Schmearing
To schmear is to throw a high-point card, usually an ace or a ten, onto a trick your own side is winning, so the points land on your side’s pile. Schmear when nobody still to play can take the trick, throw points rather than power, and do not schmear onto a trick when you cannot tell whose side the winner is on.
Why it matters
Aces and tens are 84 of the deck’s 120 points, and most of them sit in fail suits, where they cannot win a trick once the suit has gone round. Their value comes from where they end up. A ten thrown onto a teammate’s winning trick is ten points for your side; the same ten played to a trick the other side wins is ten points for them. Most hands are decided by a schmear or two.
When it is safe
- You are last to play and your side is winning: always safe.
- Everyone still to play is on your side: safe.
- Anyone still to play might be an opponent who could trump or overtake: hold the points back. Before the partner is known, the picking side has to treat every unknown seat as an opponent too. When our computer players on the picking side schmeared without checking who was left to play, the defense ended up taking 43% of those tricks.
Which card: points, not power
Schmear a fail ace or ten, or the ace or ten of diamonds, which carry 11 and 10 points while being only the ninth and tenth strongest trump. Do not schmear a queen or a jack for its 3 or 2 points: they are your best trump and you will want them for a later trick. With no good schmear, throw a worthless fail card; with only trump, the king of diamonds before your weakest trump. Throwing points rather than power this way measured about 0.2 units better each time it changed the card.
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.
Two example tricks
- You are a defender, last to play. The partner is already known. The picker led the 9♠, a fellow defender trumped with the J♠, the partner followed with the K♠, and the other defender threw the 7♣. You are out of spades. Throw the A♥: 11 points onto a trick nobody can take from your side.
- You are the picker’s known partner, third to play. The picker has led the Q♣, the next player followed with the 9♦. Two defenders still play after you, but the Q♣ cannot be beaten. Schmear the 10♦ (you must follow trump) rather than a jack: 10 points banked, and the jack kept for later.
The called-suit trick
At call an ace, when a defender trumps the called ace and the picker has already played, everyone can see the defense owns that trick: the partner had to play the ace, so the partner cannot be the one trumping it. Other defenders who are out of the suit should schmear their fattest fail card rather than trump over their own teammate. In our measurements that schmear beat overtaking by about 0.7 units each time.
In a leaster it runs backward
In a leaster you want as few points as possible, so you schmear onto other players’ tricks. See leaster strategy.
Related
- Playing as the partner
- How to defend
- Working out who your partner is
- Card points
- Schmear, in the glossary
Play a hand
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