Drawing Trumps: Suit Declarer Play
When you choose to play in a suit contract, it is because you and your partner have established that you have 8+ cards in the suit between you and you will therefore be able to take more tricks with that suit as trumps. Although 7 is already a majority, it is not normally right to play in a 7-card fit, as the defenders have almost as many trumps as you do (6) and you will struggle to retain control of the hand.
As you and your partner have more trumps than the defenders, you should nearly always draw out the opponents’ trumps before doing anything else. This will prevent them from ruffing (trumping) your winners.
How to draw trumps – the easiest way:
• Remember that there are 13 cards in each suit.
• 13 – [number of trumps in declarer’s hand + number of trumps in dummy’s hand] = number of trumps held by the opponents
• When you draw a round of trumps, take note of the number of trumps the opponents play and take that away from their original number of trumps. Then remember that number for the next trick.
• Once the opponents have no trumps left, you should stop drawing trumps – this means you can use the trumps you have left to keep control of the hand. If the opponents only have 1 trump left and it is higher than yours, you may also stop drawing: otherwise, the opponents’ trump will take two of yours with it! They are going to make that trump anyway, so you may as well use your little trumps to good effect.
A word of warning: make sure that you note when the opponents discard on the trump suit or when they ruff another suit! Many a contract has gone down due to declarer miscounting the trumps.