This Week in Bridge
(614) Fundamentals of Trick Taking – Drawing Trump
© AiB Robert S. Todd
Level: 3 of 10 robert@advinbridge.com
General
When we declare in a suit contract, there is a trump suit and hopefully, we have more of these cards than the opponents (if not, please reconsider the bidding!) That means that when we gain the lead, we have the option of attempting to remove all of the opponents’ trump, or “draw trump.” Let’s look at our options and considerations for how and when to do this.
When to Draw Trump
When we gain the lead, we have a decision to make: play on trump immediately or wait until later? One of the first sayings I heard when learning bridge as a kid was “get the kids off the street” - meaning, draw trump as quickly as possible. This is still good advice on many hands. One common mistake from inexperienced players is to “mess around”, playing lots of other suits before drawing trump and having our winners get ruffed by the opponents. This can be a critical error.
However, it is not always right to just draw trump immediately. We need to consider whether there is anything else we need to do with our trump, like:
Ruff losers,
Use trump as transportation (entries),
Establish other suits first, or
Discard losers.
Techniques When Drawing Trump
When we do decide that it is right to draw trump (or we finally get around to do it), then we have choices to make. One of the biggest decisions is whether to finesse the opponents’ honor or play for the drop?
When we decide not the finesse the opponents’ honor (usually the Queen), then we often play two rounds of trump and hope the Queen falls. But even if we do not expect it to drop (like we have an 8-card fit), this can be a good line of play. We may choose to avoid the trump finesse if we have something else to do with our trump – like using dummy’s trump to ruff our losers.
We when play two rounds of trump and the opponents are left with the master trump (usually the Queen or Jack) then we often leave it outstanding, not playing a third round of trump. It is often better to let them ruff in with the trump instead of spending two of our trump for one of theirs (and still losing the trick).
Example 1
Dummy
A764
Declarer
K985
Here we play the Ace and then the King and leave the opponents with their master trump.
In a situation like this, we may choose to play a third round of trump for a specific purpose:
Force them to take their trick, so they cannot choose when to ruff in.
To endplay the opponents and force them to lead a suit for us.
Danger – Play Trump Immediately
There is a situation where our alarm should go off and we should play trump as soon as possible. When the opponents lead a side suit where we have an 8-card fit, that is almost always a singleton (even if it is not, it is often a 4-card suit, and their partner has a singleton). In a situation like this we often play trump from the top immediately. We need to do everything we can do to prevent the opponents from ruffing our winners. The best way to do that is when we gain the lead to play trump.
This may even be a situation where we play a suit in a “non-standard” way.
Example 2
Dummy
AJ64
Declarer
K985
With no danger, the normal way to play this suit is to play the King and then lead up towards the dummy and take the finesse. But if we think the opponents have led a singleton, then it may be best to play the King and Ace immediately to prevent ourselves from losing two trump tricks. We don’t want to take a finesse, have it fail, and then have the opponents get a ruff as well.
Conclusion
Drawing trump is a key part of declaring a hand in a suit contract. Our goal is to use our trump to allow us to take as many tricks as possible, while also preventing the opponents from taking many tricks with their trumps. Make sure that you keep working to improve your declarer play and get better and using your trump to remove the opponents’ trump in just the right time and way.