Long Suit
Definition
A fail suit in which you hold many cards (typically 3+). Long suits are weak on offense because the suit usually gets trumped before your low cards can win — but they can be useful for grinding out tricks once trump is exhausted.
Long Suit in play
A long fail suit of three or more cards is usually a liability on offense, because by the time your low cards could win, an opponent has trumped in. Its value is mostly defensive and positional: in an opponent's hand it is a suit you can lead through them to force out cards. Pickers often bury toward a void rather than sit on a dead long suit.
Example
“Holding K♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ is a "long heart suit" — likely dead weight unless you can avoid leading it.”
Learn more
Related Terms
Short Suit
A fail suit in which you hold only one or two cards. Short suits are valuable: leading them creates a void quickly, and being short to a strong opponent (right-side seat) forces them to commit high cards early.
Long Thru, Short To
A core position maxim: lead a fail suit your opponent is long in when you sit to their left ("through" the picker), and lead a suit they are short in when you sit to their right ("to" the picker). The goal is to force them to play their best card from an awkward seat.
Fail (Fail Suit)
Any suit that is not trump. In Sheepshead, Clubs, Spades, and Hearts (without their Queens and Jacks) are fail suits.
Void
Having no cards in a particular suit. Being void in a fail suit is valuable because you can trump in when it's led.