Bridge | 15 April 2023

Working out ‘safety-plays’ is pretty tedious, but can be vital when playing rubber bridge or teams. Unlike matchpoint pairs, guarding against bad breaks to secure your contract is far more important than trying for overtricks. That said, it can be difficult to work out safety-plays quickly at the table, especially as they’re often counter-intuitive. Far better to familiarise yourself with them from books. Zia, for instance, always shuts himself in a room for an hour before a big tournament to memorise the more obscure ones. But if you lack the time or patience, you can always follow Janet de Botton’s typically funny and forthright advice: ‘Just play the card you wouldn’t normally play in a million years. The card which seems most ridiculous. You can’t go wrong.’

On the following slam, I was able to make the right safety play because I’d seen it before; but Janet’s advice would probably have got me there too:

2♣ was game-forcing.