Bridge | 5 November 2022

Control freaks are deeply annoying and even more deeply uncool. Nobody wants to be thought of as a control freak when they think they are being organised and helpful. But at the bridge table control is everything. As declarer you are in the driving seat and understanding the concept of keeping control is vital. Often it means giving the opps what they are due as soon as possible while developing our side suits.

The following hand is a simple but instructive example, and by recognising and applying this technique whenever needed, you will greatly improve your declarer play.

West leads the ♣J and things don’t look too bad. Barring any disastrous breaks, we should be able to ruff out the Spades and just lose two trumps and a Diamond.

However, we must be careful; if we ruff a Spade too soon, East scores a cheap overruff and we lose four tricks. If we play Ace of Hearts and another, we risk West taking out the last trump as well and we only get one ruff when we might need two.

We need to play exactly two rounds of trumps – no more and no less – so we start by ducking a trump from both hands (keeping control by retaining the Ace).

Whatever the defence returns, we now cash the Ace of Hearts and go about our business of establishing the Spades. The defence can make their remaining trump trick when they want.

This is a standard control play that comes up very frequently, and is the only way to make 4 ♥ on this hand.

Control freak heaven.