What’s a “skater”?
Example 1
| Dummy ♥ 5 4 3 | |
| West ♥ 8 7 6 | East ♥ J T 9 |
| You ♥ A K Q 2 | |
When playing a hand, you won’t be able to see your opponents’ cards. However, in this example, we know that each opponent holds exactly three hearts. That’s a fortunate setup.
When you play your ♥A, ♥K, and ♥Q, all three other hands will follow suit for three rounds and then run out of hearts.
Like this…
| Dummy ♥ – | |
| West ♥ – | East ♥ – |
| You ♥ 2 | |
When the humble ♥2 is led, the other players will each discard a card, and the ♥2 will win the trick.
I like to think of this as the ♥2 taking a triumphant lap—like an Olympic champion celebrating a victory. Picture the ♥2 gliding gracefully around the table, “waving” proudly as it makes its way past West, North, East, and back to South, basking in its moment of glory.
Many a bridge hand is a race to cash skaters before your opponents can cash theirs.
Count their cards
The first step in determining if you have extra winners is to count how many cards your opponents hold in a suit.
Next, consider how those cards might be distributed between their hands. If you can play your high cards and force all their cards in that suit to be played, your remaining low cards will become winners.
Example 2
| Dummy ♠ K 7 2 |
| You ♠ A 4 |
How many spades do they have?
Is it possible for their spades to be divided so that they all drop when you lead out your ♠ masters?
The conclusion is that you will not have any skaters to cash in the spade suit.
Example 3
| Dummy ♦ 5 4 3 |
| You ♦ A K Q 7 2 |
How many diamonds do they have?
Is it possible for their diamonds to be divided so that they all all drop when you lead out your ♦ masters?
Actually, it is possible. If their 5 diamonds are split 3-2, all of their cards will be played under your three high cards.
If their cards are indeed 3-2, you will have two skaters to cash, the ♦7 and ♦2.
Example 4
| Dummy ♣ — |
| You ♣ A K Q J 2 |
How many clubs do they have?
Is it possible for their clubs to be divided so that they all drop when you lead out your ♣ masters?
It would be rare to have a skater to cash when only holding five cards in a suit. But here we see that it is possible.
Example 5
| Dummy ♥ A 6 |
| You ♥ K 9 8 5 4 3 2 |
How many hearts do they have?
Is it possible for their hearts to be distributed in a way that all their cards are played when you lead your ♥ high cards?
Review
Skaters are spot-cards which become winners when your opponents have no more cards in that suit.
Count your opponents’ cards to know when your spot card is a skater.
Cashing skaters is important to many bridge hands.
Long suits are the most common source of extra winners. Sometimes, you’ll have enough high cards to play out all of their cards before cashing your low-card winners. Other times, you may need to intentionally lose a trick or two before your spot cards are established as winners.
We’ll explore hands like these in the next section.
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