The document provides lessons on basic bridge strategies for beginners, including: 1) When leading, prioritize leading from top of three-card or longer sequences, short suits, or top of doubletons/singletons. Avoid leading unsupported honors. 2) General playing strategies include playing the second hand low and third hand high, covering honors with honors, drawing trumps unless cross-ruffing, and leading through strength into weakness. 3) Finessing strategies advise leading low towards honors to capture cards onside, with 8 ever and 9 never rules for fitting with partners' honors. Finesses can sometimes be taken both ways with equal chances of success.

1. Bridge Lessons - Beginners NYU Bridge and Spades Club

2. Lesson 2 Basic Leading and Playing

3. Leading Counting high-card points (HCPs) Ace = 4 points King = 3 points Queen = 2 points Jack = 1 point Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet Leading A from AK or K from KQ Top of 3-card sequence e.g. Q from QJT 4 th best of longest suit Short suit leads (if against suit contracts, prioritize this over 4 th best) Top of doubleton Singleton Middle of tripleton Avoid leading suits with unsupported honours (and don’t lead the honours themselves either) Never underlead aces against a suit contract

4. General Playing Strategies Counting high-card points (HCPs) Ace = 4 points King = 3 points Queen = 2 points Jack = 1 point Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet General Playing Strategies 2 nd hand low, 3 rd hand high As 2 nd hand, you generally don’t need to play a high card to force 3 rd hand to play high, since 3 rd hand doesn’t know 4 th hand’s holdings Cover honours with honours Count your winners and losers Draw trumps when declaring unless you intend to make by cross-ruffing Lead through strength/into weakness

5. Finessing Counting high-card points (HCPs) Ace = 4 points King = 3 points Queen = 2 points Jack = 1 point Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet Finessing Holding for example AJxx opposite Kxxx, it is generally best to lead low to the K and lead low back to the J (not the A) Can capture “onside” queens 8 ever, 9 never With an 8-card fit and holding AK missing Q, always finesse With a 9-card fit and holding AK missing Q, never finesse – just cash the A and the K

6. Finessing Cont’d Counting high-card points (HCPs) Ace = 4 points King = 3 points Queen = 2 points Jack = 1 point Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet Finessing cont’d Sometimes, finessing can be done both ways E.g. holding AJxx and KTxx, the finesse can be done both ways i.e. can lead low to J or low to T In such cases, which way to finesse is merely a guess, but bidding/play/signals can sometimes give you a clue as to which way to finesse