15 Planning the hand as declarer

Somewhere in the past you were surely taught to plan the hand at trick one when you are declarer. You probably do to some extent, but I guess seldom thoroughly, and I also guess seldom patiently. It’s all done in a rush “so as not to keep people waiting”, so away we go, winning the first trick and plunging into some sort of strategy until two or three tricks have gone by, and you suddenly realise you don’t know what to do next. So there’s a pause while you think what to do, and then a little later another pause and you end up keeping people waiting longer than you would have done if you did all the thinking at trick one.

Your opponents don’t mind waiting at trick one provided there’s not much waiting later on. They know it’s proper for you to take your time, and besides it gives them time to work out a defence strategy.

If the declarer is a novice, one would expect him to pause at every trick, we have to be patient with novices, we were there once ourselves. But for seasoned players to behave like novices is inexcusable unless the hand is such a freak that even St, Peter would have to take his time. So please do try to get your plan settled before playing a single card. Even if dummy has a bare ace in the suit led, don’t play it. First decide whether you are going to throw your king on it. Unlikely? You never know…. Many’s the time I’ve watched one of my pupils dash to play the “obvious” card at trick one, and then pause to make his plan at trick two, and then by his later play it becomes clear that he wishes he’d started differently.

I fully realise that you can’t always make a long-term plan early on until you see, for example, how the trumps break.  But you should always plan as far ahead as you reasonably can.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.