You probably feel that your child is about ready to start to learn bridge after a few lessons of MiniBridge – and no doubt you are right. But it is worth keeping on playing MiniBridge just that little bit longer, because there are some very useful aspects of card play which can be learnt at this stage. And they will be leant that much more easily before all the rules of bidding come along to add another level of confusing complexity. There are basic declarer play techniques to be covered in addition to those we have already talked about. The concept of leading towards honours, and the finesse in particular, is a very useful subject to cover at this stage. In MiniBridge, because you know how many points each defender has, it is sometimes possible to be sure that a finesse will work (or will fail). Counting the points and using your knowledge of where points are in deciding how to play a hand is a terrific skill to learn in preparation for the full game of bridge.

The other valuable aspect of play to teach at this stage is defence. Very often, when bridge is being taught at all levels, there is a tendency to gloss over defence. Learners tend to switch off when they are defending, thinking that it is only declarer that has to do all the hard work. But this is of course far from the truth – a good, co-operative defence is one of the most beautiful things in bridge. So now it is well worth while spending some time on defensive techniques. Topics to cover are:

Counting the points.

This is perhaps even more important for a defender than for declarer.

The opening lead.

We have touched on this topic before, but now is the time to go through the standard leads from different holdings against suit and no trump contracts. All beginners, whatever their age, start by wanting to lead out their aces and kings, and the lead of unsupported aces in particular is something they need to be weaned off. As well as choosing the particular card in a suit, you will also want to talk about how you choose which suit to lead.

Third hand play.

Explain that third hand should usually aim to win a trick, but should do so as cheaply as possible, so the bottom of a sequence is the correct card to choose now, rather than the top card when leading. So holding QJ106, for example, the correct card to play is the ten, not the queen. The concept of returning partner’s suit is an important one to cover, and also which card to choose when doing so.

Signals.

It is definitely worth covering some simple signals whilst still playing MiniBridge. Children have a tendency to signal is unsubtle ways such as jumping up and down and saying “Please lead a heart, partner”, so they like the idea that you can get this sort of message across legally using the cards. You can cover attitude signals, whereby a high card is encouraging and says you like the suit partner has led, whilst a low card says you are not keen on the suit. In a trump contract, the play of a higher card followed by a lower one may be made from a doubleton, indicating a desire to ruff, rather than just from a holding including a high card. With a very bright child, you may also want to cover simple count signals when declarer is leading a suit, but be prepared for this to cause confusion!

Reading the cards.

It is no use signalling just for the sake of it. You need to be able to work out what the signal means. Try an exercise like this one with your child, taking out the cards in a single suit to help work out what is going on.

It’s an impressive list, and with all this knowledge they will have no trouble at all moving on to bridge.

Of course you will need to explain the sequence of the suits and the bids (a bidding box is good for this) but in your first bidding lesson you need only teach that we open 1NT with a balanced 12-14 points. Your pupils should be able to work out all the natural responses to 1NT from first principles using what they already know!