Trumps help you maintain control of the hand. Ruffing in the long trump hand reduces your overall control because it shortens your trump length, weakening your ability to draw trumps or maintain control later in the play. As discussed in our Defensive Strategies article, a defender with long trumps will often lead a long suit, hoping to force declarer to ruff and eventually gain control of the hand.
Take a look at these examples and test your ability to maintain control of the hand.
Hand #1
Playing 4♠ in your 5-2 fit with the hands below, the defense begins by cashing 3 high hearts. South ruffs.
- What do you do next and why?
| North ♠ J 6 ♥ 8 5 4 ♦ A 7 5 3 ♣ J 6 4 2 |
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| South ♠ A K Q 7 2 ♥ 10 7 ♦ K 9 ♣ A K 7 3 |
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Play the hand |
Hand #2
Playing 4♠ in your 4-3 fit with the hands below, the defense begins by cashing 2 high hearts.
- Do you ruff?
- If you don’t ruff, East-West will lead another high heart. Do you ruff now?
- Explain why you ruffed or chose not to ruff.
| North ♠ J 6 5 ♥ 8 7 2 ♦ A 6 5 2 ♣ A Q 4 |
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South |
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| Play the hand |
Trump Control
Declarer can lose control of the hand if the defenders have more trumps. A defender with long trumps will often try to force declarer to ruff in the long hand. This strategy is called tapping the declarer. If declarer’s ruffs shorten declarer’s trump holding enough, the defender with the long trump may gain trump control, allowing the defense to cash their winners.
To maintain trump control, declarer should be reluctant to ruff in the long hand. If playing a 7-card fit, the remaining 6 trumps will break 3-3 just 35% of the time. If playing a 4-3 fit, ruffing from the hand with 4 trumps will leave declarer with less trumps than a defender 64.5% of the time. Playing a 5-2 fit, you can generally afford to ruff once in the 5-trump hand because 84% of the time trumps will break 3-3 or 4-2
Hand #1 from Andrew Robson:
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♠J6 ♥854 ♦A753 ♣J642 |
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♠83 ♥KQJ6 ♦QT84 ♣Q95 |
♠T954 ♥A932 ♦J62 ♣T8 |
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♠AKQ72 ♥T7 ♦K9 ♣AK73 |
Andrew Robson’s advice: "You can afford to ruff in the long hand – once. You ruff.
What you cannot now afford to do is draw trumps. You should assume the six missing trumps are splitting 4-2 (as they are), in which case you’ll have no trumps left after drawing them all. When you then lead out ♣AK and a third club to set up your long card, West will win ♣Q and cash a heart. Down one.
You must give up the club whilst dummy still holds trumps – with which to ru a fourth heart. At tricks four, five and six you lead yAK and a third club. West wins ♣ Q but, unable profitably to lead the fourth heart – you’d ru low in dummy [and survive even if East had thrown his fourth heart on the third club and overruffed, as he held the four trumps], may switch to ♦ 4. You now win, draw trumps in four rounds and peacefully enjoy the long club. 10 tricks and game made."
Click here to see Andrew's article.
Hand #2 from Loser on Loser Video Lesson at LoebBridge.Locals.com:
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♠J65 ♥872 ♦A652 ♣AQ4 |
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♠74 ♥AKQ3 ♦QJ94 ♣987 |
♠T982 ♥JT954 ♦K7 ♣T3 |
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♠AKQ3 ♥6 ♦T83 ♣KJ652 |
Andrew Robson’s advice: "You can afford to ruff in the long hand – once. You ruff.
West leads high hearts against South's 4♠ contract. If declarer ruffs, a 3-3 spade break, a 35.5% chance, is needed to make their contract. A Loser on Loser play allows declarer to handle a 4-2 break.
Declarer has 2 diamond losers. Instead of shortening their 4-card spade suit by ruffing, declarer discards a diamond loser on the 2nd and 3rd rounds of hearts. If East-West lead a 4th round of hearts, it can be ruffed in the short hand. When declarer gains the lead, declarer draws trump and claims 10 tricks: 4♠ + 1♦ + 5♣.
