19 Defence in trumps

There are plenty of ways the defenders can hurt the declarer in a trump contract, but perhaps the simplest mindset is just to think of all the good plays the declarer might use, and play the opposite way, to thwart him.  I’ll run through the standard ones:

1. Forcing the declarer. This involves leading a suit he is weak in, or better still out of, so that he has to trump in his own hand. Do not grieve that you have lost this trick, rejoice that his stock of trumps has just been depleted by one. So when you get in, lead that suit again. In fact your aim (often achieved) is to run him out of trumps completely.
2. The other side of the penny is to run the dummy out of trumps so that it cannot ruff declarer’s losers. If not to run out, at any rate deplete. So repeated trump leads will deplete both declarer’s hands! This is especially satisfying when you have one trump left and your partner has none: by leading this trump you get two for the price of one. [NB care not to jeopardise any natural trump trick you may have.]
3. In the light of that last remark, a trump lead from two or three small cards is often good, and here’s when to do it: if the dummy bidder raised her partner’s suit as soon as she saw it, the dummy ruffs are likely, so lead a trump. If all she did was give preference to first suit, the ruffs are less likely so a different lead may be best.

4. Passive play. Frequently there are situations where a standard defence play is dangerous or even silly. Leading into declarer’s strength may solve the problem. So long as this lead yields him a trick he was due to make anyway, he is now the one with a problem as to what to lead. This passive play may even be good at trick one, but it is available anywhere. Its use is often called “exiting gracefully”.