You are sometimes in a position to know that if you trump, your adversary will overtrump. When the best card is led, it is usually good play to trump immediately and if possible with a card which will not unguard an honour in your own hand, but will force a high card from the opponent. If a suit is led, of which you hold the commanding card in the opposite hand, your best defence is to take a discard, which will prevent the adversary from making a high card later in the hand. If you can make no advantageous discard, your best play is to trump, especially if the trumps in your combined hands are in sequence, for, if the adversary wins the trick, his high trump will probably make in any case.
OVERTRUMPING
It is only the experienced player who can resist the temptation to overtrump. The beginner jumps at every trick without realising that he can often gain by waiting. Overtrump when your hand is weak and your trumps low; but, if overtrumping takes out your only high card in the trump suit, especially if it is the commanding trump, it is nearly always better to discard. Your winning trump is bound to make, and it is better play to throw away a suit that you can ruff later with one of your small trumps.
Frequently by overtrumping you make it easy for the adversary to draw your remaining trumps, which, had you not weakened your hand, he would be powerless to do. For instance, where you hold the best and the fourth best trump, with the second and third best in your adversary’s hand, should you overtrump, your adversary will, of course, be in a position to catch your smaller trump, while by refusing the trick you retain the extra trump and are enabled to draw the adversary’s last trump.
RE-ENTRY CARDS
It is of little use to establish a suit unless it is possible to get the lead in the hand that contains it; therefore, the reservation of a re-entry card in the hand that has the long suit is of great importance. A preferable re-entry is, of course, the last trump or trumps.
Arranging the trump lead so that the last round will be taken in the desired hand is often a necessary precaution.
After the adversaries’ trumps are exhausted, you may be compelled to place the lead in the opposite hand by an extra round of trumps, and often it is necessary to trump with a high card, saving the low trump to lead to the opposite hand.
It not infrequently happens that in order to get the lead in the opposite hand, you are forced to trump your own commanding card.