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Holdup is a play in contract bridge, whereby the declarer ducks one or more trick to opponents, usually in notrump contracts, in order to cut their communications. The primary purpose of holdup is to give as many tricks to opponents as enough to exhaust all the cards in the suit from one of their hand's. If that hand regains the lead, it will not be able to put the partner on lead to cash its tricks. Holdup is one of basic techniques in play.
♠ | J 10 7 | ||||
♥ | 10 8 3 2 | ||||
♦ | A 5 3 | ||||
♣ | K J 10 | ||||
♠ | Q 9 6 |
N W E S |
♠ | 5 4 3 2 | |
♥ | 7 5 4 | ♥ | Q J 6 | ||
♦ | K Q J 10 9 | ♦ | 7 4 2 | ||
♣ | 8 3 | ♣ | A 7 4 | ||
♠ | A K 8 | ||||
♥ | A K 9 | ||||
♦ | 8 6 | ||||
♣ | Q 9 6 5 2 |
South is playing a contract of three notrump, and West leads the king of
diamonds. There are nine needed tricks: two spades, two hearts, one diamond and
four clubs. However, if the declarer wins the ace of diamonds at trick one and
drives out the ace of clubs, the defenders will cash four diamond tricks to set
the contract.
South can assure the contract (provided the ace of clubs is with East) by
holding up the ace of diamonds: (s)he plays low to the first two diamond tricks
(known as ducking) and wins the ace of diamonds on the third trick. Now, when East
wins the ace of clubs, (s)he has no diamonds left to play. If West holds the ace
of clubs, the contract is impossible to make. If, on the other hand, East had a
diamond, that would mean that diamonds were originally split 4-4 and defenders
could only cash three tricks in the suit, so the contract wasn't endangered.
In the hand above, there are five diamonds in the combined North-South hands, and declarer must duck two tricks (winning the third).
If there were an additional diamond in either the North or South hand, for a total of six, then declarer need only duck one trick (winning the second). This is because if West has five diamonds (and North-South six), then East will have only two and will be out of diamonds after two rounds of the suit. If East does have three diamonds, then West will have only four and the defenders can cash only two additional diamond tricks (for a total of three) upon winning the ace of clubs.
This rule, of course, assumes you are playing in 3 NT. It can be generalized for all notrump contracts as follows:
Bridge card game, the most popular card game in the world.