Ruff (cards)

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This article concerns trick taking card games (eg contract bridge). The Contract bridge glossary may be useful for unfamiliar words.

In trick-taking games, to ruff means to play a trump card to a trick (other than when trumps were led). According to the rules of most games, you must have no cards left in the suit led in order to ruff. Since the other players are constrained to follow suit if they can, even a low trump can win a trick. In some games, like Pinochle and Preferans, the player who cannot follow suit is required to ruff. In others, like Bridge and Whist, he may instead discard (play any card in any other suit). Normally, ruffing will win a trick. But it is also possible that a subsequent player will overruff (play a higher trump). This is not always a bad thing—see uppercut below.

Contents

1 Usage of the word \"ruff\"
2 Basic ruff

2.1 Bridge strategies

3 Crossruff

3.1 Bridge example
3.2 Risks
3.3 Example bridge strategies

4 Dummy reversal

4.1 Indicators
4.2 Example

5 Ruff and discard
6 Subtle uses of ruffing techniques in whist type games

6.1 Ruffing finesse
6.2 Trump promotion
6.3 Uppercut
6.4 Trump coup
6.5 Coup en passant
6.6 Trump squeeze

7 Further reading

Usage of the word \"ruff\"

"Ruff" is synonymous with "trump" but traditionally each is used only in certain ways, thus:

Trump suit but not ruff suit.
Hearts are trumps but not Hearts are ruffs.
Playing a trump instead of the suit lead is both trumping and ruffing.
One can "give a ruff" to partner but not "give a trump".
Cross trumping and cross ruffing are both correct.
"Ruff and discard" is common usage but "trump and discard" is not.

Basic ruff

In partnership games such as Contract Bridge, you give a ruff when you lead a card in a suit in which your partner is void, so that he can take the trick with a trump card. With luck, your partner will be able to get the lead back into your hand (by leading a certain suit) so you can give him another ruff. When your partner gets back to you by leading a void suit of yours, it sets up a crossruff (see below).

Bridge strategies

Normal suit play in bridge (as opposed to the play at no trumps) revolves around the trump suit. Usually the declarer and dummy together will have the majority of trumps, as they chose the suit in which to play. Declarer will attempt to draw the opponents' trumps, leaving them with none. Declarer's remaining trumps ensure that the opponents cannot establish long cards, as they will just be trumped.

Although drawing the opponent's trumps is usually to be recommended, there are occasions when other strategies yield more tricks. One is crossruffing — drawing the opponents trumps in this case reduces the number of trumps (and hence tricks) for the crossruff. Another case is when after drawing one or two rounds of trumps the opponents are left with one master trump. In this case drawing it will use two of declarer's trumps for one of the opponents'. Unless entry problems are feared, it is usually better to let the opponents take their trump when they will.

It is important to realize that trumping in the hand with more trumps does not add tricks, as these are long cards which will win anyway. In order to gain tricks by trumping, the ruff has to be taken in the short hand, or enough ruffs must be made in the hand which was originally longer in trumps to make it shorter than the other hand (dummy reversal, see below).

Crossruff

A crossruff is a play where tricks are made by taking alternate ruffs in each hand. In bridge it is used mainly by the declaring side, but can be used by the defenders in some situations.

In order to use a crossruff, each player in the partnership must have shortness in a non-trump suit, accompanied with appropriate length in the opposite hand. Also, each partner must be short in the suit that his partner is long in. It is preferable that both players have an equal number of cards in the trump suit, otherwise a regular ruff is usually more effective, as it has the added benefit of establishing the trump suit.

Bridge example

The mechanics of the crossruff are simple. This is an extreme example of crossruff:

♠	AJ8543	W E	♠	Q109762
♥	-		♥	-
♦	-		♦	9876543
♣	9876543		♣	-

West plays the grand slam of 7♠ despite having only 7 high card points. The declarer can draw the outstanding trump king, ruff the diamonds in dummy, going back to the hand by club ruffs. Unless both minor suits are divided 6-0, one of the minor suits will ultimately become high and provide the missing two tricks. In summary, the declarer took one trick by leading a high card (the ace of trumps) and 10 tricks by cross-ruffing; the remaining two tricks came as result of long suit establishment.

Risks

However, there are several risks involved with crossruffing. First of all, when the opponents run out of cards in the suit(s) lead by declarer, they can overruff, that is, play a higher trump card than the declarer's. Also, this play leaves the trump suit unestablished, so the defenders can possibly steal back a trick or two because the declarer used the trumps for ruffing rather than drawing out the opponents' trumps. Therefore, this play is only suggested when other means of gaining tricks, such as establishing the trump suit or traditional ruffing, would fall short. However, this play is preferred over a finesse, especially if only one or two extra tricks are needed, as the risks are rather low unless you take several tricks using this method.

Example bridge strategies

It is often important to cash side-suit winners before commencing a cross-ruff, otherwise the opponents may discard in the side-suit, allowing them to trump the winner later.

In some cases, it is effective to cross-ruff after drawing the opponents trumps, when this can be done with trumps remaining in both hands. In other cases, it is effective to cross-ruff only until one opponent becomes likely to be void in a particular suit, and revert to drawing trumps thereafter.

The basic defense against crossruff is simple: lead trumps whenever possible, removing trumps from both declarer's hands. Often, the defense must lead trumps from the very opening lead in order to prevail. Thus, it is important to recognize the situations when a trump opening lead is called for – usually, they arise when both declarer and dummy have bid other suits but found the trump fit in the third one.

Dummy reversal

Dummy reversal (also known as reverse dummy) is a technique in the contract bridge whereby declarer uses trump cards to ruff from the hand with longer trumps, and retains the trumps in the other hand to draw the opponents' remaining trumps. This technique can be adapted for use in other trick-taking games.

In the "normal" technique, the ruffs are taken from the hand with shorter trumps, retaining trumps in longer hand for control. Since, by rules, the declarer becomes the player which first mentions the trump suit in the bidding, usually the hand with long trumps will be declarer's one – thus the name "reverse dummy", as the normal roles of dummy's and declarer's trumps are reversed.

In strict sense, dummy reversal can be called that only if it yields more tricks than the normal technique.

Indicators

Some indicators that a hand may lend itself to dummy reversal are:

shortness (singleton or void) in declarer's hand (with corresponding length in the same suit in dummy)
loser(s) in declarer's hand that cannot be ruffed or discarded on a side suit
adequate trump strength and length in dummy (typically a three or four card trump suit with at least two honors for drawing the final trumps)
entries to dummy outside of the trump suit

Example

♠	AKJ	W E	♠	Q10853
♥	A854		♥	6
♦	AK2		♦	954
♣	A64		♣	J853

East is in 4♠ and receives a trump lead. There are five trump tricks, three aces and king of diamonds off the top, but there is no tempo to ruff a club in dummy, as the defenders will deprive it of the trumps after they regain the lead in clubs. The solution is to ruff hearts in hand instead – in trick two, East plays ♥A, ruffs a heart, enters the dummy with ♣A, ruffs a heart, enters the dummy with ♦A and ruffs a heart. In this way, the declarer took three ruffs in hand, and still has two trumps in dummy to take care of opponents' trumps.

Ruff and discard

		♠	7
		♥	-
		♦	-
		♣	3
♠	-	N W E S		♠	-
♥	Q 9			♥	-
♦	-			♦	-
♣	-			♣	Q J
		♠	6
		♥	-
		♦	-
		♣	7

A ruff and discard (also known as ruff and slough or ruff and sluff) occurs when a defender in a suit contract, by mistake or because of lack of choice, leads a suit that dummy and declarer are both void in, when dummy and declarer have at least one trump each. This gives declarer the option of discarding a losing card from one hand while playing a trump from the other, usually garnering an additional trick in the process. Thus, the ruff and discard is generally to be avoided by the defenders, except in rare cases where declarer has no side suit loser to discard. It is often inflicted upon the defence via an endplay.

In the position shown, West is on lead and spades are trumps: When West leads a heart, declarer can ruff in one hand and throw a club loser from the other, making both the remaining tricks. With any other player on lead, declarer would only make one trick.

However, if one of N-S hands had a diamond instead of a club, the West's (nor any other player's) play would make no difference: the declarer can always take the remaining two tricks by crossruffing clubs and diamonds.

Similar events can occur in other trick taking games where partnerships exist (eg whist) and occasionally for the defending side in bridge.

Subtle uses of ruffing techniques in whist type games

Ruffing finesse

For more details on this topic, see finesse.

A finesse is an attempt to take a trick with a card, not the highest in the suit, by taking advantage of the lie of the cards. At its simplest a ruffing finesse involves a high seqence (eg KQJ) opposite a void in the same suit. The K is led and partner is prepared to ruff, if the intervening player plays the ace, or discard if the ace is not played. Repetition of this will avoid the loss of a trick to the ace, but it only works when the ace is on the right side (ie 50%)

Trump promotion

For more details on this topic, see Trump promotion.

A technique where one side creates an otherwise non-existing trump trick by ruffing high knowing it will be over-ruffed or, in other situations, by refusing to over-ruff.

Uppercut

For more details on this topic, see Uppercut (bridge).

A play that involves one player ruffing high in the hope that an overruff by an opponent will result in the promotion of a trump card in partner's hand into a winner. This is a type of trump promotion.

Trump coup

For more details on this topic, see Trump coup.

A play that substitutes for a direct finesse in the trump suit because the hand required to lead has no trumps. At the point of execution it is important that the hand being finessed and the next hand only have trumps so that the hand being finessed is forced to trump, allowing the next hand to over-ruff. A trump reduction play is sometimes a necessary precursor to a trump coup.

Coup en passant

For more details on this topic, see Coup en passant.

A play where a trump trick is "stolen" by taking the opportunity to ruff after the player who has the master trump. This is a type of indirect finesse:

Trump squeeze

For more details on this topic, see Trump squeeze.

A play involving a simple squeeze where a side suit presents a menace which can be established by ruffing.