Playing a trump contract: when to draw trumps and what to discard

Eight trumps – where every count starts

Every suit has exactly eight cards, so there are eight trumps. The first thing to do once you see all your cards is to count your own trumps. If you hold four, the other three players have four between them. Every trump that hits the table – on a lead, when following or when ruffing – comes off that number.

The second question is which of the big trumps you hold. The jack and the nine outrank everything else and are worth 34 points together, so before the first card is played you should know how many of them are still out.

When to draw trumps

Drawing trumps means leading trump after trump until the opponents have none left. The point is simple: as long as an opponent holds a trump, every ace you lead in another suit can be ruffed. Once the trumps are drawn, your aces and tens become sure tricks.

Example. You bid hearts and after the deal you hold J♥ 9♥ A♥ 7♥ A♠ 10♠ K♣ 8♦. You have four hearts, so four are out. You lead J♥ and all three players follow with a heart. Only one trump is left outside. You continue with 9♥, and if the last heart falls the trumps are drawn. Now A♠ and 10♠ win comfortably, and A♥ and 7♥ are saved for the end.

• Draw trumps when you hold the jack (or jack and nine) and at least three or four trumps.
• Draw trumps when you have strong cards in other suits that you want to protect from ruffs.
• Stop as soon as your count says the opponents are out of trumps – every extra trump you lead is a ruff thrown away.

When not to draw trumps

Drawing trumps is not a law. There are three typical cases where it hurts.

• Your partner will ruff. If your partner has shown they are out of clubs and you have clubs to lead, every one of their trumps is a trick. Draw the trumps and those ruffs are gone.
• You have no control. With 10♠ 8♠ 7♠ and no jack or nine, leading trumps hands the initiative to the opponents. Use your small trumps for ruffing instead.
• The last trump outside is higher than yours. If the only trump left is the nine and you hold the ten and the eight, don’t lead the ten – the nine beats it and collects 24 points at once. If you want to draw the nine, lead the eight; often, though, it is better not to draw at all and let the nine ruff something small while your ten waits for the end.

Wrong: you bid spades with 10♠ 9♠ 7♠ and lead 9♠ straight away. The jack drops on top and the opponents take 34 points and the lead. Right: wait for the jack to appear or for an opponent to lead trumps, and cash your aces in the other suits meanwhile.

The jack, the nine and the “nine under the jack”

If you hold both the jack and the nine of trumps, the order matters: jack first, then nine. The other way round gives the nine away if the jack sits with an opponent.

A nine without the jack is the classic trap. Lead it and the jack beats it, handing the opponents 34 points at once. So with the nine but no jack you usually wait: play a smaller trump to flush out the jack, or let the opponents lead trumps themselves. Once the jack is gone, your nine is the highest card in the game.

Your seat in the trick matters too. If an opponent before you leads trumps and you hold the 9 and the 7, you must play higher than the card on the table if you can. So if only an eight is on the table, you have to play the nine – and if the jack is with the opponent after you, you lose it. That is one more reason a nine without the jack is weaker than it looks.

The belot – king and queen of trumps

King and queen of the trump suit in one hand are a belot – 20 points for your team. The belot always counts for the team that holds it, regardless of who won the comparison of declarations, and it counts towards whether the contract is made.

The belot is announced with whichever of the two cards you play first – when you lead it, when you follow suit with it, and when you ruff, overruff or underruff with it. In a suit contract the king and queen are trumps, so the belot cannot be lost: as soon as you play one of them, the 20 points are yours. In Belot Arena the table announces it for you.

That makes the trump king and queen handy for ruffing: if an opponent leads a suit you are void in, you can ruff with the queen without a second thought – the belot counts, and your jack and nine stay for the tricks that matter more. Just do not give them away cheaply: the king and queen rank below the ace and ten of trumps, and if you lead them while the big trumps are still out, you lose the trick (though not the belot).

Discarding: what to throw away when you are void

When you are void in the suit led and are not obliged to ruff, you discard a card of your choice. That happens in three cases: your partner holds the trick; you have no trumps; or an opponent has already ruffed higher than you can overruff. Bulgarian players call this “чистене” (cleaning up), and it is where most points are lost through carelessness.

The main rule is not to leave a “bare” ten. If you hold 10♣ 7♣ and discard the seven, the ten is left alone and will fall to the ace the first time clubs are led. Discard something else and keep the seven as the ten’s guard.

Ruffing, overruffing and underruffing: what is compulsory

The obligations in a suit contract are strict, and the Belot Arena table enforces them for you – cards you are not allowed to play are dimmed. It still pays to know them so you can plan ahead.

Two rules are often overlooked. First: when your partner holds the trick you do not need to ruff – ruffing there only wastes a trump. Second: when an opponent has ruffed with a trump you cannot beat, you do not have to underruff. Keep your small trump – it may win a whole trick later, when someone leads a suit you are void in.

Example: one deal in spades

You are South and play spades. Your hand: J♠ A♠ K♠ Q♠ 8♠ A♦ 10♦ 7♣. You hold five spades, so three are out, the nine among them. You also have a belot.

1. You lead J♠. East has only one spade – 9♠ – and must play it. West has 10♠ 7♠: they cannot beat the jack, so they play the seven and keep the ten. North has no spades and the trick is their partner’s, so they discard what they like. One spade is left outside.
2. You lead A♠ – the ace is above the ten, and West must give up their last spade, 10♠. The trumps are drawn.
3. You lead A♦, then 10♦ – both win, because nobody can ruff any more.
4. You are left with K♠ Q♠ 8♠ 7♣. You lead K♠ – the belot is announced with the king – then Q♠. You lose only 7♣, and you ruff the last trick with 8♠ and collect its 10 points as well.

Had you started with A♦ and someone been void in diamonds, your ace would have been ruffed. Note the order of the trumps too: if you had led K♠ after the jack, West’s ten would have beaten it. With strong trumps you draw with the top cards first, then cash the side aces.