Trumping Side Suits in Pinochle

Video Transcript

"O'kay now we come back to this hand again here and this is a good illustrative example; keep in mind that if the side suit is trumped, okay diamond lead, must trump, no discards, must suit. Okay if the side suit is trumped with the ace, actually the ten might be a better play but it might be toward the end of a hand. Let's just say he chooses to trump. Now keep in mind that if he is void in diamonds he must under trump. There are no variables and he must under trump if he has any trump. I know that seems like a waste of trump but if he is going to under trump the opponents he is going to under trump with a non-counter trump like that one. Any time you see this is thrown off it is junk. If he has diamonds then you know it is routine. If it comes around to my partner winning this off suit and I don't have any diamonds I have to under trump, I am going to give him a counter a king or a ten if I can. I certainly would hate to give him an ace. If the ace is the only thing I had then I'm going to say wow what a waste and I'm going to wonder why he didn't play with the lower counter. The principle again is if you are void of the side suit led you have to trump. If the next person was void of that suit they have to under trump or they have to climb. If the queen was played they would have to try to beat it with the king, ace, or ten or else match it or under trump depending on what they are holding and the same thing again. I know it gets complicated but it is the principles and structure of the game."