Avoidance play

In contract bridge, avoidance play is a play technique whereby the declarer tries to avoid one particular defender to take a trick, so as to eschew a dangerous lead from that hand. The dangerous hand is usually the one who is able to finesse through declarer's honors, or to give a ruff to the partner. Avoidance play can be regarded as one type of safety play.

Example

♠	AJ96
♥	742
♦	10
♣	AQ1062
N S
♠	K1084
♥	Q73
♦	A965
♣	KJ3

South plays 4♠ and West leads ♥K (indicating the ace), East playing the 3 (signalling the odd number of hearts and discouraging the continuation). West continues with a club, increasing the probability of defensive ruff in that suit.

The declarer has plenty of tricks, but is missing the trump queen and two top hearts; giving up the third heart early would probably mean losing the contract. Since ♥A is almost certainly with West, if East gets the trump queen, he could finesse declarer's ♥Q. Thus, the declarer must not allow East to get the trick, and so must play a trump Ace first and finesse against the queen in East's hand. If West has the ♠Q and takes it, he could only take one more heart trick.