Trumping losers
Example 1
| Dummy ♠ K 8 7 6 ♥ Q 6 3 2 ♦ Q 6 5 4 ♣ 5 |
| You ♠ Q 2 ♥ K J T 5 ♦ A K 2 ♣ 8 7 4 3 |
The opening lead is the ♣K. No one plays the ♣A, so the ♣K wins the trick. In any suit, the highest card played wins the trick.
Unless…
When a contract is played in a trump suit, cards in the trump suit outrank all other suits. On this deal, hearts are the trump suit, which is referred to as “playing in hearts.”
After winning the opening lead with the ♣K, your left-hand opponent (LHO) follows up with the ♣A. You are required to follow suit if you can, but dummy has no clubs remaining, so you may play any card. In this case, you choose to play dummy’s ♥2. The ♥2 wins the trick because it is a trump card. Even the lowest trump card beats any card from a non-trump suit.
That worked perfectly—you won a trick with a low spot card, something that would have been impossible in a no-trump contract. It was so effective that you decide to try it again. You lead another club from your hand, planning to trump it with dummy’s lowest heart.
But then your left-hand opponent speaks up and says…
Example 1 (repeated)
| Dummy ♠ K 8 7 6 ♥ Q 6 3 2 ♦ Q 6 5 4 ♣ 5 |
| You ♠ Q 2 ♥ K J T 5 ♦ A K 2 ♣ 8 7 4 3 |
LHO is correct. You put the club back in your hand, and you start to plan ahead. How many clubs do you have left in your hand?
If you can cross the lead over to your hand, you can lead a club and trump it. So…
What suit do you lead from dummy?
After ruffing the third round of clubs, you cross back to your hand with a diamond and lead your last club. You ruff with dummy’s ♥6, but… disaster! Your right-hand opponent is also out of clubs and plays a heart—the ♥8.
When two trumps are played in the same trick, the higher one wins. It seems you should have ruffed with dummy’s ♥Q instead.
It’s worth noting that LHO made an error in their defense. After leading the ♣K on the opening trick, they could see that dummy was set up to ruff clubs. Instead of continuing with another club, LHO should have switched to a trump lead.
Example 2
| Dummy ♠ 6 ♥ Q 6 3 ♦ A 6 5 4 3 2 ♣ Q T 7 |
| You ♠ A 7 4 ♥ K J T ♦ T ♣ A K J 9 8 6 |
You and your partner bid accurately to a contract of 6♣.
You’re missing the ♥A, so that’s a sure loser. You have to play the rest of the suits without another loser.
What are you going to do with your low spades?
Your opponents lead a club as the opening play, and you let dummy’s ♣7 win the trick. Now, you’ll need all of dummy’s remaining trumps to handle your spade losers.
What card do you lead from dummy?
After crossing the lead to your hand with the ♠A, what do you lead next?
After ruffing a spade in dummy, dummy now has the lead. How will you regain the lead in your hand to play your last spade for dummy to ruff again?
Pulling trump
Example 3
| Dummy ♠ K J T 5 3 ♥ A 6 2 ♦ 5 4 ♣ J T 7 |
| You ♠ Q 7 4 2 ♥ K Q 7 ♦ A 8 6 2 ♣ A 3 |
You arrive in the contract of 4♠. (Spades are trump.) You need 10 tricks to succeed, so you can only afford three losers.
How many losers do you have (without trumping)?
Dummy will follow suit for two rounds of diamonds, after which you can ruff your third and fourth diamonds. This converts two diamond “losers” into winners—provided your opponents don’t ruff with a higher trump. Can you prevent them from overruffing? Let’s work that out…
How many trumps do your opponents have?
How many times will you have to lead trumps for them to have none left?
Leading trump until your opponents run out is called pulling trump.
Pulling trump prevents them from trumping any of your winners.
Pulling trump is similar to establishing skaters in that you lead the suit until they run out.
Example 3 (repeated)
| Dummy ♠ K J T 5 3 ♥ A 6 2 ♦ 5 4 ♣ J T 7 |
| You ♠ Q 7 4 2 ♥ K Q 7 ♦ A 8 6 2 ♣ A 3 |
I’ve repeated the diagram for this deal so you won’t have to scroll up to see the cards.
Their trumps split 3-1 (I’ve peeked at their cards), so it will take three spade leads to pull trump.
That leaves you with two trumps in the dummy – just the right number for trumping your third and fourth diamonds.
Pulling trump elliminates the possibility of having your diamonds over trumped. It makes your ten tricks safe.
Example 4
| Dummy ♠ 6 4 ♥ K J 8 6 3 ♦ Q 9 5 4 ♣ 7 5 |
| You ♠ Q J T 9 ♥ A Q T 4 2 ♦ 8 ♣ A K 6 |
Hearts are trumps. Good, you’ve got lots of them, including all the big ones. So you’ll have no trouble pulling trump.
If you pull three rounds of trump, will you have enough trump left to do the trumping you want? Let’s see…
How many of your spades do you need to trump in the dummy?
How many diamonds can you trump in the dummy?
How many clubs can you trump in the dummy?
So, you will lose 2 spades and a diamond, ending up with 10 tricks.
Now imagine your spades were ♠8752 instead of ♠QJT9. Would you still be able to ruff your low club as well as your third and fourth spades after drawing trumps? (Hint: You’ll need to calculate how many trumps dummy will have remaining after drawing trumps.)
Go to the next topic:
The Advantage of Playing Last