Ducking

When you know you have to lose at least one trick in a suit that includes the ace and king, you need to lose that trick early by playing low cards from both your hand and the dummy. This is called ducking a trick.

When should I not play my honor cards?

Definition

In contract bridge, to duck means to deliberately play low to a trick which you have led and intentionally losing in order to set up a suit or to preserve controls or entries. When applied to a suit you have led it is referred to as a duck but it is called a hold-up when you purposely play a low card in a suit played by the opponents when you could win the trick.

The Problem

If the dummy has a five-card suit headed by the ace and the king facing three small cards, you want to create two extra tricks using a ducking play.
The opponents have five spades between the two hands, including the spade queen and Jack. You must sooner or later lose a spade trick no matter what, so try lose it as soon as you can while you still have control of the suit

North

West

East

South

The Rules

info on its way soon!

The solution

info on its way soon!

Practice ducking on the computer here
If you duck one round of either diamonds or clubs you can make one more trick than if you do not duck...try it and see

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