This is the 1st of five pages on play techniques by courtesy of KAREN WALKER

A good declarer relies on a variety of skills, strategies and techniques to help him make his contracts. One of the most basic is knowing how to handle common card combinations. You also need some knowledge of how long suits are likely to divide in the opponents' hands, and you need to learn how to detect and use clues from the opponents' bidding and play.

The most important of all declarer-play skills, though, is the ability to look at the entire hand -- all 13 tricks -- and develop an overall plan for making your contract. You should never just cash tricks randomly and hope you'll know what to do later -- ideally, you want to have a reason for every lead and play. Here are some basic guidelines for how to form your plan for suit and notrump contracts:

Playing Suit Contracts

1. Count your losers as soon as dummy comes down. If  you have a 5-3 or a 6-2 fit, focus your counting on the hand with the longer trumps.  If you have too many losers to make your contract, don't give up. There are a number of plays you can use to turn losers into winners:

Finessing to trap the opponents' honours.

Developing long-suit winners in a side suit to pitch losers in other suits.

Trumping if one hand is short in a suit.

2. Make a plan for which of these plays you will use to develop extra tricks in each suit.

3. Decide which suits you'll attack, and in what order. On many (but not all) hands, you'll want to exploit your advantage in the trump suit by leading trumps first -- your plan will be to take all the opponents' trumps away and still have trumps remaining in your and/or dummy's hands to handle your losers. To be sure that this will be the right plan, count your losers first, then try counting winners (honours and potential long-suit tricks) in your outside suits. Add these winners to your tricks in the trump suit to determine whether or not you have enough "natural" tricks to make your contract.

If you DO have enough "natural" winners to make your contract, lead trumps right away. Plan to collect all the opponents' trumps, even if you have to lose the lead to do so. This will make it possible for you to cash your outside winners without worrying that an opponent will trump one of your good tricks.

Always count the opponents' trumps as you lead the suit to keep track of how many they still have after each trick. One easy counting technique is to mentally start with the number of trumps in your two hands, then count "up" as you see each trump from an opponent's hand. For example, if you have an 8-card fit, you start with the number 8 -- if both opponents follow to your first trump lead, you mentally count 9-10. When you get to 13, you have all their trumps and you should stop leading them. For more tips on how to keep track of outstanding cards in a suit.

Think about how many trumps the opponents started with and try to estimate in advance how many times you'll have to lead the suit to draw all their cards. If you have an 8-card fit, you'll have to lead trumps at least three times (if the opponents' cards break 3-2). If you have a 9-card fit, you'll need only two leads if the missing cards break 2-2, or three leads if they break 3-1. 

You can stop leading trumps if there's only one outstanding and it's a winner -- for example, you've drawn four of the opponents' trumps with your ace-king and one opponent is now left with the good queen. In this case, you usually won't want to use two of your trumps to get his one, so you can begin leading other suits and let the opponent score the trump queen whenever he wants.

If you DON'T have enough "natural" winners to make your contract, you will usually want to postpone leading trumps. This may depend on your estimate of how many leads it would take to draw trumps and whether these leads would remove all the trumps from your hand or dummy's.

For example, if you have 5 trumps in your hand and dummy has 3, it will take at least three leads to collect all the opponents' trumps. If  you need to use dummy's trumps to take care of  one or more of your hand's losers, you must set that up before you lead trumps. This may involve giving up a trick or two so you can run dummy out of the suit you need to trump. When you've finished using dummy's trumps in this way, you can then lead trumps.

On other hands, you may need to try to score all of your trumps separately. In this case, your plan will be to play a cross-ruff, by trumping outside suits in both your hand and dummy's. Here's an example:

4.  After you've made best use of your trumps -- by trumping losers and/or drawing trumps -- plan to attack your longest side-suit fit next. This is usually the suit that offers the greatest number of natural tricks. As you lead the suit, count the opponents' cards so you'll know when your small cards in the suit become winners.

5.  If you have shorter suits with top tricks that can be taken at any time, plan to use these tricks as entries to get back and forth between your hand and dummy's. If you don't need them for entries, then plan to cash these tricks last.

In general, don't be afraid to lose tricks and give the opponents the lead. You'll often set up extra tricks for yourself by forcing the opponents to win their tricks early in the hand.

Playing No Trump Contracts

1.  Count your winners as soon as dummy puts his hand down.
     Don't play a card until you've formed a plan for making your contract.

2.  If you don't have enough top winners to make your contract, make a plan to create more winners.
    You have two main ways to develop extra tricks:

Finessing to trap the opponents' honors.

Developing long-suit winners, which may require letting the defenders win early tricks.

3.  Decide which suit offers the greatest number of potential tricks and lead it first.
     In most cases, this will be your longest  fit.

Don't be afraid to give the opponents their tricks in your long suit if you can set up tricks for yourself by doing so.
 

Before you lead the suit, make a plan for how you'll set up and cash its tricks. Decide which hand you want to lead from first, how you will "unblock" your honors, and whether or not you may be able to trap missing honors with one or more finesses.

Count the opponents' cards as you lead your long suit. Keep track of the number of cards they still have so you'll know if and when your small cards are winners. Remember that the 13th card of a suit, even if it's a deuce, is always a trick in notrumps.

4.  Cash winners in your short suits last. Don't set up the opponents' small cards in these suits by cashing your tricks too early.

In general, be cautious about leading the suit the opponents chose for the opening lead. At least one opponent has length in that suit, so don't set up his winners for him.
The opponents will usually attack that suit again when they get the lead.