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1) Always know the trump card count, aces and number of trump played regardless of who calls it. This is an imperative basic that will move you out of beginner level to intermediate. If you playing online, go so far as write down on a scratch pad the trump situation. With practice, eventually you'll do this easily in your mind as you play.
2) Almost never remove trump from your partner. If you and your partner are long in trump, your goal is to use your partner's trump to help the team. Too many times I've been in games where someone is 2 suited and waste their partner's trump so they can finish with q-j off suit to take the last 2 tricks to feel better about themselves and lose the max points possible in the process.
3) You've won the bid and have a long trump suit with say 2 aces. Leading with a 'feeler' ace is ok to access the trump situation especially when you've received little information seeing what's out there from meld. But recklessly wasting trump aces early on is generally not a good strategy.
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2) Depends on whether we're talking declarer, dummy, or defense. Dummy should only force declarer to ruff *with a good reason.* Conversely, declarer loves it when dummy ruffs one of his losers.
3) In most cases: NO. What's the point? One ace will gain little information, and it increases the defense's ability to attack your holding. If we're talking something like AATTTKKQJ...note the presence of multiple trump 10's...then you have sufficient texture to be safe most of the time.
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Steve what is your thought process on why you would lead a "feeler" trump ace? I tend to lean towards ToreadorElder on this one, but I always like to hear different philosophies and thoughts. I think it is important to understand everyone's logic, even if you don't necessarily agree with them. I think you can always learn from others in one way or another.
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If you are long in trump, say AA1010KQJJJ, there are 11 trump amongst the other players, so a possible average of 3+ trump if distributed evenly, but that never seems to be the case. You learn nothing trump-wise from players showing meld. Playing one ace will reduce the number of trump amongst the other players to 8 total. If an opponent plays a 10, you now have the option of playing the second ace, reducing the outstanding trump to 5 and possibly collecting an ace from them. Your 10's are covered no matter what happens and will be boss as this hand goes along.
I was saying this is certain scenario and in most cases you should not lead trump aces but so many people do. I think because interactive pinochle games, the computer opponents always seem to play that way, and people learn it as a strategy.
But obviously it depends on what the feeler ace fishes out.
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T = 10...shorter and more readable.
It can work here, as this is both long and rich...those 2 T's make a difference. But I still prefer, even with this suit, starting with the trump Q. This caters to several things:
a) a defender has something like ATxxxx...especially LHO. Start with an ace, he's very likely to win 2 trump tricks. Start with a Q, and he'll have to decide whether to win...at which point, his 2nd trump trick may disappear. Consider a situation like this:
LHO: ATxxxx dummy: xx RHO ATx
Starting with an ace, means a likely 3 losers. Starting with a Q MIGHT be 3 losers, but often will be 2. Q puts more pressure on the defense.
b) dummy may have something like Ax...or heaven forbid, stiff A. The fact that you have 2 T's is important; change this to a single T, and dummy's TQJ becomes a problem. Consider: you play your trump ace, he's going to play the T. Now, on your trump Q, it may well go Q,K,Q,T. The Ax is bad when LHO has the missing A...and worse, again, in the situation when you have only the 1 trump T, because again, the defense may have them. OK, you still have trump control, but you might be forced to either given them a trick, or play out multiple rounds of trump much too early.
c) You don't need to make a decision this early about stripping trump or not. Remember: dummy's trumps can have value for ruffing your losers. With 9 trump, you'll often still have a 4 or 5 card suit...maybe dummy has 3.
d) Conversely, if the hand suggests stripping...perhaps dummy gains a locked suit...well, when you start with a Q, you can play 3 rounds in rapid succession later. I've crashed short trump aces in this scenario, and the defense wasn't inherently wrong to let it get crashed...because cashing it would've killed the defense.
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And where does one get these card symbols and how do you use them in a post?
Rick Hall
