The caller in Mexico has one big advantage and one big problem. The advantage: the trump suit is yours, chosen after you saw twelve cards. The problem: you play alone, with no partner and no dummy, against two players who cooperate. This guide is about turning that advantage into the exact number of tricks you promised, and a few more when it is safe.
Everything below follows the rules used at Mexico Club: follow suit if you can, trump if you cannot follow, and play any other card only when you have neither. That second rule, the duty to trump, is the key to most of what follows.
1. Make a plan before the first card
After the talon and the discard, you know twelve cards: the ten in your hand and the two you threw away. The other twenty are split between your two opponents, ten each. Before you lead, answer three questions:
- How many sure tricks do I have? Aces, kings behind aces you hold, and top trumps.
- Where do the missing tricks come from? Small trumps after the opponents' trumps are gone, a long side suit, or ruffs when the opponents lead a suit you are void in.
- What can go wrong? Usually it is a side winner being ruffed, or a long suit that the opponents run once they get the lead.
Count it. Three top trumps and two spades: five sure tricks. The opponents hold J♥ 10♥ 7♥. Once those are gone, your 9♥ and 8♥ are winners too: seven. The clubs give two more after the ace is knocked out: nine. You are void in diamonds, so a diamond lead from the opponents is a ruff for you, not a loss.
The only real danger is a spade or a club being ruffed. That decides the order: trumps first, then the clubs, then the rest.
2. Draw trumps, and why the rules force you to
In Mexico a player who cannot follow suit must play a trump if they have one. They cannot choose to keep it. So an opponent with a single small trump and no spades will ruff your ace of spades, every time. That is why drawing trumps early is the default for the caller: each trump you pull is one ruff that can no longer happen.
In the hand above, lead the A♥, then the K♥. If both opponents followed to the first round and one of them showed out on the second, all three missing trumps are gone. If one opponent showed out on the first round, the other still holds two, and the K♥ and Q♥ finish the job. Your last trumps stay in your hand as winners and as ruffs for diamonds.
Showing out tells you two things. When an opponent plays a non-trump on a trump lead, they have no trumps left. When they play a card of a third suit on a side-suit lead, they have neither that suit nor any trump: otherwise the rules would have forced them to ruff.
3. How the missing trumps are split
How many rounds you need depends on how the missing trumps sit. After you took the talon, the twenty unknown cards are dealt ten and ten, which gives these exact chances:
| Your trumps | Missing | Split | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 2 | 1–1 | 52.6% |
| 6 | 2 | 2–0 | 47.4% |
| 5 | 3 | 2–1 | 78.9% |
| 5 | 3 | 3–0 | 21.1% |
| 4 | 4 | 2–2 | 41.8% |
| 4 | 4 | 3–1 | 49.5% |
| 4 | 4 | 4–0 | 8.7% |
| 3 | 5 | 3–2 | 69.7% |
| 3 | 5 | 4–1 | 27.1% |
| 3 | 5 | 5–0 | 3.3% |
Two lessons hide in this table. With five trumps, two rounds clear the opponents almost four times out of five. With only four trumps, the opponents end up with as many trumps as you: if you draw all four, your trumps are gone too, and the first suit you lose can be run against you. That is the main reason four-card trump suits are dangerous for high bids. The odds and statistics page has more numbers like these.
4. When to stop drawing
Drawing trumps is the default, not a law. Stop when:
- The last missing trump is higher than all of yours. It will win a trick whatever you do. Spending two of your trumps to catch it costs you a stopper and gains nothing; get on with your side suits.
- You need a trump to stop a suit. If the opponents have a long suit and you are short in it, the trump you keep is the only card that takes the lead back when they start running it.
- Your side suits are safe. If both opponents still follow to a suit, they cannot ruff it. Cash winners in suits where you have counted that both still have cards.
5. Count everything
Each suit has eight cards: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7. You know your ten and your two discards. Counting the rest is easier than it sounds if you count only two things:
- Trumps. Eight in total. Subtract your own, then subtract each trump the opponents play. When the count reaches zero, every remaining trump in your hand is a winner.
- Show-outs. The moment an opponent fails to follow suit, you know the exact length of that suit in the other opponent's hand. From then on, you know who can still ruff it.
Counting also tells you which cards are still out. When the ace and king of clubs have both been played, your queen of clubs is the top card even though it does not look like one.
6. Lose your tricks early
In the first example, the clubs need one trick given up to the ace. Give it up early, while you still hold trumps. If the opponent who wins the ace leads a diamond, you ruff it and are back on lead. If you play your spades and trumps first and try the clubs at the end, the opponents win the ace and you may have nothing left to stop their winners.
The rule works with any suit you need to set up: knock out the opponents' high cards while you still have control, and cash your sure winners last. Sure winners do not run away; your control does.
7. Let them lead into your tenace
A tenace such as A-Q is worth two tricks if the player holding the king has to lead the suit, and usually one if you lead it yourself. Without a partner, you cannot lead toward your tenace from the other side of the table. But you can make an opponent lead into it, by giving them the lead at the right moment.
If you cash the A♦ and then play the Q♦, the king wins and the spade wins too: one trick. Lead the 7♠ instead. The player after you wins it with the last spade and now has only diamonds left. Whatever diamond they lead, you play last and win both remaining tricks: two.
This is called an endplay or throw-in. You need a count to find it, but in a three-handed game with ten cards each, a count is within reach by the last few tricks.
8. Overtricks, falls and the scoreboard
A made bid scores the tricks you actually took: bid 7 and take 8, and you write +8. That makes overtricks worth chasing, but only when they are free. Compare the outcomes of a bid of 7:
| Result | Easy scoring | Normal scoring |
|---|---|---|
| Made with 7 tricks | +7 | +7 |
| Made with 8 tricks | +8 | +8 |
| Fell with 6 tricks | −7 | −14 |
An overtrick adds one point. A fall costs 14 points compared with making the bid in Easy scoring and 21 in Normal scoring. Never take a line that risks the bid for an overtrick. Once the bid is safe, play for every trick you can.
When the bid is in danger, look for the split or the position that lets you make it, and play for that, even if it is not the most likely. If the bid can only be made when the trumps split 2–2, play for 2–2. A line that only works when the cards sit badly is still better than a line that cannot work at all.
Keep an eye on the scoreboard as well. The game ends when someone reaches the target (51 in a regular game) at the end of a deal, and the highest total wins. If an opponent is three tricks away from the target, every trick they take as a Gangster matters as much as your bid.
9. Playing a Mexico call
A Mexico call is a promise to take all ten tricks without the talon. You still choose trump, but you know only your own ten cards: the other twenty-two are spread over two opponents and the unseen talon. There is no room for a single loser, so the plan is short: draw trumps at once, then cash winners from the top. Any trick you give up breaks the bid, and on a Mexico deal the Gangsters' tricks count double. When to call it at all is covered in when to call Mexico.
For the other side of the table, read defence. If you are new to the scoring details, the rules page has all of them.