Spades Strategy: Shut Out Trump Promotions

Now we move on to scenarios when the opponents are on lead for trump promotions.

A common scenario you might find yourself is East leading his partner's void when you are also void.

The principle of a trump promotion still exists in these scenarios - trump high to "shut out" the opponents to either promote the spades in your partner's hand or even gain the lead.

In this end of hand example, East and West have been gaining their tricks with a crossruff in hearts and diamonds.

East leads his partner's void, and we must make our decision with the knowledge that West is void in diamonds.

If we are passive and trump low or choose to discard our winning club, we've resigned to West taking the setting trick if he has any spade left.

Going back to before...

If West has the K♠ or the Q9♠, there is no play that wins. West will discard if we trump high, or overruff us if we discard or trump low.

We must play as if partner has the missing K♠ since we are set if he does not have it and West has a spade left. Going back to before...

We cannot protect against West having the K♠ or the Q9♠, but we can prevent west winning a lone Q♠ or 9♠.

If we trump high and lead a spade to partner's K, West will be forced to surrender the missing spade by following suit.

With some luck and making a critical play, we assist partner and barely make our bid.

Note that it is possible for East to have a lone K♠ or the Q9♠ together, but we should more often than not place the missing high cards with the higher or incomplete bids.

If we trump high and East is able to make a 4th trick, it's unfortunate for us that a 1 bid was able to take 4 tricks. It does not mean we did not make the percentage play.

Another situation that arises when you may want to try to shut out the opponents via trump promotion is to lead spades when the opponents have a cross ruff.

In this deal, East quickly discovers West's heart shortness.

And West discovers East's club shortage shortly after.

East attempts to get back to his partner's hand in hearts and now is the time to act.

If we are not bold and try to put a stop to East and West's crossruffing now, it is likely they will trump the sidesuit winners of our partner.

We aggressively place down the K♠ in hopes of shutting out West from winning the trick.

Fortunately we get the lead. We must use it wisely.

When the opponents are cross ruffing, they are winning their spades individually from each other.

The best defense is to lead spades. This forces them to play their spades together following suit rather than trumping each others' losers one by one.

With the opponents out of spades, North's sidesuit Kings are no longer in danger and the only trick East and West should have left is the A♦️.

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