondary importance. (If the Queen does drop on the first two rounds of trumps Declarer will of course play a third round of trumps with his now high Jack.)

Therefore here is a clear case where the slogan "8 ever, 9 never!" (about when to finesse for the Queen) does not apply.
Shown below is the situation after the first 3 tricks have been taken. East still has one trump left, the Spade Queen. He can win a trick with that card at any time during the remainder of the play, but it will not endanger Declarer's contract.

STRATEGY 3
When there exists the danger of an Opponent's rough, Declarer immediately draws as many trumps as he can without losing the lead. Where possible he must refrain from taking a finesse in the process !
If Declarer holds the trump Ace and King he can play these in any order. If Declarer hold the Ace and a lower Honour (Q, J or 10), he first plays the Ace, followed (if possible) by a low trump (an indirect finesse) to his next highest Honour.

BR 10a.5 - Recap

When there is an Opponent Danger Man, Declarer must follow a special strategy which usually focuses on how, or when, or in which sequence, or if at all to take one ore more finesses. These strategies are :

STRATEGY 1
When holding and unprotected King (K x [x] opposite x x [x]) the Opponent which can lead through the King is the DANGER MAN. Plan you play (and finesses) so that that player does not gain the lead.
This strategy is most important in No Trump contracts, but can also be relevant in Trump contracts when you can not afford to lose 2 tricks in the suit concerned.

STRATEGY 2
When you still hold one stopper in the long enemy suit and you need to lose the lead twice in order to establish your winners : LOSE to the DANGER MAN (holding the long suit) FIRST !
This way the DANGER MAN will lead his long suit next, and in the process remove his partner's last remaining card in that suit.   This principle also applies when one of Declarer's 2 losers is an Ace.

STRATEGY 3
When there exists the danger of an opponent's rough, Declarer immediately draws as many trumps as he can without losing the lead. Where possible he must refrain from taking a finesse in the process !
If Declarer holds the trump Ace and King he can play these in any order. If Declarer hold the Ace and a lower Honour (Q, J or 10), he first plays the Ace, followed (if possible) by a low trump (an indirect finesse) to his next highest Honour.