Trump drain — pulling the defenders' trumps (declarer's view)
'Me' at the bottom is the viewpoint player; P2–P5 are the other four seats.
Setup
Mighty Basics Replay. This game is from the declarer's view: the trump drain, counting trumps as you pull them. I'm the declarer. Trump (giruda) is ♠, contract 16. With ♠ as trump, Mighty is ♦A instead of ♠A. I called Mighty as the Friend card, so P3 is my Friend. P3 is holding the Joker as well. In the exchange I took ♥A from the kitty and discarded ♣9, ♦2 and ♥6. Dropping ♦2 left me void in ♦. The theme of this game is the trump drain. My trumps are ♠A, ♠K, ♠J, ♠10, ♠5, ♠3: six cards. Seven trumps are outside my hand. Count along: how many trump leads pull them all, why I stop once they're gone, and what my saved trumps do at the end.
Trick 1
You can't lead trump on the first trick, so I opened with a non-trump boss card, ♣A. My Friend P3 knew the declarer's Ace would surely win, so P3 put ♣10 on it. Loading honors. The others don't know P3 is the Friend yet, but P3 knows.
Trick 2
Now the trump drain begins. I led the boss trump ♠A: P2 ♠4, P3 ♠2, P4 ♠8, P5 ♠6. Everyone had to give up a trump. One lead pulled four of the seven trumps outside my hand. In fact, after this trick P2 and P3 have no trumps left. Not revealed yet.
Trick 3
Next, ♠K. P2 played ♥2 and my Friend P3 played ♣J, revealing both are void in ♠. P3's ♣J loads a point card onto a trick the declarer is winning. P4's ♠9 and P5's ♠7 came out too. Eight ♠ have been played and I hold four, so I can work out only one trump is left outside: ♠Q.
Trick 4
This is the key moment of the trump drain. The only trump left outside is ♠Q. If I lead ♠J, ♠Q beats it. So I led the low ♠5 to draw out ♠Q. P3, void in ♠, took the trick with the Joker and was revealed as Friend. Last-seat P5 had to play ♠Q, and the Joker caught it. P4 played ♣3, showing a ♠ void. It's the Joker-call card, but played as a follow, not a lead, it can't stop the Joker. Now there are no trumps left outside. The defenders are out of trumps. My remaining ♠J, ♠10 and ♠3 are the only trumps left, all in my hand.
Trick 5
The defenders' trumps are gone, so the trump drain stops. Stop draining. My Friend P3 now had the lead and led ♣K, the boss card now that ♣A is gone. Backing the declarer with bosses. With P4's ♣Q, that's 2 points. P5 played ♥3, showing a ♣ void. I had no ♣ either, but my Friend was already winning, so I didn't ruff and shed my useless ♥7. Dumping a dead card. The trumps I saved will be needed more later.
Trick 6
P3 led low with ♥9, the only ♥ in P3's hand. P4 played ♥J and P5 ♥10. My ♥A, taken from the kitty so nobody knew where it was, won 3 points. From the Friend's side, it can also be seen as dumping the lone ♥ to become void in ♥.
Trick 7
I led ♥8, my last non-trump. ♥K, ♥Q and ♥5 are still out, so on its own this card would lose. But my Friend P3, void in ♥, took it with the Mighty. P3's ♥ void stays hidden behind the Mighty. P2 played ♥Q instead of ♥5 to try to win, and P5, with only ♥K left in ♥, had to play it. The defenders held point cards but had to follow suit, so they loaded them onto our trick. P4 played ♦4, showing a ♥ void.
Trick 8
P3 led ♦K. My Friend would have won, but I used the ♦ void from my exchange and ruffed with ♠3. ♦ void revealed. Ruffing my own team's trick looks like it was for the lead. With the lead, ♠J and ♠10 are sure winners since no trumps are left outside, so I can close out the last two tricks myself. With 1 point from ♦K, the contract is made.
Trick 9
I lead ♠J. No trumps are left outside, so this card is the boss card. The defenders can't follow or ruff: P4 discarded ♦10, and P5 played ♦7, showing a ♠ void. Contract 16 is already made, so now this trick goes for all 20 points: a run.
Trick 10
My last trump, ♠10, is a sure winner for the same reason. With P4's ♦Q, that's 2 more points: 20:0, all ten tricks won. The ♦Q the defenders held to the end also fell into our trick, since they couldn't follow suit. The three trumps I saved after the trump drain handled tricks 8 through 10.
Result
20:0, a run with all twenty point cards taken. To recap: first, I opened with ♣A. Second, three trump leads, ♠A, ♠K, ♠5, pulled all seven outside trumps. Instead of facing ♠Q head-on with ♠J, I drew it out with low ♠5 so my Friend's Joker could take it. Third, I stopped draining and gathered points with P3's ♣K, the Mighty and my ♥A. Fourth, my ♦ void won back the lead to cash ♠J and ♠10. The defenders ran out of trumps early and never got to ruff once. Count the trumps first, and stop once they're all drawn. That's the trump drain. You can step through this game yourself in the Basics Replay section of Mighty Korea's school (mightykorea.com).