764
Holding Up or Ducking
In the card game of contract bridge, to hold up means to play low to a trick led by the
opposition losing the trick intentionally in order to block their communication.
The main purpose of holding up is to give as many tricks to opponents
as needed to exhaust all the cards in a suit from one of their hands. If that hand regains the lead, it will not
be able to put their own partner on lead to cash their tricks.
Hold up is one of basic techniques in card play. The action is similar whether you are playing your own suit when it's called, ducking. When the same action is in a suit lead by the opposition its called holding up. The terms are often used interchangeably with duck or ducking being the more common.
Hold up is one of basic techniques in card play. The action is similar whether you are playing your own suit when it's called, ducking. When the same action is in a suit lead by the opposition its called holding up. The terms are often used interchangeably with duck or ducking being the more common.
North
West
East
South
The declarer (South) plays toward dummy's long suit. Assuming there are no side entries, on the distribution
shown East must duck once to prevent declarer from running the suit.
Note that West must give a proper count signal in this situation. In the distribution shown, West signals an
even count; East assumes it shows four and ducks once. (If West has only two, then South has four and
ducking
neither helps nor hurts.) If West signals an odd count, East will have to decide (possibly from the bidding
or
previous play in other suits) whether it shows three or five, and win the first or third trick accordingly.