Winning the auction gives you two privileges the other players never get: two extra cards, and the choice of trump. Used well, they add a trick or two to almost any hand. This article covers the moment between the auction and the first lead: picking up the talon, throwing two cards away and naming the trump suit.
The order of decisions
Unless the contract is Mexico, the caller:
- turns the two talon cards face up, so everybody sees them;
- adds them to the hand, which now has twelve cards;
- discards any two cards face down — nobody sees the discard, and those cards take no further part in the deal;
- chooses trump: spades, hearts, diamonds or clubs.
Because trump comes last, the discard and the trump choice are one decision. Before you throw anything away, decide which suit will be trump, then discard to make the rest of the hand fit it.
Callers at Mexico Club tables kept both talon cards 58.3% of the time and one of them 38.2% of the time; only 3.5% sent both straight back. Most of the time the talon earns its place, but the real gain comes from the two cards you choose to remove.
Choosing trump
Length first. Every trump you hold is one the opponents do not have, and after the trumps are drawn your remaining trumps are winners. At our tables the caller took on average 6.1 tricks with four trumps in the final hand, 7.2 with five and 8.0 with six. Nearly half of all callers (48.1%) played with four trumps and 37.0% with five; only 3.9% tried with three.
Then the top cards. Low trumps are promoted only once the high ones are gone, and if the high ones are in the opponents’ hands, each one costs a trick. Among callers who bid 6, those holding neither the ace nor the king of trumps made the bid 62.6% of the time; with one of them 79.0%; with both 91.4%.
The colour does not matter. No suit is stronger than another. At our tables players chose clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades almost exactly a quarter of the time each.
When two suits are equally long, make trump the one that holds the ace or king. A suit like A♦ K♦ Q♦ is worth three tricks as a side suit anyway, while a suit like J♣ 10♣ 9♣ 8♣ is worthless as a side suit but can still win two or three tricks as trump once the honours are gone.
How the missing trumps lie
There are eight cards in each suit. Once the discard is made, the caller knows the location of every card except the twenty in the opponents’ hands, so the split of the missing trumps is pure arithmetic:
| Your trumps | Missing | Split between the opponents |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | 2 | 1–1: 52.6% · 2–0: 47.4% |
| 5 | 3 | 2–1: 78.9% · 3–0: 21.1% |
| 4 | 4 | 2–2: 41.8% · 3–1: 49.5% · 4–0: 8.7% |
| 3 | 5 | 3–2: 69.7% · 4–1: 27.1% · 5–0: 3.3% |
With five trumps the three missing ones are split 2–1 almost four times in five, so the ace and king usually draw them in two rounds. With four, a 4–0 split is rare but a 3–1 split is the most likely outcome: plan for a third round of trumps. More numbers are in odds and statistics.
What to discard
- Never discard a trump. A trump is either a trick or a cut. Throwing one away almost always costs exactly one trick.
- Make a void. The best discard is often a whole short side suit: two cards in one suit, or a single card and something else useless. Once you are void and the trumps are drawn, the opponents cannot cash that suit against you: you cut it.
- Keep your aces. A singleton ace is still a trick when you lead it; it does not need company.
- Throw away doubtful honours. A bare king or a queen without the cards above it falls under the ace far more often than it wins. If discarding it also makes a void, it is usually right.
- Keep length in a side suit only with winners in it. A♥ K♥ 9♥ 8♥ can run; J♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ is four losers.
A quick check. After the discard, count your losers suit by suit. If removing two different cards would leave fewer losers, discard those instead.
Three hands
Hand 1: discard for a void
Hearts are the obvious trump: five cards with the ace, king and queen. Discard 8♣ and 7♦. The first makes you void in clubs, the second leaves the A♦ alone, still a trick. Your ace, king and queen of hearts draw the three missing trumps in at most three rounds; then two spare trumps cut clubs and diamonds. With the K♠ as a possible extra, this is a comfortable seven tricks.
Hand 2: the talon changes the trump
The longest suit is diamonds, but J♦ 10♦ 9♦ 8♦ is missing the ace, king and queen: as trump it would lose three tricks before winning one. The talon brings Q♠ 8♠:
Now spades are five long with the ace, king and queen. Make them trump, discard 10♣ and 7♥ (void in clubs, a lone A♥), and keep the four diamonds: they will lose to the ace, king and queen, but the last one may win. Five trumps, the heart ace and maybe a diamond — about seven tricks, from a hand that looked like a shaky five.
Hand 3: a void beats a doubtful king
Two choices look tempting: throw 9♠ 7♠ and keep the K♥, or throw both hearts. The king of hearts wins only if the ace is played before it, and the Gangsters will do their best to avoid that. Discarding K♥ 8♥ gives you a heart void instead: every heart the opponents lead is cut by one of your spare trumps. The K♦ Q♦ still makes a trick once the diamond ace is gone. A sure cut is worth more than a king that needs help.
What the opponents learn
The talon is shown to everybody, so the Gangsters know two of your cards. If the talon brought the queen of spades and you name spades as trump, they will assume you are long in spades and play accordingly. They do not see the discard, though, so they cannot be sure you kept the talon cards. A good defender will still count: if you named spades, at least some of the spades they cannot see are with you.
Tables without a talon
Private rooms can be set to play without a talon. Then the auction winner only chooses trump and the two talon cards stay closed, as on a Mexico. Bid more carefully at those tables: without the talon there is no chance to fix a weak suit or make a void, and the advice in the bidding article about counting the talon as half a trick no longer applies.
Next: the contract is somebody else’s. How do you and your temporary partner bring it down? Read playing as the Gangsters.