Establish Your Honors

example 1

It's possible, and often desirable, to intentionally lose a trick for the sake of being able to win future tricks.

If you lead your ♦K, it will lose to the ♦A. But with the ♦A out of the way, you can win future diamond tricks with your ♦Q and ♦J which are now promoted to the "masters" in diamonds.

You can "force out" the ♦A and later win two tricks in the suit.

example 2

When the opponents hold the ♠A and ♠K, it takes three spade plays to get a winner for yourself. Driving out the opponents' high cards is sometimes called "establishing a trick" for yourself, or "forcing out" their honors. It takes two spade plays to establish a spade trick, and one more to cash it.

If the opponents fail to play their ♠A or ♠K on one of the first two tricks, you get your spade trick even sooner.

example 3

You can lead the ♥K to drive out the ♥A, establishing one heart trick to cash later.

example 4

If your two honors are in different hands, you can still use one of them to force out their master card ( ♣ A), establishing a future trick for yourself.

example 5

You have three heart honors, ♥KQJ, and two diamond honors, ♦KQ. Which ace would it be better to drive out, the ♥A or the ♦A?

♥A ♦A

If you drive out the ♥A, you will establish two future winners. But if you drive out the ♦A, you will only establish one future winner. On some hands, you won't be able to do both. Choose the one that establishes more winners for yourself. In this case, lead hearts.

If you drive out the ♦A, you will establish only one future winner, but if you drive out the ♥A, you will establish two future winners. On some hands, you won't be able to do both. Choose the one that establishes more winners for yourself. In this case, lead hearts.

example 6

Here is a classic example of driving out an opponent's master to establish tricks for yourself. Your contract is 6NT, so you need to win 12 tricks.

You can count nine winners outside of spades, and three in spades, provided you drive out the ♠A before cashing your other winners.

Here is the complete deal:

example 7

Contract: 6NT
Opening lead: ♥J

Win the opening lead, and play the ♠K.

West wins his ♠A, and your ♠QJT are established as masters. The rest of the tricks are yours, no matter what suit West leads next, because you hold the masters in every suit.

But look what happens if you make the mistake of cashing your other winners before driving out the ♠A:

Three rounds of hearts establishes a fourth round heart winner for West. Three rounds of diamonds also establishes a diamond winner for West. And after three rounds of clubs, West has the master cards in all the suits.

You now lead a spade, and lose the last four tricks. Your spades are masters, but West doesn't lead spades. He leads the ♥T, the ♦J, and the ♣J while you are forced to discard your spade masters.

Remember, master cards are losers if you have to discard them on your opponents' winners.

example 8

Your contract is 3N (you need 9 tricks).

Their opening lead is the ♦Q.

How many masters do you have?

6 7 8 9

Excellent! 4 hearts, 2 diamonds, and 2 clubs = 8 masters. Unfortunately, this is one fewer than you need to make your contract.

Actually, you only have 8 masters... 4 hearts, 2 diamonds, and 2 clubs. You can easily establish a ninth winner by driving out the ♠A. But you haven't done that yet, so you have only 8 winners.

How are you going to win a ninth trick?

show answer

Win the opening lead and lead a spade to drive out the ♠A. This establishes your ninth trick while it's safe to give up the lead when you lose to the ♠A.

Why is it safe to give up the lead?

show answer

If you make the mistake of cashing your 8 winners before leading spades, your opponents will play the ♠A, and cash their own winners in diamonds and clubs. Four minor suit winners plus the ♠A will defeat your contract. You'll never win a trick with your newly promoted spade master, because you'll have to discard it on their minor suit masters.

example 9

This hand is similar to the last one. Again, you need nine tricks to make 3N. The opening lead is still a diamond.

Can you play it the same way? Can you capture the diamond lead and drive out their spade master?

yes no

No, this doesn't work. Driving out their spade master only establishes one more trick. Adding that to 6 tricks in the minors leaves you short of your goal.

How many extra tricks would you establish if you drive out the ♥A instead?

Driving out their spade master only establishes one more trick. Adding that to 6 tricks in the minors leaves you short of your goal.

The correct play is to drive out the ♥A, establishing three additional tricks.

When you play spades, it doesn't matter which honor you play first because the "short" hand has TWO spot cards. Play the honors in the short hand first when it has only one spot card to lead to the other hand.

In the heart suit, play the honor(s) from the short hand first – the ♥KJ before the ♥QT.

What's wrong with leading spades first? Couldn't you establish a spade winner now and drive out the ♥A later?

No, it takes an unnecessary risk. The next example shows what might go wrong.

example 10

This is one possible deal where you would go set.

East captures your spade honor and notices that he still holds the ♠JT98, while you have only one master left. So he drives out your remaining spade honor, establishing his ♠T98 as future winners.

Then he waits for you to lead hearts. He takes his ♥A on the first round of hearts, and cashes his spades. Four spade tricks and the ♥A set your contract one trick.

So sad.

Notice that after you drive out the ♥A, it becomes safe to drive out the ♠A. East can drive out your remaining spade master, as before, but he no longer has the ♥A to recapture the lead. You will have ten winners if you start with hearts instead of only eight if you start with spades.

example 11

Change the cards just a little...

and you don't have enough tricks when you drive out the ♥A. So you will have to drive out both major suit aces.

Does it matter which one you drive out first?

yes no

When you have established two heart tricks, don't cash them. You still have to establish a spade trick before you cash all your winners.

"I understand how to win tricks by leading master cards, and I understand how to win tricks by driving out their masters so I can establish my own future masters.

But what about hands when I wasn't dealt so many high cards? What do I do when I have neither masters nor extra honors to establish by driving out their masters? What's a bear to do then?"

example 12

Little Bear continues, "For example, this is the sort of holding I often have. The ♣ K is my best card, so I lead it. But the opponents always play their ace and I never win any club tricks."

Yes, Little Bear, that's what will happen. Leading your king is not a good idea. The ♣ A will be played. Your ♣ K will be squished. Not only will it fail to win a trick, its potential for winning a future trick will be wasted. So...

Don't lead it! If you must lead this suit from the South hand, lead low and hope your ♣ K wins a future trick. We'll look into just this sort of play in the next topic.

Go to the next topic:

Lead Toward Losing Honors (finessing)