If an opponent has opened the bidding, overcalled or made a pre-empt, you should be aware that opponent will have length in the suit bid and their partner may have a shortage in the suit.
After your opponents have bid, you have some clues regarding their length in suits. You should be able to envisage the likely number cards they hold in certain suits.
Even if you can trump the third round of the suit bid by an opponent, you should also be alert to the fact that you may be overtrumped. An overruff is when you have trumped a card led by one opponent only to find that your other opponent plays a higher trump to win the trick.
You may have heard the expressions ‘don’t send a boy on a man’s errand’. If it is possible you may be overruffed then be sure to trump high so you don’t allow an opponent to overruff.
Example: Declarer ♠A96542 ♥J5 Dummy ♠KQJ ♥9763
You are west in 4♠ after south opened the bidding 1♥. North leads ♥10 which south wins with ♥Q. South then leads ♥K, followed by ♥A. You can trump the third round of hearts. Which trump should you use?
The answer is ♠A. You know from the auction that south began with 5 cards in hearts, you have 2 hearts in west and 4 hearts in east. That makes 11 hearts of 13 so north started with just 2 cards.
On the third round of hearts, north will be able to trump and will be playing after you trump. To avoid being overruffed, you need to trump high. Use ♠A to win the trick then draw trumps with east’s ♠K, ♠Q and ♠J.
If an opponent opens with a weak two, you can assume that opponent not only has a six-card suit but also has very little honour strength in the other suits.
You can work out how many cards each opponent has in the suit and also assume any missing honour in your trump suit is likely to be in the hand opposite the weak two.
Example: Declarer ♠KJ10762 ♥J5 Dummy ♠A54 ♥976
You are west in 4♠ after south opened the bidding 2♥. North leads ♥K then follows up with a second round of hearts which south wins with ♥Q. South then leads ♥A. Which trump should you use?
The answer is ♠K. You know from the auction that south began with 6 cards in hearts, you have 2 hearts in west and 3 hearts in east. That makes 11 hearts of 13 so north started with just 2 cards.
On the third round of hearts, north will be able to trump and will be playing after you trump. To avoid being overruffed, you need to trump high.
North is also likely to hold the missing ♠Q as south has shown a weak hand. Use ♠K to win the trick then lead ♠J, finessing to win ♠J if north plays low.
If south had opened 1♥, rather than 2♥, it would have been correct to trump the third round of hearts with ♠10. Why is that?
Because if south opens at the one level, south is more likely to have ♠Q to make sufficient strength for a one-level opening bid. So trump the third round of hearts with ♠10.
When this wins, play a spade to east’s ♠A and then a spade back, finessing to win ♠J after south plays low.
I have often heard players say that experts seem to know which cards their opponents hold. This skill is called ‘card reading’.
It is really just a matter of analysing the auction and deciding which opponent is likely to have length or strength in a suit.
© 2022 John Roberts