Here comes the 3rd card-play technique that will pay off big: ruffing from the short hand. As the name suggests, it can only be used when playing in a trump suit.
Imagine you have these cards (ignore Clubs, ignore the communications between the two hands) and simply count the number of trump tricks you make in 3 scenarios, with Spades as trump:
Choose how you want to play!
- Scenario A: You ruff the 2 of Hearts with the King of Spades and play trump.
- Scenario B: You ruff the 2 of Diamonds with the Queen of Spades and play trump.
- Scenario C: You play AK of trump then the 2 of Diamonds.
More info: how you want to play
We're talking about choosing a "line of play".
Let's evaluate all this together.
- In scenario A, you make 2 trump tricks (King ruffed, then you combine Ace and Queen).
- In scenario B, you make 3 trump tricks (Queen ruffed, then Ace-King of trump). That's better.
- In scenario C, back to 2 trump tricks.
It's clearly in scenario B that trumps are best used: first, by making the trumps work on the side where they are fewest (North), then by drawing the opponents' trumps. This way, you discard useless cards from North on South's high trumps, instead of having to waste the trumps from that hand.
You have five trumps and dummy has two. You plan to ruff two losers in dummy, with no risk of overruff and with the necessary communications. What happens to this plan if you play two rounds of trump first and dummy follows suit each time?
Section quizGo on, make some ruffs! In the right order and from the right side, please.