Bridge lessons · Lesson 10 of 26
Drawing Trumps
Updated 16 October 2026
In a suit contract your side's trumps protect your winners, and the opponents' trumps threaten them. A defender who has run out of a suit can ruff your ace or king with a small trump. Leading trumps until the opponents have none left makes every side winner safe. Count the trumps they hold before you start, and draw them before you cash your side winners, unless dummy's trumps are needed for ruffs.
Why take their trumps away?
Taking their trumps away like this is called drawing trumps. Each round you lead forces both opponents to follow with a trump if they have one, so their trumps fall under yours instead of being used to ruff.
Say you hold the ace, king and queen of diamonds, with two small diamonds in dummy. The opponents hold eight diamonds, and one of them may have only two. If that player still holds a trump when you lead the third diamond, your queen gets ruffed. Once all their trumps are gone, every winner you hold is safe, and you can cash them in any order you like.
Drawing trumps is usually the first thing declarer does after winning the opening lead. Your trumps are still there to take care of the opponents' long suits later, and nobody can spoil your side winners.
Counting the trumps that are out
Count your trumps and dummy's together and take the total from 13. With an eight-card fit the opponents hold five, with a nine-card fit they hold four. Then count them as they go. Each round in which both opponents follow uses up two of theirs. When one opponent discards, the other holds every trump that is still out, and you know exactly how many more rounds you need.
Count the trumps actually played rather than trusting your memory for rounds. Beginners often stop one round early, sure that the trumps are gone, and then lose a winner to the last one. Others play one round too many and waste a trump they needed.
Watch it in a deal
You are South in 4♠. You have enough winners, as long as the opponents cannot ruff any of them.
South opens 1♠, North raises to 2♠ with four spades and 6 points, and South, with 20, bids game. West leads the ♣K. Your side holds nine spades, so the opponents hold four.
When to wait, and the habit to keep
There is one common reason to hold back. Sometimes dummy's trumps are needed to ruff your losers in a suit where dummy is short. Every round of trumps you lead takes one of dummy's trumps as well, so drawing them all first can leave dummy with none for ruffing. The next lesson, Ruffing in Dummy, shows how to take those ruffs first and draw trumps afterward.
Otherwise, draw trumps early and count every one. Work out how many the opponents hold before trick one, watch both opponents on each round, and stop when the count reaches zero.
For how four or five missing trumps are likely to divide, see suit break odds. For the whole flow of a deal, see how to play bridge.
Practice: drawing trumps
Eight quick questions on what you just read.