Ruff (cards)
This article concerns trick taking card games games (eg contract bridge). The Contract bridge glossary may be a 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.
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 card game of contract bridge, when the 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 |
| ♥ | A854 |
| ♦ | AK2 |
| ♣ | A64 |
N | |
| ♠ | Q10853 |
| ♥ | 6 |
| ♦ | 954 |
| ♣ | J853 |
South 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 off the trumps after they regain the lead in clubs. The solution is to ruff hearts in hand instead – in trick two, South 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.
Trump promotion (or uppercut)
Trump promotion is a technique in partnership whist type games (eg contract bridge) where one side creates an otherwise non-existing, trump trick for themselves by ruffing with the right card at the right moment.
Simple ruffing example
Template:BridgeHand
A common type of trump promotion occurs when one player (normally a defender in bridge) plays a side suit through, in which both LHO and partner are void:
Spades are trump. If South (declarer) was on lead, he could draw trumps and claim the rest of tricks; however, with East on lead, when he leads a diamond, South has two unfavorable choices: if he ruffs low, West will over ruff. If he ruffs high (with an honor), West's spade jack will become a trick.
In practice this situation can arise either through deliberation (in this example by East) or through poor play (in this example by North).
Refusal to ruff example
| ♠ | AQJ9 | ||
| ♥ | - | ||
| ♦ | Q | ||
| ♣ | K | ||
N |
♠ | K104 | |
| ♥ | - | ||
| ♦ | 8 | ||
| ♣ | 4 | ||
Sometimes, a player (normally a defender in bridge) can get a trump promotion by refusing to overruff:
Spades are trump, and hearts are led by South or West; knowing that East is void, North must ruff high (with the queen or jack). If East overrufs with the king, that will be the last trick for E/W. However, discarding a minor suit card, East will come into possession of two trump tricks -- the king (to be expected on the lie of the cards) and the ten.
"Coup en passant"
A similar but more subtle technique used by declarer is coup en passant. Coup en passant is a type of coup in contract bridge where trump trick(s) are "stolen" by finessing past the player who has the master trump(s), before potentially ruffing with a lower trump. Main article.