Defender Teamwork

As a defender you're never playing alone: two of you stand against the one declarer, and every card you lead is also a signal to your partner. Every card you hold back is a promise about what you still have. Read the position right, and two hands work like one.

Lead the active suit

You're on lead, you have no Ace worth drawing and no known gap in your partner's hand to exploit: then lead the suit with the most cards still outstanding. Say six Diamonds are still out between the other two hands, and only one Heart. Lead the Eight of Diamonds8, not the Seven of Hearts7. In Diamonds the declarer will almost certainly have to follow suit; in Hearts they'd have run out long ago and could do as they please. That keeps the pressure on them instead of on you. When you do hold an Ace, the same count picks it: draw the one whose suit still has the most cards out.

Once trump is gone

Once the declarer has no trump left, nobody can ruff a trick away from you anymore. Count along: a Hearts suit game has eleven trumps, the four Jacks and the seven remaining Hearts. When all of them have fallen, your Ace of ClubsA runs safely, and the Ten of Clubs10 follows it home in the very next trick. From then on lead your top cards freely, the most valuable one first. Watch the suits he threw away in, too: once he is out of trump and has shown out of Diamonds while you still hold some, he can neither follow nor ruff, so every Diamond in your hand is a trick, and you run that suit from the top with the Ace of DiamondsA. That is worth more than leading a small card into a suit he still holds, where he simply takes the trick with a higher one.

Pulling with the top trump

You're a defender in a Hearts suit game, and in an earlier trick your partner didn't follow a trump lead: they're out of trump, so every trump still unseen is the declarer's or in the Skat. Now you get the lead holding the Club JackJ, the highest trump left, and you hold at least as many trumps as are still out. Lead it. The trick is yours before anyone plays a card, and your partner reads exactly that: they add the Ten of Diamonds10 for the Augen. The declarer has to follow with a trump and gets nothing for it. Keep pulling while your trumps outlast the declarer's; once the declarer is out, your side cards run.

Setting up partner's trump

Say a Clubs suit game is running and in an earlier trick your partner didn't follow Hearts but discarded another suit instead: they're out of Hearts, and the declarer still holds some. That is exactly the suit to lead now. You put down the Nine of Hearts9, the declarer sits between you and has to follow, and your partner ruffs last, if need be with the Seven of Clubs7, the smallest trump there is: a trick neither of you could have taken alone, and it cost almost nothing.

Returning partner's suit

Your partner led a suit and won the trick with it: that speaks for real strength there, or they wouldn't have chosen it. Say they push the Ten of Spades10 through and nobody beats it. The Ace of SpadesA is then most likely in their hand or long gone. As soon as you're on lead yourself, send that same suit straight back, and send your lowest one: the Seven of Spades7 rather than the Queen. They collect the Augen, you only point the way.

Long to the enemy

"Dem Freunde kurz, dem Feinde lang." This half of the proverb applies when the declarer plays right after you and your partner comes last: if you're in Vorhand, say, that puts the declarer directly behind you and your partner in Hinterhand, playing last. Then lead your longest suit. A long suit is harder for the declarer to escape, they have to keep answering it, and sooner or later they're out of it and must either ruff with trump or discard: that is exactly how you draw their trump out. On top of that comes the seating: your partner sees the declarer's card before having to play, and can then either win the trick cheaply or calmly add a card full of Augen to it (Schmieren). Say you hold five Diamonds and lead the Eight of Diamonds8. The declarer has to follow with the Queen of DiamondsQ, your partner sees that and closes the trick with the King of DiamondsK.

Short to a friend

"Dem Freunde kurz, dem Feinde lang." The other half applies when your partner plays right after you and the declarer comes last: if you're in Vorhand, say, your partner plays from Mittelhand and the declarer last of all. Now the seating advantage is theirs: the declarer sees both of your cards before deciding, and would pick up a long suit cheaply. So lead your shortest suit instead: you're out of it within a trick or two, and when it comes around again you're void and can ruff in with trump. Say Hearts is down to the Nine alone in your hand. Lead it; the declarer takes the trick with the Ace of HeartsA, but as soon as Hearts is played again you ruff with the Jack of DiamondsJ and the trick is yours.