avoidance play

South might want to make an avoidance play, so as to keep West off lead.

Notice the presence of the avoidance play theme in this deal.

Avoidance play can be regarded as one type of safety play.

In the post-mortem he spotted a very unusual avoidance play that the declarer had missed.

This was an avoidance play.

As part of an avoidance play (e.g. the scissors coup)

At one table South won and ducked a club to East, the normal avoidance play to prevent a spade lead from West.

Sometimes the percentage play is not the correct play considering the hand as a whole as an avoidance play or safety play may be more appropriate.

In contract bridge, avoidance play is a play technique whereby declarer prevents a particular defender from winning the trick, so as to eschew a dangerous lead from that hand.

In the context of that suit, it can often be described using other terms that might or might not pertain to the full deal, such as avoidance play, percentage play, coup or duck.

With this layout the avoidance play was unnecessary, but if East had had a third heart, it would have saved the day (assuming, of course, that West would have shifted to a low heart when in with his diamond jack).