Nico Gardener - Card Play Technique or the Art of Being Lucky

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Count: An assessment of the number of cards a player has in a particular suit or suits. Alternatively, the number of points a player may have in their hand. Or a defensive signal to indicate the number of cards held in a suit.

Crossruff: Where the declarer (or the defenders) take a continuous series of ruffs in each hand alternately.

Dangerous Opponent: The player declarer wants to keep off lead.

Discard: A card (not a trump) played when you cannot follow suit.

Divided Menaces: A position where declarers menaces are in opposite hands, allowing either opponent to be squeezed.

Double Squeeze: An ending in which both opponents are squeezed. The two squeezes result in the gain of one trick.

Doubleton: A two-card holding in a suit.

Ducking: Deliberately withholding a winning card.

Dummy Reversal: Ruffing in the long trump hand and using the shorter one to draw trumps.

Echo: The play of a high card in a suit followed by a lower one to indicate an even number of cards in the suit, or to indicate a wish that partner continue the suit.

Elimination: The removal of all or some of the cards in a suit or suits from one or both defenders prior to an endplay.

Elopement: A technique involving scoring small trumps in the long hand by ruffing, as opposed to drawing trumps.

Endplay: A tactical play where a defender is put on lead at a strategic moment, and then has to make a play that loses one or more tricks.

Entry: A means of having the lead in a particular hand.

Exit Card: A card a defender can play to avoid an endplay.

Falsecard: A card played in order to give ones opponents a misleading impression of ones strength and/or length in the suit.

Finesse: An attempt to win a trick with a lower-ranking card, a play which depends on finding an opponents higher card favorably placed.

Forcing Game: Playing a suit repeatedly to force declarer to ruff in the hope that trump control will pass to the defenders.

Grand Coup: A trump coup in which side-suit winners are ruffed to execute the necessary trump reduction.

Hold Up: Withholding a high card to cut defensive communications.

Honor: Any of the A, K, Q, J or 10 in each suit.

Inference: A conclusion that may be drawn from a players bid or play.

Interior Sequence: An honor combination such as KJ10.

Isolating the Menace: A preparatory tactic ensuring that only one defender can protect against a specific menace.

Lavinthal: see McKenney signal.

Lightner Double: A conventional double used for directing the opening lead, usually against slam contracts.

Link: An entry, or means of communication to partners hand, essential in squeeze play.

Loser: A card that is expected to fail to win a trick.

Loser on Loser: Playing a card that must be lost on a losing trick in some other suit.

McKenney signal: A suit-preference signal, where a high card suggests interest in the higher-ranking of the remaining suits (excluding trumps) and a low card the lower-ranking.

Menace: A potential winner for declarer.

Negative Inference: A conclusion that may be drawn from the failure of a player to take a specific and/or expected action during the bidding or the play.

Overruff: Playing a trump higher than one that has already been played to the current trick.

Overtaking: Deliberately beating partners already winning card.

Percentage Play: A play having the highest mathematical probability of success when more than one reasonable line is available.

Peter: Term used in the U.K. for Echo.

Positional Squeeze: A squeeze that depends on the victim being in the right position, forced to discard ahead of the two menaces.

Progressive Squeeze: A squeeze in which, after one menace is unguarded, declarer plays the newly created winner, inflicting a secondary squeeze and gaining another trick.

Rectifying the Count: The process of losing as many tricks as may be necessary to correct the loser count in order that a squeeze will operate.

Ruff: To play a trump when a suit other than trumps is led.

Ruffing Finesse: A position involving a high sequence opposite a void in the same suit. A card is led and declarer is prepared to ruff if the intervening player covers, and to discard if he does not.

Rule of Eleven: When a defender leads fourth best, if you subtract the value of the spot card led from 11, the result is the number of higher: cards in the same suit contained in the other three hands.

Safety Play: The deliberate sacrifice of a trick in a suit to maximize the chance of making the contract, designed to cope with potentially unfavorable distribution.

Signal: A way of exchanging information by defenders based on the cards played when following suit or discarding.

Smother Play: A complex ending in which an opponents apparent trump trick evaporates.

Squeeze: A position in which a defender is forced to discard, but whatever he does sets up a winner for declarer.

Squeeze Card: The card that, when played, forces the fatal discard in a squeeze position.

Stopper: A card that prevents the run of a suit, especially in notrump.

Suicide Squeeze: An ending in which the squeeze card is led by one defender, thereby squeezing the other.

Switching: When a defender or declarer does not continue the suit in which he just won a trick.

Trump Control: The ability to draw trumps and enjoy winners in the side suits.

Trump Coup: An endgame where declarer needs to finesse in trumps but doesnt have one in the other hand and leads a plain card through the defenders trump holding instead. Declarer must reduce his own trumps to the same length as the defenders by ruffing before the trump coup can operate.

Trump Promotion: A technique where defenders create an otherwise non-existing trump trick, either by ruffing high knowing declarer will overruff or, in other situations, by refusing to overruff.

Trump Reduction: Where declarer reduces his trumps to the same number held by an opponent prior to a trump coup.

Trump Echo: Where a defender with three or more small trumps plays high-low, usually to suggest the ability to ruff in another suit.

Unblock: The play of a high card to ensure that the winners in a suit can be cashed.

Uppercut: A tactic where a defender ruffs high in the hope that an overruff by declarer will result in the promotion of a trump in partners hand into a winner.

Vienna Coup: A technique where declarer cashes all his winners in one threat suit before playing the squeeze card, in order to prevent that suit from becoming blocked.