MINIBRIDGE
- bridge for children and beginners -

LESSON 6 - LONG SUITS

Congratulations with your certificate for LESSON 5. Ready for LESSON 6?

WHAT WILL WE LEARN IN THIS BRIDGE LESSON

• What are long suits?
• The importance of long suits!
• The minibridge quiz.

WHAT ARE LONG SUITS?

We repeat that there are 4 types of cards: ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣. We call them SUITS. Each suit contains 13 cards. The Ace is the highest card and the Two is the lowest card.

Not only the value of the cards is important, but also the number of cards that you own in the same suit. We call this the length of the suits.

Long suits have a minimum of 4 cards!!

So you can have a maximum of 3 long suits in your hand: eg 4 spades, 1 hearts, 4 diamonds and 4 clubs.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LONG SUITS

In minibridge it is important to know the length of the 4 suits within your own team and within the team of your opponents.

We provide an example for more clarity.

Discussion of game play

• TRICK 1: South wins with ♥A or another ♥-card.
• TRICK 2: South knows that the ♥-cards are strong, but the ♦-suit is long. South plays ♦2 and East wins this trick with ♦K
• TRICK 3: East can only play a ♥-card and South wins this trick.
• TRICK 4: South takes trick with ♦J.
• TRICK 5 and 6: North makes trick with ♦Q and ♦9.

If North-South would play wrong and start with making 3 tricks in ♥, then East takes over in the 4th trick with ♦K and can then use his length in ♥ and make trick 4 and 5.

To make trick with a long suit, it is important that the suit is equally distributed with the other team.

Discussion of game play

• EXAMPLE A: ZUID can win 4 tricks in ♥. After 3 tricks only SOUTH still has a ♥-card and can win the 4th trick with ♥2.
• EXAMPLE B: WEST now has a long ♥-suit and wins the 4th trick with ♥J.

THE MINIBRIDGE QUIZ

Answer the questions below. If you have all the questions correct, then you get the minibridge LESSON 6 certification and then you are ready for LESSON 7 of our minibridge course.

Here are the questions of our minibridge quiz.

1. West has: ♠AKQ ♥5432 ♦Q963 ♣AJ! WHAT ARE THE LONG SUITS? Spades and Clubs Spades and Diamonds Hearts and Diamonds Spades, Diamonds and Clubs
2. East has: ♠AKQ9. CAN EAST MAKE 4 ♠-TRICKS? Yes, always No, this is not possible Yes, if the other players each have 3 ♠-cards Yes, if West ha ♠J
3. West wins with♥A and plays ♦4? WHAT WILL NORTH PLAY? North waits with ♦A and plays ♦6 Nord plays ♦A and than ♥7 Nord plays ♥7 and than ♦A Nord plays ♦A and than ♦8
4. South wins trick 1 with ♦A. WHAT PLAYS SOUTH IN TRICK 2? South takes a trick with ♦K South plays ♣A South plays ♥K South plays ♥Q