HOME > BRIDGE LESSONS > DECLARER CARD PLAY LESSONS
Play the Honor in the Short Suit First
Declarer: The player who during the auction made the first bid the SUIT of the final contract, becomes the declarer. The also play their partners hand which is now renamed ‘dummy.’
This is a ‘lite’ version of the lessons available to members. Our full interactive lessons include in inbuilt Bridge term glossary, instant quiz to test your knowledge and multiple practice hands to play on each subject. Our members area also delivers a new Hand of the Day lesson each day, daily Bridge competitions and unlimited random practice hands to play.
Declarer plays both their own and dummy’s hand. More play means you have two hands to play in Bridge. When you have honor cards, sometimes known as face cards, and each is worth high card points are:
the Ace (A) = 4 HCP
the King (K) = 3 HCP
the Queen (Q) = 2 HCP
the Jack (J) = 1 HCP
and the Ten (10 or T) in each suit
The 10 and 9 card in any suit are known as Intermed… More in both hands in a suit it is often difficult to decide the best way to play this suit.
Definition
Playing the honor in the short suit first means that you count your holding in both hands in a suit and whichever hand has the lesser number of cards in the suit this is the ‘short suit’, the hand with the most cards in the same suit is known as the ‘long suit’. The rule is designed to stop you being blocked ie. locked into the hand with the short suit and not able to play your winning low cards in the hand with the ‘long hand
