"Ouch!" she yelped, as the opponent trumped her Ace of hearts on opening lead. One of her count cards was gone forever. But this enemy action was actually quite helpful to our side. The player who trumped weakened his spade holding, originally Qxx, and his Queen fell later under the Ace-King. My J was promoted to a third-round winner, and we made the KQ later to replace the lost Ace. We actually gained a trick on the play.

It is not always a good idea to trump the opponents' cards. In fact, you can often gain an advantage if you can force an opponent to use his spades to trump you. This series of articles deals with the strategy of forcing the opponents to trump. Play in this fashion is called the Forcing Game.

Up Your Spades

There are several different ways you can use the forcing strategy to your advantage. The first way is to promote your spades, turning losers into winners.

North 6 A 3 -- West 4 K 7 -- East K 10 -- A South 9 3 2 -- South to play; North-South to win 1 trick.

East has a fistful of winners and has tried to claim the remainder, but South insists that play continue. The heart lead from South forces East to trump, and South now has a spade winner. The forcing game produced a promotion by length.

North K Q 3 -- West A - J 9 East J 7 Q -- South -- A 3 3 South to play; North-South to win 2 tricks.

North and South appear to have two of the last three tricks, but it takes a trump promotion to bring them home. South leads the Ace of hearts. If West trumps, North has two spade winners. Otherwise, the A plus one trump winner get the job done.

West must be forced to trump. A diamond lead would not do the job. North could trump this trick, but East would discard his last heart. East-West would then win the last two with their spades.

A club lead, if South had one, would not work either if East could win the trick. A spade return would then limit North-South to their one trump trick. Here we have promotion by rank.

The Ruff-and-Sluff Attack

The forcing strategy can be so powerful that even allowing the opponents the taboo ruff-and-sluff can be advantageous. In fact, it may be the only path to success, as the following deal illustrates.

North -- A K 10 6 4 J 10 8 2 J 9 7 6 West J 10 6 4 Q 8 9 7 6 3 A K Q East K Q 8 7 2 J A K Q 10 5 4 2 South A 9 5 3 9 7 5 3 2 5 4 8 3 The bidding: North East South West 1 6 2 3 North led the K

North led the top two hearts, East ruffing the second with the 2. (There was no mortal way East could know that trumping with the 7, preserving the deuce, was the winning play.)

East and West took two rounds each of clubs and diamonds before someone was inspired enough to lead a spade. West won the first spade lead with the J and South won the second round, topping East's Q with the A. These cards remained:

North -- 10 J 10 J 9 West 10 7 -- 9 7 A East K 8 - A 10 5 South 9 5 9 7 5 -- --

East and West wanted the rest of the tricks to gain the set. South needed just one more, and he knew he was seriously outgunned in spades. He calmly exited with a heart, playing the forcing strategy against both opponents.

Despite having the two highest spades and being presented with a ruff-and-sluff, East-West had no answer to the heart play. They could not do both things -- win the trick and draw both of South's spades.

"I would have bid nil had it not been for my strong diamonds and clubs," North said piously.

Doin' What Comes Naturally

Each of the above examples may have seemed too easy. Due to Spades players' natural aversion to leading trump, most Souths would have made the right play in each case without giving the matter any thought whatsoever.

The purpose of this article is to acquaint players with the principle of the forcing game because often the key decisions must be made early in the hand, when there is a choice of side suits to lead. Some folks would avoid leading the suit that has already been cut. As we have seen, forcing an opponent to trump a second time can be advantageous.

Finally, I do not wish to disappoint my advanced readers who were hoping for a challenge of sorts. Go back to the previous diagram, and assume East has retained his 2 instead of the 8. South is on lead. Show how East and West can win the remaining five tricks against both heart and spade leads.

Regards,
Popsicle