Tells, bluffing and the poker face are pretty important in the game of poker, less important in the game of blackjack and carries varying levels of importance in the game of bridge depending on whether you’re sitting down for a game of duplicate or contract.

There are many bridge-related contexts where faces aren’t as important. Games of duplicate bridge played through a duplicate screen describes one. Most online bridge games also classify as games where you won’t see an opponent or partner’s face, either.

But here’s what I’ve come to realize: There’s no need to see faces when you can see cards.

Here’s how to read the cards.

When You See an Ace…

When you see an ace during a game of bridge and it doesn’t belong to your hand or that of your partner, you’ve likely just lost a trick to it (assuming that it’s in the right suit for this to happen).

Bad news, right? Only temporarily, because that’s not all you can gather from seeing this card.

Seeing an ace in play means that your opponent doesn’t have that ace right now.

This is a very simple thought, but a very important realization to have in the context of cards.

Time to ask: What’s left?

When You See Royalty…

There are thousands of potential things to do with the KQJ cards when you have them in your hand.

When you see royalty laid down but an ace hasn’t been played yet, it means either your opponent or your partner is saving their aces for later.

Always wonder which players have the aces – and if they aren’t using them right now, ask what they plan to do with them later. Sometimes, it’s a way of setting a trap.

When You See Suits Change…

Leading suit is standard for a bridge game, but eventually you’ll notice that players run out of cards in the trump suit.

When you see suits change, it can change what used to be a non-trick into a true trickster (and might change the meaning of your entire hand and the power it has to beat other cards).

When You See Aggressive Tricks…

When an opposing bridge partnership racks up one trick after the next, see it as a Boss Battle from a standard video game. Somewhere in their solid strategy, there’s always a Boss Weakness – and one that can be exploited to stop your opponent’s trick-taking streak right then and there.

When You See Unsynchronized Cards…

When you see players who are entirely unable to synchronize their cards, plays or bidding, it provides another opportunity for your partnership to get tricks past your opponents. As they say, all is fair in love and wargames.

If the unsynchronized playing or bidding belongs to you and your partnership, it might be something to work on before your next game.

When You See Clear Discards or Obviously Lost Tricks…

When playing more advanced opponents and spotting a discard (or an obviously lost trick), there’s one thing you should realize before making your next move: Odds are that the discard or lost trick (1) was for a reason and (2) will be followed – in a few moves – by one or several won tricks that were set up by the discard