Avoidance play

Avoidance play

In contract bridge, avoidance play is a play technique whereby the declarer tries to avoid one particular defender to take a trick, so as to eschew a dangerous lead from that hand. The dangerous hand is usually the one who is able to finesse through declarer's honors, or to give a ruff to the partner. Avoidance play can be regarded as one type of safety play.

Example

BridgeHandNS
AJ96|742|10|AQ1062
K1084|Q84|A965|KJ3South plays 4Spades and West leads HeartsK (indicating the ace), East playing the 3 (signalling the odd number of hearts and discouraging the continuation). West continues with a club, increasing the probability of defensive ruff in that suit.

The declarer has plenty of tricks, but is missing the trump queen and two top hearts; giving up the third heart early would probably mean losing the contract. Since HeartsA is almost certainly with West, if East gets the trump queen, he could finesse declarer's HeartsQ. Thus, the declarer must not allow East to get the trick, and so must play a trump Ace first and finesse against the queen in East's hand. If West has the SpadesQ and takes it, he could only take one more heart trick.

Note that, even if South had fifth trump instead of a diamond (playing in 5-4 fit), the same technique—finessing the queen against East—would practically ensure the contract (safety play). If the trumps are distributed x—Qxx, the percentage play of playing AK in trumps would endanger the contract, as East could ruff a later round of clubs with SpadesQ and play a heart through. With the avoidance finesse, West could win a "non-existing" trump trick if the trumps were distributed Qx–xx, but could not set the contract.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • avoidance play — Bridge. a play by the declarer designed to prevent a particular opponent from taking the lead. * * * …   Universalium

  • avoidance play — Bridge. a play by the declarer designed to prevent a particular opponent from taking the lead …   Useful english dictionary

  • Play art — is a new art form that calls for active participation of the viewer. Only through interaction does Play Art disclose its secrets and inherent principles. It is the intention of Play Artists that their work be touched, influenced, and experienced; …   Wikipedia

  • Avoidance — (Roget s Thesaurus) >Absence of pursuit. < N PARAG:Avoidance >N GRP: N 1 Sgm: N 1 abstention abstention abstinence Sgm: N 1 for bearance for bearance Sgm: N 1 refraining refraining &c. >V. Sgm: N 1 inaction inaction &c. 681 …   English dictionary for students

  • Squeeze play (bridge) — A squeeze play (or squeeze) is a type of play late in the hand of contract bridge and other trick taking game in which the play of a card (the squeeze card) forces an opponent to discard a card that gives up one or more tricks. The discarded card …   Wikipedia

  • Safety play — in contract bridge is a generic name for plays in which declarer maximizes the chances for fulfilling the contract (or achieving a certain score) by ignoring a chance for a higher score. Declarer uses safety plays to cope with potentially… …   Wikipedia

  • Percentage play — in contract bridge is a generic name for plays in which declarer maximizes the chances for obtaining a certain number of tricks or the maximum number of tricks when considering the suit in isolation. Sometimes the percentage play is not the… …   Wikipedia

  • Australian Aboriginal avoidance practices — refers to those relationships in traditional Aboriginal society where certain people were required to avoid others in their family or clan. These customs are still active in many parts of Australia, to a greater or lesser extent.Avoidance… …   Wikipedia

  • Conflict avoidance — is a method of dealing with conflict, which attempts to avoid directly confronting the issue at hand. Methods of doing this can include changing the subject, putting off a discussion until later, or simply not bringing up the subject of… …   Wikipedia

  • Quad (play) — For other uses of the term, see Quad. Samuel Beckett’s Quad was written in 1981 and first appeared in print in 1984 (Faber and Faber) where the work is described as “ [a] piece for four players, light and percussion” [Beckett, S., Collected… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”