The Play of the Hand Hold Ups
As we discussed last month, the key to success in Bridge is making a Plan. First we need to count the top winners and then plan a way to get the rest that we need before the opponents get what they need. Three ways to get additional tricks (or avoid losers) which are not so obvious are called “Hold Ups”, “Unblocking”, and “Ducking”. This month we will discuss Hold Ups.
Hold Up simply means just that. When you see the possibility of losing too many tricks before you have a chance to develop your own tricks, you might want to consider holding up. There are times to hold up and times not to. We can examine each here. Let’s look at an example.
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North |
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| West ♦ K W 9 4 2 |
East ♦ J 10 7 |
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| South ♦ A 6 3 |
You are South, the Declarer, in 3 NT. You have plenty of tricks in the other 3 suits, but you must first get rid of the opponents ♥A.
West leads the 4, fourth from his longest and strongest suit. The rule of 11 tells you that his partner has 3 higher than the 4. This is important, because now you know the partner has at least 3 Diamonds and you must “Hold Up” twice. So, if you take your Ace right away, whoever has the missing Ace will play Diamonds and the opponents will get 4 diamonds and the Ace of hearts and defeat the contract.
Well, there are 2 ways to prevent that from happening. One is to pray that the diamonds are divided 4-4 and the opponents will only get 3 diamond tricks and their♥A. The other is to hold up and hope that the opponent with the Ace has no more diamonds to return to his partner.
Holding up in this situation has no disadvantages. If the diamonds are divided 4 and 4, the opponent with the Ace will have a diamond left to return to this partner, but they can only take 3 diamond tricks and you can still make 3 NT. If the opponent with 5 diamonds also has the Ace in question, there is nothing you can do and you will go down … but so will everyone else playing this hand. Holding up gives you a 50/50 chance, you do not have if you take your Ace right away.
With that said, let’s now talk about situations where the “Hold Up” should not be employed.
1. When it is apparent that the partner of the opener has more of the suit than you do.
2. When it is apparent that the partner of the declarer will never get the lead.
3. When holding up can do more damage than good. Let’s look at an example:
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North |
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| West ♠ Q 9 7 3 ♥ 9 8 6 2 ♦ 8 7 6 5 ♣ 7 |
East ♠ K 10 6 4 ♥ J 5 3 ♦ K Q J 9 ♣ A 5 |
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| South ♠ A 8 5 ♥ A K Q 4 ♦ 4 2 ♣ 10 6 4 2 |
South is the declarer at 3 NT. West leads the ♠3. North plays the J and East plays K. By the rule of 11, East has 4 Spades higher than the 3. So, East must have 4 and West must have 4. Therefore, there is no danger of an opponent having 5 and no reason for the hold up. Also in this situation you want to get in quickly, so you can establish your clubs before the opponents establish their diamonds.
Finally, you should not hold up when winning the trick might develop an additional trick in that suit. For example:
North
♥ 10 2
South
♥ A J 8
Whatever West leads, North plays the 2 and East must play the Q or the K, if he has one of them. It would be foolish to hold up and take only one trick when you can take the Ace and later the J. The 10 in the North hand will force out the other honor and the Jack will take a subsequent trick.
