As soon as the hand has been opened, make a comprehensive examination
to determine the possibilities of your combined hands. Are you strong
enough to win the game? Can you win the odd trick? Shall you be able
to save the game?
With no other possibility in the hand, make a determined effort to
save the game. If you are weak in one suit and hold the command
of the suit that is opened, your danger may lie in allowing the
adversaries to retain the lead.
When you hold an established suit, you cannot but gain by forcing the
opponents to discard; they may unguard honours in their weaker suits
or give you information that will locate high cards.
Do not forget that your strength is in your long suit, and that you
are often dependent on your other high cards to establish this suit.
To the mind of the novice, the loss of the lead is a calamity, and he
will often lead all his high cards, leaving the command of his own
suit, as well as of the others, with the adversaries.
Remember that it requires no skill to make aces and kings, and that
your goal in a “no-trump” hand must be the establishment of the small
cards of your long suit.
With fair possibilities in the hand, ascertain before you play a card
from dummy, first: which is your longest suit; second, how can it
be most advantageously led; and, third, in which hand there is the
greater need of an entry card.