North, having just taken the last trick, has to decide which card they should lead. The ace or the trump 9. What would you do?
Given that the dealer called trump and the enemy already has 2 tricks in, it is absolutely critical that North, the dealers' P, lead trump.
There's actually another aspect of this hand I wanna talk about. After taking the first 2 tricks on defense, what should West (S1) lead between these three cards:
First there's no reason to lead trump in this spot so that rules out the
So now it's between the
and the
This is a very tough problem and arguably a team problem, not just a S1 problem. S1 having the Left normally means he should generally be inclined to play a suit already played, hoping his P is void and can trump high enough to force out the right for the euchre. This general logic would lead S1 to leading the
But here's the problem. I was actually the player in East and took the first trick by trumping the spade lead. Now with no off aces to play, I'm actually gonna lead my longest suit hoping to create a situation where the Maker can get overtrumped. So when I lead a club in that spot, I'm very likely to have another one. The ensuing action also backs up that general read. After the maker showed void in clubs by wisely throwing off my 9C lead with the TD, and S1 takes the trick with the AC and S2 follows suit with the JC, there are still 2 clubs left in the wild, the Kc & the Tc. Given my propensity to lead long in that spot, I am very likely to have at least one of those clubs. S1 would only know this if he were deeply familiar with my play.
And here's the other thing, clubs is the only suit we KNOW the dealer, the maker, is void in. The Maker followed suit on the opening Spade lead, and showed void in clubs when he threw off a diamond. Given that the dealer, the maker already had a chance to create a void when he ordered up there is a decent chance he has either another spade or another diamond. Well S1 doesn't have any spades so that's irrelevant, but S1 does have a diamond to lead. Given that S3 probably has another club and the dealer could have another diamond, S1 leading a diamond hoping to create a cheap trick situation for S3 (I.E. S3 trumps in and the maker sadly has to follow suit) or a situation where S3 is void in diamonds and trumps high enough to force out the Right, is probably the best and only chance for East-West to pull off the euchre in this situation.
That's a lot to process tho in the heat of battle and S1 HAS to know how S3 plays. But a strong euchre team with lots of chemistry could pull this off imo.
