Dealer: He has quite a good hand. He can consider playing hearts in hand, but the ♠ 10 is a severe embarrassment it is almost sure to be caught by the Ace. Ideally the dealer would like to look at the skat.

If he finds an Ace, or possibly a Jack, he will be strong enough to play grand, and if he can discard the embarrassing ♠ 10 into his trick pile, then hearts are almost cast-iron.

In a hand like this, with few losers, it is worth doing a calculation to see how many points the defenders can collect. In this case we would suppose that the defenders catch the ♠ 10 with the Ace and King, for 25 points, that they catch the ♦ Q with the Ace and 10, for a further 24 points making 49, and then we are left with the question of whether they can collect 11 points in trumps (assuming hearts are trumps, of course).

There are four trumps outside the dealer’s hand, and he should be prepared for them to divide three-one between the opponents. In this case the defenders can arrange for at least one trick to happen when one of them is winning a trump, while the other is out of trumps and can throw on some valuable card like the ♣ 10.

This will make up the required 11 points and the dealer will lose. Of course, in practice, the defenders will rarely manage to put the maximum possible number of points on his losing poker cards, but the calculation shows that the dealer is not quite safe playing hearts in hand.

The bidding goes as follows:

Dealer: Pass

The dealer decides to pass since his hearts hand contract is not quite safe and he has very good chances of defeating any contract Middlehand might try. This is rather cowardly- most players would bid up to 30 with the dealer’s cards.

Middlehand looks at the skat, fails to find any of the key cards he was hoping for, and discards ♥ K and ♠ Q, getting 7 points home and creating a void in hearts. Middlehand then announces his contract: ‘clubs are trumps’.

The play proceeds as follows (F= Forehand , M= Middlehand, the Declarer, D= Dealer):
Trick 1: F leads the ♠ A. Normal practice is for the online poker player in front of the declarer to play long suits, while the other defender plays short suits the reason soon becomes apparent. M follows the ♠ 9 and D plays the ♠ 10.
Score: M 7 points, Defenders 21.

Trick 2: F leads the ♠ K. This is the position the defenders have been trying to create, with D, void of the suit led, playing after the declarer. This means that if M trumps the card led, D can overtrump, while if M throws away some odd card, D can put something valuable on (in this case, the ♥ A). M decides to trump with the ♣ Q, and D overtrumps with ♣ A.
Score:  M 7 points, Defenders 39.

Trick 3: D leads the ♥ A. He expects m to trump this card, but it is far better to force m to trump than to allow him an opportunity to get rid of an odd card. F plays the 7, and M trumps with the ♣ 10.
Score: M 28 points, Defenders 39

Trick 4: M leads the ♦ J. It is almost always best for the declarer to get rid of trumps as soon as possible. D wins with the ♥ J, and F plays the ♣ 7.
Score: M 28 points, Defenders 43

Trick 5: D leads the ♥ Q. He is saving the ♥ 10 for later, in case F is taking a diamond trick which he (D) will want to put a valuable card on. F plays the ♣ 9. He is not expecting to win this trick, since m will probably want to trump anyway, but the ♣ 9 is worse than useless – if his partner wins another trump poker trick then F wants to be free to put the ♦ 10 on, and not to be forced to follow suit with the ♣ 9 which is worth no points. M wins with the ♣ K.
Score: M 35 points, Defenders 43.

Trick 6: M leads the ♣ 8 – he makes sure that D’s trump goes on a nice cheap card, and hopes that it is d, not F, who has the outstanding trump so that D will be embarrassed by having to lead diamonds. D wins with the ♣ J, and F decides to play the ♠ 7, since he has been counting the points carefully. If he played the ♦ 10 to the defenders would get to 55 points but would not have much chance of getting any more –he is hoping the ♦ 10 will take a trick.
Score: M 35 points, Defender 45.

Trick 7: D leads the ♦ Q. This brilliant play depends on his having worked out that F and M both have three diamonds (do you see how?). F plays the 9, and M, who rather enjoys having D on lead, plays the 7.
Score: M 35 points, Defenders 48.

Trick 8: If d now plays a small heart then M will throw away his ♦ K, and will the rest of the tricks. D therefore plays his ♥ 10, to force m to trump. F plays the ♠ 8, and M trumps with the ♠ J.
Score: M 47 points, Defenders 48.

Trick 9: M plays the ♦ A, hoping that he has miscounted the points. D plays the ♥ 8, and F follows with the ♦ 8.
Score: Declarer 58 points, Defenders 48.

Trick 10: M plays his last poker card, the ♦ K. D plays his heart, and F wins with the ♦ 10.
Final score: M 58 points, Defenders 62.
So Forehand and Dealer win ‘without one, game two, off four, times 12, loses 48’.