The Power of Trumps by Audrey Grant
An advantage of playing in a trump contract is the tremendous power of the trump suit. Even an ace in another suit can fall to the lowliest trump.
Trumping the opponents' winners at times does nothing more than stop them from taking tricks in a suit (the way they would have been able to do in a no-trump contract). At other times, trumping actually creates winners. Another way of looking at it is that trumping eliminates losers.
Let's look at the difference. Hearts are trump.
Dummy Declarer
©432 ©AKQJT
§432 §5
First, let's count our losers. There are no heart losers and one club loser. If we consider our winners, we have five. If the opponents try to take tricks in clubs, we wil lose the first trick but trump the next. We have gained nothing, in a way, since we still have one loser, which we originally counted.
Change the example. Hearts are still trump.
©432 ©AKQJT
§5 §432
This time, we have no heart losers, but three club losers. Again, however, when the opponents start to take tricks in clubs, we can trump the second round. What has changed? This time we have gained since we have eliminated one of our losers.
Another way of looking at it is that we have gained a trick. We have the five hearts we started with plus a heart from the dummy - the one we used to trump the club. If we play another club, we get the value of another heart from the dummy.
The key is to trump in the hand with fewer trumps - usually the dummy.
In general, we eliminate a loser by trumping in dummy but do not eliminate a loser by trumping in our own hand. To take best advantage of the trumps to gain tricks, we want to look for a pattern. We want a side suit that has more cards in declarer's hand than in the dummy.
Look at the following examples. Which patterns provide an opportunity to trump losers in the dummy? (Declarer is on the right and Dummy is on the left.)
§8 §A42
Since there are more cards in declarer's hand than in the dummy, there is the opportunity to trump two losers.
§T987 §AK
There are more cards in the dummy than there are in declarer's hand, so there is no opportunity to trump in the dummy.
§42 §QJ
With an equal number of cards in declarer's hand and dummy, thre is no opportunity to trump losers in that suit.
§VOID §965
This is a very attractive pattern. Declarer could trump three losers in the dummy here.
§AK6 §5
In the final example, there is no opportunity to trump losers in the dummy, which has more cards in the suit than declarer.
The next thing we need to do is manage our trumps effectively. We need to have enough trumps in the
dummy so that we can trump our losers. We have to know how many trumps we are going to need. Consider the following examples.
How many trumps does declarer need to keep in dummy to take care of the losers in his hand? (Again, Declarer is on the right and Dummy is on the left.)
§K4 §A85
Declarer can take the first two tricks with the ace and king, so he needs only one trump in the dummy to take care of the third round of the suit.
§VOID §T53
Ths time declarer needs three trumps to handle the losers in his hand.
§A §754
The ace will take care of one round of the suit. Declarer will need two trumps to handle the other losers.
§Q2 §AK4
No trumps are needed here, although there are more cards in declarer's hand than in dummy. Declarer has enough high cards in the suit to take care of the losers, winning the first trick with the queen, followed by a small one to the ace and king in hand.
§QJ §542
This time the first two tricks will be lost and we need one trump in the dummy to handle the third round of the suit.
Sometimes we have to create the opportunity to trump losers in the dummy and we have to give up the lead once or twice before the conditions are right. Consider this side suit:
(Continued on page 169)
My partner is so good, he pulls tricks out of thin air!
"If you are a good enough player, you can get away with making mistakes because no one will believe it."
Edgar Kaplan
Bridge is my passion and I'm not "lion!"
