Hand Evaluation 4: Do Less with a Weak Trump Suit

Typically one of the key requirements for a successful game or slam contract, is a robust trump suit. You are in serious trouble if are in slam with this trump suit, even if you have all the rest of the points in the deck.

The same applies for being in game as well. People typically look at a lot of things when thinking of bidding or inviting to game, but often they glance over their trump quality too lightly. Lets look at some examples.

Would you make any further noise here?

While the hand is quite okay, in light of the excellent club suit, I would suggest that it is a pass, not even an invite. The main problem is the lack of trump texture.

And on this hand?

Again I would argue this is a pass, despite the reasonable amount of points and the singleton. Also remember this hand has 7 losers, check out  this article on how the loser count affects your bidding decisions. 

Lets moderate this idea a bit, with a contrasting example. Partner's 3♠  bid shows 6-9 points with 4 cards spades.

In this context you have a 9 card fit, trump texture becomes a bit less serious when you are talking about a game contract (still can be quite a serious problem for a slam). Even though you don't have many high card points, and not great trump texture (though the 108 are certainly useful cards!), 4♠ looks like a good bid (Do more with distributional hands). 

This is a fairly illuminating example,

A world class professional decided not to respond 1H. The idea behind it is as follows - slam or grand slam looks inevitable, but slam in hearts would be dubious unless partner had extremely good texture in that suit. He did not want to end up in 6♥  when it was going down with two trump losers, while other slams or even grand slams were cold. 

Note - this is a fairly extreme example, its normally a good idea to bid your hand naturally.

Contrast the above example with this, 

Here you don't have a great hand, so likely it will just be played in a part score. Bidding 1♠ here is fine, in fact its probably a good idea. 

So overall, its important to know when trump texture is a big deal, typically it is a big deal in the following times

1. When you only have an 8 card fit.

2. When slam or game is in the picture (in other words, when you have a good hand).

In those situations, be more cautious with bad trump texture.

Where to next

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• -> Related: Responding to a Takeout Double: Keep It Practical
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