A Trump Card
So far, we have seen that the highest-ranking card of a given trick would win a trick. However, Bridge, like life is not that simple! There is a twist in the card play when we introduce the element called ‘trumps’.
Let us understand this better. As you know by now, the bidding process ends in a contract being arrived at. This contract can be in any of the five strains — 4 suits and Notrump. Whenever a suit contract is reached, the ‘trump ‘comes into the picture If 4 is the final contract, Hearts become designated TRUMP for the play of this contract. Compare this with say 3NT — NT means Notrump, so there is no trump suit involved.
What would happen in 4 contracts? Here is an illustration:
North starts with D Ace, East follows suit with the 5, so does South with D 9 BUT see the West card now. He does not have any D card left at this point, so he discards H 2!! And this is no ordinary discard. This H 2 is a trump card and thus it overpowers D A and west actually wins this trick. This is the power of trumps for you! If words can be mightier than a sword, then, at bridge, a lowly 2 can be mightier than an Ace!
This is called as ‘ruffing’, as West ruffs the D Ace. This ruffing power accorded to the designated trump suit, brings in many interesting situations and possibilities in the play of a suit contract.
Please note that the ruffing power is available to declarer and defenders both. Normally the side that has more trumps together will enjoy an upper hand. Trump power can render useless the big cards in the side suits of your opponent(s).
This leads us to learning what makes bidding partners select a suit contract over a NT contract. Out of 13 cards of a suit, if partners hold at least 8 cards together, then they can bid for a suit contract. This holding of minimum 8 cards together is termed as a ‘FIT’ and more the merrier.
Consider following cards of North and South:
Check the ‘fit ‘they have in the Spades suit. North has 5 and south has 3 spades = 8 cards. Logically, through the bidding process, NS will locate such fit and opt for a spade contract instead of a NT contract.
Then the only thing they are left to decide is what should be the level of such spade contract — 2S or
3S or 4S?
But the bottom line is: spades will become the trump suit. If NS have 8 spades here, remaining 7 cards are with EW. Thus, EW too have a fair bit of trump possession and they can look to make good use of their trump power. In the example mentioned, North is a ‘long trumps hand’ while South is ‘shorter trumps hand’. If South’s trumps can be used for ruffing, it adds tricks for NS.
There can be various themes that a declarer can adopt for fulfilling his contract. Though, each one cannot be taught here in detail, a list can be posted as under:
1) Draw opponents’ trumps whenever you have very strong trump holding, having AKQ. This negates any ruffing threat by defenders.
2) However, every time this is not possible to do at once. Sometimes, declarer must first make use of his trumps in shorter hand (usually the dummy) for ruffing side suit losers.
3) Playing trumps must be delayed at times because top trump control is with defender and declarer cannot afford to lose controls early.
4) Trumps can be useful as much needed entry also. Hence, trump play must be timed well.
5) If declarer and dummy have all strong trumps and ruffing can be done instantly across the two hands, declarer will do so to maximize the total trump tricks he can score. This technique is called ‘cross ruffing.
(The writer is a National Championships winner, advanced Life Master rank holder, and bridge teacher. You can reach out to him on arvindv22@gmail.com)