Trump Control

Trump decides who is still dangerous. A suit game has eleven trumps, the four Jacks plus the seven cards of the declared suit; a Grand has only the four Jacks. Whoever holds the last of them controls how the round ends. As the declarer you usually want trump out of the defenders' hands before your side-suit winners run; as a defender the sharpest move is often to hold yours back. Each section below says whose seat it is advising.

Read the official rule on following suit and what wins a trick.

Pulling trump

You're the declarer, you've just taken the first trick, and you hold six of the eleven trumps in a Hearts suit game. Lead trump now. Play the Club JackJ, then your next-highest trump: each round pulls up to two trumps out of the defenders' hands, so after two of them at most one is still out. That is the whole point of pulling. Once the defenders have no trump left they can't ruff your AceA and Ten of Clubs10, and your side-suit winners walk home untouched.

The last trump

You're the declarer, a few tricks into pulling. You've been counting: a Spades suit game has eleven trumps, ten of them have either fallen or are in your own hand, so exactly one is still out. Lead your highest remaining trump at it, the Club JackJ if you still hold it. Nothing beats it, the last trump falls under it, and from then on every trick is decided by rank alone. One caveat while you count: two of the round's cards are lying in the Skat, and on a Hand game you never saw them. The trump you're hunting may not be in anyone's hand at all.

Pulling with a weak trump

You're the declarer and you want to pull trump. That doesn't need your best one. Say you're in a Hearts suit game holding the Club JackJ, the Ace of HeartsA and the Seven of Hearts7. Lead the Seven, the lowest trump in the round: anyone still holding trump has to follow suit with it, so the trick drags up to two trumps into the open. Whoever answers with the higher trump takes it, but the Seven itself hands over nothing, and the Club JackJ and the Ace stay untouched for the tricks that decide the round. Spend the cheap trump, keep the strong ones.

Pulling early with few trumps

You're the declarer, with the hand you'd least expect to pull from. Say you're in a Diamonds suit game holding only three trumps, the Club JackJ, the Ace of DiamondsA and the Nine of Diamonds9, and a long Clubs suit you're counting on. Waiting looks safe and isn't: the longer trump stays in the defenders' hands, the more chances they get to ruff, and the Ace of ClubsA you were saving is eleven Augen handed to whoever trumps it. Lead the Club JackJ first, then the Nine of Diamonds9. Two trumps of your own buy up to four of theirs, and the Clubs you have left run into a much emptier table. The Ace of DiamondsA stays put: three Jacks still outrank it, and eleven Augen is not a gift you want to hand any of them. Few trumps sometimes means fast, not patient.

The low lure

Either seat can play this one, though it pays best for the declarer. A low trump led on purpose is a Lockstich, a lure: you put down a card worth nothing and make somebody answer with a card they'd rather have kept. Say you hold the Club JackJ, the Spade JackJ, the Ace of HeartsA and the Seven of Hearts7 in a Hearts suit game. Lead the Seven. Every defender still holding trump has to answer with one, and whoever has nothing but a Jack left has to spend it on a trick worth almost nothing. Your two black Jacks were never in danger: they're an unbroken run from the top of the trump order, the Spitzen. What the lure buys you is the Ace of HeartsA. Once the two lower Jacks are gone, it stops being a card that gets trumped and becomes a winner of its own.

Saving trump

This section is for the defenders. Not every trick calls for trump. Say the declarer leads the King of ClubsK, your partner follows with the Eight, you're out of Clubs, and the Spade JackJ is your last trump. Ruffing wins you the trick and the King's four Augen right now. But nobody has seen the Ace of ClubsA yet and it is almost certainly the declarer's, so the trick that Ace leads will carry eleven. Throw a worthless card instead, keep the Jack, and ruff that trick a round or two later. A trump you still hold is a threat the declarer has to play around; a trump you've spent is one they can forget about.

Ruffing when void

You're a defender, and this is the moment trump exists for. Say a Hearts suit game is running and you're blank in Diamonds, with no card of that suit left at all. The declarer leads the Ace of DiamondsA, your partner's last Diamond is the Ten so down it goes, and twenty-one Augen are lying on the table with you still to play. Any trump takes them, even the Seven of Hearts7. Being last to play is what makes it safe: nobody comes after you to overtrump. Ruff from an earlier seat and the player behind you can still lift the whole pile off you with a higher trump.