How to Defend
The defense needs 60 points. Get there by cashing your fail aces before the picker can trump them, leading the called suit early at call an ace to force the partner’s ace out while you still hold trump, keeping your trump for overtaking rather than leading it, and schmearing onto any trick a teammate has already won.
Cash fail aces early
A fail ace wins only while everyone still has that suit. The picker usually buries to get void somewhere, and every round of trump the picker leads strips your side’s trump too. Lead your aces while they still take tricks. A defender who saves an ace for later often watches it get trumped.
At call an ace, lead the called suit early, and low
The partner must play the called ace when its suit is led. Leading that suit early, with your lowest card of it, forces the ace out while the defense still holds trump, so a teammate who is void can trump it. In our measurements, a defender holding the called suit who led its lowest card in the first two tricks did better than one who led another small fail card; after the first two tricks it made no difference.
Do not lead trump early at call an ace
Leading trump on defense does the picker’s work for them. At call an ace, a defender who led trump in the first four tricks while holding a fail card did measurably worse than one who led the fail card. At jack of diamonds the same test showed no clear difference either way.
Schmear onto a trick your side already owns
When a teammate is winning a trick and nobody left to play can take it, throw your aces and tens onto it. The clearest case is the called-suit trick at call an ace: once a defender has trumped the called ace and the picker has already played, everyone can see whose trick it is. Throwing your fattest fail card there instead of overtaking with your own trump measured about 0.7 units better a time, at every trick of the hand.
Follow trump with the right card
When trump is led and you cannot win the trick, throw the strongest trump that cannot win rather than the cheapest. The small diamonds are the cards that still win late tricks once the queens and jacks are gone; a middling trump that is already beaten here will be beaten again later. That rule measured better in every situation we split it by. Holding back your single best trump at all costs, on the other hand, measured clearly worse: most of the time the picker pulls it later anyway.
About the numbers: they come from our own simulations, in which our strongest computer players play the same deals both ways and the results are compared. A unit is one defender’s base payment. They are measured at five-handed with the live table rules, against strong opponents, and they are averages, not guarantees for any one hand.
Make the picker spend trump
Lead suits the picker is void in, preferably with cards that carry few points, so the picker has to trump in or throw something away. Every trump the picker spends on a seven of spades is one fewer for your aces.
What about “short through, long to”?
Players disagree even on which way round this maxim goes. We measured both directions, leading a defender’s shortest fail suit against their longest from every position of the picker, and found no difference either way. That is not proof the maxim is wrong: its benefit depends on teammates reading a lead and acting on it, which our computer players do not do. Use it if your table reads leads; do not expect it to win hands on its own.
Doubling
If the blind never reached you, you may crack. Most defensive hands should not; the reasons are on when to crack.
Related
- Defending against a lone picker
- Schmearing
- When to crack
- Working out who your partner is
- Common mistakes
Play a hand
Sheepshead Club is free, with no ads and no account needed. Play a first hand with the coach beside you (about three minutes), or sit down at a table with computer players or real people.