What would you have done?

[pcather]

On Monday I joined the Ohio Euchre Online board to play. It was a lot of fun. Everyone was trying to give me some tips on how to play which is exactly why I wanted to play with them. Unfortunately I haven’t learned all of the lingo yet and I had a hard time understanding what they were saying to me. i’m going to have to study up on that.

I did understand one comment and I would like to hear some discussion on it to help me understand it better.

I was in the second seat and I ordered up a lower than Ace Trump in Clubs to my partner. I had the Right and I think maybe a nine of trump. I had an Ace of Diamonds as well as two other diamonds. Which in my opinion made my off Ace very weak.

I took the first trick with my nine. So I had to make a choice do I lead the Right and possibly bring down my partners only Trump. That would make my Ace stronger but I wasn’t sure it would be strong enough.

I decided to sacrifice my Ace and hope that my partner could get at least one trick. The third seat trumped my Ace and took the trick.

We ended up taking all of the remaining tricks because my partner was loaded with trump. He commented that I should have lead with my Right instead of my Ace because we would’ve taken all five tricks for two points.

In hindsight that is true. But I had no way of knowing that he had more than one Trump. What would you have done?

[jspectre]

It's a judgement call based on whether you think your partner is likely to have a second trump or a better hand than you expected, pay attention to whether or not they followed suit or played off, this may give you a hint about their hand strength. If I see them play off, and especially a diamond, then I will most likely lead trump.

[pcather]

Hey there. Thanks for letting me play Monday night. I want to learn to put all I’ve learned on this site into practice. I love that you were all giving me tips. It was hard to understand all the code. . I’ll brush up on that before I play again.

[irishwolf]

R with Ace trip, Of course you have and must lead your Right bower then the Ace. It is not debatable!

And by the way, there are 4 unknown trumps, the Dealer having only the upcard is 23.4%. Even so you Must lead the Right. Ace dbltn, must lead the Right. Ace sgltn, must lead the Right.

If you don't lead trump that ace is toast and you probably will be euchred. Lead the right, even if your partner has one trump. He might have an off suit ace or King dbltn to win your point.

IRISHWOLF

[jspectre]

That's funny Irish, you gave me a hard time for leading the right with a 2 trump hand, and the right being my last trump, on a doubleton ace. I said it was the right play, and you said it obviously wasn't, since we got euchred. This was a month or so ago, anyway. lol