5. Tactics During Play

In this chapter we take up how best to play your cards to a trick.

Let's assume that you are playing the first card to a trick. Which card is the right one to select? When someone else leads, there are certain rules that you must follow as part of the game (see section 5.2). When you lead, on the other hand, you can select any card in your hand.


5.1 Playing the First Card to a Trick

Assume that you are playing a normal "Call" game and hold all twelve cards in your hand.

Consider first the non-trump cards, more specifically, the side suits in which you hold at least one ace. You should first lead the Aces that are most likely to go though without being trumped. Suppose, for example, you have only one Spade in your hand and that is the Ace. This means that there are 7 other Spades divided among the other players. The probability of not being trumped is the highest at the beginning. It's also worth considering that, if the holder of the other Spade Ace leads it to a trick, you will be forced to follow suit with your Ace. According to the official rules, the first Ace played to the trick wins so that your Ace will be lost. Thus, the strategy would be to play out this Ace at the first opportunity.

As a general rule:

There's no need to consider this theme further. You can learn a lot and more quickly simply by playing a few rounds with your Doppelkopf program. Give it a try!


5.2 Following, Trumping, or Throwing Off

When someone else leads a card, there are several rules that you must follow when playing a card.

You must follow suit, i.e., you must play a card of the suit that was led if possible. This goes for the side suits as well as trump. If you hold no cards of the suit lead, then you may play any card in your hand, trump or side suit.

Suppose you sit to the leader's left and hold only one card of the suit that was led. This is an easy decision.

If you hold two cards of the suit, then a choice must be made between the two of them. Consider several examples. You are playing a card to the first trick of a "Call" game:

  1. The Spade 9 is led and you hold the Spade Ace and King.

    => The Ace is the best card to select, since there is no higher card in the suit (recall that the first Ace would win should a second one be played) and another player must use trump to take the trick away from you.

  2. The Spade Ace is led and you hold the second Spade Ace and a King.

    => This is not as easy as the first case since you no longer can win with the highest card in the suit. If you know that this is your partner's Ace (because of a Contra or Re announcement, for example), then it makes sense to play the Ace rather than the King in order not to give away card points unnecessarily.

What should you do when you can't follow suit? You have the choice to throw off any card you wish or can choose to play trump.

This can also be illustrated with the help of some examples:

  1. The Spade Ace and 10 have been played so far to a trick. You hold no Spades.

    => You can see when the first card is played that the Ace will win the trick unless someone plays a trump card. The leader knows that it will take a trump card from someone to take the trick away. As long as you don't know whether the leader is your partner, you should play a trump in order the capture the card points in the trick. Since you have only one partner and two opponents, the odds are 67% that the Ace was lead by your opponent.

Which trump card should you select? That depends, of course, on whether the player playing last to the trick must follow suit or will be able to over trump your card. If these are the first Spades to be played, the odds are great that the he or she will have to follow suit. Select, then, a lower-ranked trump with a high card point value such as the Diamond Ace or 10.

This is, of course, a very simple case. Figuring what to play when several tricks have already been played is much more complicated. You must then consider which cards have already been played, who your partner is, etc.. The best way to get a feel for the best strategy is simply to play with the computer. You'll soon learn which card to play and when.

It also makes sense to think about where your partner is sitting relative to your position. As a general rule, it is wise to have your partner play last to the trick. In this way, he or she can choose the card to play that best fits the remaining cards that have been played so far to the trick.


5.3 Who Wins The Trick?


The cards in a trick are played out clockwise. Once each player has played a card, they can determine who has won the trick. This person then leads the first card of the next trick.

The trick is won by the person playing the highest card of the suit that was lead or the highest trump card, if any are played. In the event that two of the highest-ranking cards are played to the same trick, it is won by the first that was played.

Let's consider some examples. Assume that a normal "Call" is being played and the left-hand card was the one that was led.


1.

This trick is won by the person who led the Spade Ace. The fourth player could not follow suit and chose to throw off the Heart 9 rather than to play a trump.
2.

The leader wins this trick as well. The fourth player has also played a Spade Ace, but the first card of equal rank has precedence.
3.

In this case, the second player wins the trick. He or she was not able to follow suit and played a trump in order to win the trick.
4.

Here, player two plays the trump Ace in order to win the trick, but is over-trumped by player four with the Club Jack.

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