In a great deal of card games that include poker, being dealt a bad hand means that’s what you’ve got and you’re going to be stuck with it for the rest of the game. The magic of bridge is that hands get dealt, but that hands are fluid – and not in the traditional pick-up-more-cards-from-the-deck type of way, but instead in the way that your plays influence what your hand can do.

There are great bridge hands, moderate bridge hands and really, really bad bridge hands: When you get a good hand, you’ll know it – and when you get a bad hand, remember the magic of bridge as described above and apply the cards that you have.

Bad hands are inevitable: What you do with them is up to you.

Here are a few ways to look at a bad hand and what to do with it from there.

You Have 13 Cards, But…

While you might be holding 13 cards that promise to screw you sideways for the remainder of the game, one of the most important things to remember is that your partner holds the rest. Partnerships hold 26 cards: Viewing bad hands in this context (and trusting your bridge partner from there) can make these bad hands seem far better.

Good Hands Are Bad Hands Played Right

So, you got dealt a bad hand? Most of the time this is no reason to worry. It’s not all about the hand you end up with, but the way that you play it. Together with a combined hand with your partner and some clever plays, bad hands can be turned into good ones – if you can get the opponents to give up more tricks than they win.

Trump Advantages

Another one of the potential strengths that a weak hand might have is what it can do when others have run out of cards in the trump suits. When nobody else can lead suit, it’s time to make the best use of the cards you have left over. Playing carefully in the beginnings of the game with a bad hand (and being willing to sacrifice some cards or tricks) can get you to winning the game.

It Might Not Be a Grand Slam

When you see a bad hand, don’t start the game with panic. Bad hands can be winning hands – even though they’re not always the kind of hands that get you a Grand Slam. That’s just fine with me most of the time, because even though a Grand Slam might be out of the capacity of the hand I’m holding, it’s usually still possible to wring a few tricks out of it.

What does this really mean? With a bad hand, you have to be willing to make some sacrifices for better plays later. Getting the opponents to give up some of their best cards early (especially in terms of the current trump suit) is one way to do it.