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Declarer Play

Ruffing losers

You’ve seen how to identify losers in the long trump hand, now we’re going to move on to look at ways to banish them. Whenever the short trump hand (usually dummy) has shortage in one of the suits that isn’t trumps, you have an opportunity to make extra tricks. Watch the video to find out more, then take the quiz.

Try some hands

Hand 1

Hearts are trumps and your target is ten tricks (4♥ contract). Your opponents are doing their best to cut down your opportunities for ruffing in the short trump hand by leading a trump, but you can still make the extra trick despite their efforts.

 Hand 2

Here, again, your contract is 4♥, so ten tricks to make with hearts as trumps. Think carefully before you play to the first trick about how you plan to get from hand to hand.

 Hand 3

This time, spades are trumps, but again your target is ten tricks (4♠ contract). The robots are not finding the best defence this time, but you should still think about which hand you want the lead to be in.

 Hand 4

Here you are again in 4♠, so ten tricks to make with spades as trumps. This hand is great fun – it’s what we call a cross ruff. I will say no more than that there’s a whole lot of ruffing to be done!
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Ruffing losers

Discover how dummy’s small trumps can become heroes

Question 1/6

Hermia is declarer in 4♠, and Helena has led Q♣. How many losers can she count in the long trump hand (her own hand)?

Hermia has no losers in spades, the trump suit. In hearts, she has two small cards as well as her ace, which are losers because there are no heart winners in dummy to take care of them. None in clubs, because dummy's ace and king will take care of the two small cards. In diamonds, she also has two losers in addition to her ace. So that's two in hearts and two in diamonds - four in total. That’s one more than she can afford.

Let’s just swap Demetrius into the declarer’s seat for a moment. He thinks to himself: ‘I am in a trump contract - I must draw all of the opponents’ trumps as soon as possible. Let’s do it now!’ Is this the best plan?

There was a clue in the fact that it’s a basic brassica making the decision! If Demetrius makes a plan to deal with some of his losers, he will see that he is going to need some of dummy’s trumps to ruff heart losers. The defence have 5 trumps between them. If he is to draw all five, he will need to play at least three rounds of spades, leaving no trumps in the dummy.

Hermia, the brightest of beans, is back in charge, and making a plan for the play. She spots the heart shortage in dummy, and recognises the potential for ruffing losers in that suit, and making extra tricks. Can she afford to draw any trumps at all before she does that?

Hermia has two heart losers that she can trump in dummy after her ace removes dummy's only heart. That means she will need two trumps to do that (she can never ruff any diamond losers in dummy, because there are more diamonds in dummy than in her hand). She can afford to draw one round of trumps and still have enough trumps, but if she does, it would be best to win the first round with one of dummy's honours, so that she is then using a small trump for ruffing (as well as the remaining honour). If she were to draw two rounds of trumps, she could still ruff one heart loser, and would therefore make her contract, but she wants to make all the tricks she can.

We have downgraded Hermia’s hand slightly, swapping her A♦ for the Q♦. and her contract is a less ambitious 2♠. She still has the potential to ruff two heart losers in the dummy, but should she think differently about drawing some trumps first? Hint: Think through the play, trick by trick.

This was quite a tricky question, so well done if you got it right. After Hermia plays A♥ and then ruffs the first heart loser in dummy, she needs to cross back to her hand to play the second heart loser. With the cards she holds in the other suits, there is no way to do this outside the trump suit. So if she does not draw any trumps to start with, she can cross back to her hand in spades, drawing one round of trumps after she has ruffed the first heart loser, and still have a spade in dummy to ruff the second loser. An excellent demonstration of why you need to plan the play!

This time, Hermia is in a very nice 4♥ contract. She has spotted that she will be able to ruff two club losers in the dummy, once she has played A♣ and lost a club trick. Should she draw trumps before making this play?

Hermia would like to ruff two club losers. She will win her ace, then she must lose one club trick before dummy will be out of clubs, at which point she will still have two club losers remaining in her hand. The defence have four trumps between them, so they might all fall in two rounds, leaving the two trumps in dummy needed to ruff the two club losers, but if the defenders’ trumps are split 3-1, she would have used three of dummy’s trumps in drawing them all, and would not then be able to ruff two clubs. So she should test the split first. If one of the defenders shows out of hearts on the first or second round, Hermia can change tack and play clubs before drawing any more trumps.

Here, again, Hermia is in 4♥ and plans to ruff two club losers in the dummy. She also needs to take a finesse in hearts, because she is missing the king. Should she do this before playing clubs?

As Hermia only needs two trumps to ruff her two club losers, she might be tempted to take the finesse in trumps first, especially as she has the opportunity to win the opening trick in the dummy. However, if she truly is the smartest bean in the fridge, she will spot the possibility that if the finesse does not work, and she loses the first round of hearts to the king in Helena's hand, Helena could immediately play a second trump, depriving Hermia of one of those ruffs in dummy. Of course, not all defenders would be sharp enough to do that, but let's believe in the cauliflower. Note, that if you are a defender and you see a short suit in dummy, with declarer not drawing trumps right away, you should play trumps as soon as you can to frustrate their plans!

The links below will take you to Bridge Training, where you can have a go at playing some hands to practice this principle of card play. You won’t need to bid – the trick target and trump suit are displayed in the top left corner, so just have a go and see how many tricks you can make.