Play of Hand

Question 1

COUNTING LOSERS - prior to playing hand - describe purpose and process (trump contract)

Answer 1

Purpose of counting losers prior to playing is to identify how many tricks must be manufactured (ruff, sluff, promote, finesse) to win contract - Counting losers begins by counting losers in the strongest trump hand and then adding winners in the other hand to arrive at the net loser count

Question 2

What are 3 play of hand strategies that should be considered prior to finesse?

Answer 2

(1) Ruff - leading losing trick to trump
(2) Sluff - leading winning trick to losing trick - discarding loser on winner
(3) Promote - purposely losing trick to convert next sequential card(s) into winner(s)

Question 3

Trump Suit - when is the right time to collect trump cards so that opponents do not ruff your leads?

Answer 3

Unless you have a very good reason to not collect trump cards - do it quickly - putting it off rarely works out well - even when you have a good reason - you are probably wrong - not pulling trump is a very common mistake - it’s like a siren song that sounds good until that silent regrettable lost trick occurs