Richardb02 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 30, 2019 10:05 pm
down Seat Round 2 Down 5-7 Aggressive & Equal Players
Would you call Next?
If you call Next, what would you lead and what is your plan to play your cards?
Sometimes the correct option presents itself due to the fact that your other options are THAT toxic. This is one of those times.
Firstly, good call. Absolutely critical. When the dealer turns down a red card and you have NO SPADES and one baby club you should be scared to death to pass. Order this hand at ANY score. The only ostensibly debatable scores are when your team is up 9-8 or tied 8-8. At those scores you have to tighten up your Next calls a bit. Calling Next after all is a defensive strategy. Playing strong defense loses most of its value when getting euchred = game over. HOWEVER, your marginal holding of Right + 1 and nothing else is juuuuuuust strong enough offensively to justify calling at 9-8/8-8. You'll score a point often enough + prevent the 2 seat from a closeout black call often enough to make up for the game losing euchres.
But you have to play it right. What are the toxic options I refer to that we must avoid here. Well, number one, we never wanna lead the turn-downed suit here, that toxic lead will almost surely give your enemy the first trick and this could seriously cripple your team if your partner is sitting on the Ad--which he is statistically more likely to have since your opponents turned down a diamond. Ok so don't so that.
The next lead you don't wanna make is leading the Right bower. You are marginal with 2 trump and no off aces, and we cannot be sure what our partner holds. Although it's true that your enemy passing in the first round positively correlates with your partner having offsuit aces that is certainly not enough information to take on faith. With your marginal holding and no off aces to promote the last thing you want to happen is for your team to blow two trump on one lead.
Well that leaves only one option left. It's a pretty meh/neutral option, but the clear best option nonetheless. Lead the
.
By taking this line you maximize whatever ruffing power your partner might have, I.E. you're preserving his trump to hopefully trump in if he has a void somewhere, and by taking this line your partner now doesn't have to have much for you guys to eke out a point. Sometimes your partner can have no trump and just the
and you guys can still make it. I.E. his Ac walks on the first lead and he leads back a spade that you trump in with your
and bingo you guys score a point. Or your partner could have just one trump, the Ah, and no off aces and you guys eke out a point due to your 9h trumping your void and your partner playing the Ah later, and your Jh now secures a point. By not leading trump you open up all kinds of opportunities for your team to eke out a point with not very much and that's PRECISELY want you want to try to do when you have a marginal offensive hand like Right + 1 and nothing else.
Here's a quote from this website on a situation similar but not perfectly analogous to your example:
In a hand where you only hold two small cards in next but no power, try leading an off suit that you think your partner may be able to trump. You may need the trump to make your point.
Source:https://ohioeuchre.com/E_next.php
I believe the above extrapolates seamlessly to Right + 1 but no power scenarios. In fact it actually fits "Right + 1 but no power scenarios" better than the actual advice for two small trump!
For example, let's say your team is up 3-0. The dealer just turned down the
You're in the 1 seat with
You correctly call next knowing that passing with this holding is unacceptable given that you block nothing and have a nearly dead hand on a red call. Ok what should you lead? Well according to this site you should lead the 9h. Interesting to note I have talked about this spot with the 2 best players in my euchre tournament (one of them was Tbolt65). They both say to lead trump (in this case the Tc). I frankly am not sure what's best here. It isn't as clear to me like the Right + 1 scenario.
With the Right + 1 but no power scenario you have juuust enough offensive strength where you don't really need that much help from your partner, so it's best to not lead trump to maximize whatever help he may have. With the 2 low trump scenario, now it's clear you need your partner's help as it's clear you actually have to hit your partner somewhat to score a point. If's that's the case, that's a decent argument for going against the recommendations of this site and leading a low trump from KcTc example hand.
But that said, I'm still not convinced. I'ved tried playing the two low trump example both ways, and frankly I'm not sure what comes out ahead. Sometimes not leading trump saves my team, sometimes it hurts my team, and vice versa. If I had that mythical euchre simulator this would be one of the first spots I would try out.
For now tho if I do have a hand like
I play it like the site recommends, I lead the
However if we change our hand to this:
I would absolutely head low trump EVERY TIME.
With no voids, and thus no chance to trump in on a fresh suit we REALLY need to hit our partner, and when that's the case it's imperative to lead trump right away. So at the very least I strictly disagree with this site's recommendation on how to play two low trump + no off suit power next calls, becuz it actually matters whether you have a void or not.
But what about when we have Right + 1 and no voids? Still do not lead trump. With this holding it is still absolutely critical that you avoid two of your team's trump falling on the same lead.
An example of an expert play based on an expert read:
Score is 0-0. Seat 4 turns down the
Seat 1 who is a very strong player calls next.
You're in Seat 2 with
Seat one leads the
, you play your
and it walks. You now lead trump!
Why? When a very strong player calls next and leads an offsuit garbage card his most likely hand is Right + 1 with no power. He's prudently trying to make sure that his team does not spend two trump on the same lead. Ok well I never read "The Art of War" but I'm pretty sure somewhere in that book is the idea of figuring out what your enemy doesn't want to happen, and then making that happen! Your enemy, doesn't want two trump being burned on the same lead. Well F them! Lead trump and cause chaos! You now have a good chance of blowing up their double ruff attempt which could easily lead to a euchre.