Ruff high, low or discard?

During the pandemic I co-presented a monthly Zoom for Ipswich & Kesgrave Club rather grandly called the 'seminar'. It was actually an hour of chat, mainly partnership post mortem, featuring things that we had got wrong or missed opportunities. We drew themes together and a surprisingly frequent one was "defenders' use of trumps". I was recently reminded of this, from late 2020.

Teams, neither side vulnerable.

West
North
East
South
 
Partner
 
You
1
Pass
2
Pass
Pass
2
Pass
Pass
3
Pass
3
All Pass

Partner leads the spade nine, promising the 10, jack or queen.

N
W
E
S

Dummy

  • KQ765
  • 973
  • Q105
  • 72

You

  • J3
  • KQ10
  • AJ93
  • Q653

Declarer plays low from dummy, three, ace. He next leads the diamond eight, partner hopping up with the king, under which you play the nine – intending it as count (even number of diamonds). North interprets this differently, as suit-preference for spades, and continues that suit. Declarer wins the spade king, discarding a diamond and continues the spade queen.

The defence has started badly and you'll need to sort out those signals. Declarer surely has another diamond to discard, how do you play to this trick?

  1. Ruff high – with K or Q?
  2. Ruff low – 10?
  3. Discard?

West bid clubs, presumably as an outside chance of reaching game so has the unseen heart honours together with some clubs. You can't beat this on your own and partner needs to have a good card, say the club ace. The situation when the spade queen is led from East, defenders needing four more tricks, is therefore now,

  • 1084
  • 64
  • 64
  • A94
  • ---
  • AJ852
  • 7
  • KJ108
N
W
E
S
  • Q76
  • 973
  • Q10
  • 72
  • ---
  • KQ10
  • AJ3
  • Q653

Does that help?

Firstly, if you discard a diamond say, so does West, then next leads a club to the ten. With the ability to ruff clubs in dummy, West is in good shape – if North takes club ace and forces with a diamond, declarer can make an unlikely overtrick.

A high ruff, the at-the-table play, fared no better. West threw his last diamond. South played a club, West went wrong, inserting the king, but was still OK. North played a diamond, ruffed, and declarer conceded the club ten to the queen, another diamond from the defence, ruffed, reaching,

  • 108
  • 64
  • ---
  • 9
  • ---
  • AJ8
  • ---
  • J8
N
W
E
S
  • 76
  • 973
  • ---
  • ---
  • ---
  • Q10
  • 3
  • 65

West needed the rest: ruffing a club and taking the trump finesse did just that.

Of the multiple choice above, just the 'low' ruff with the heart ten remains. Declarer seems to have two decent rejoinders; overruffing with the knave and discarding a diamond – at least one of those must be good enough, surely?

Back to the first diagram: when South ruffed high, West lost that trick but discarded a diamond loser, limiting his red-suit losers to one. After the ruff with the ten, West can choose between winning that trick – and losing a diamond and a trump to the king-queen – or throwing a losing diamond then losing a trump to the king-queen. Either way, that's two losers in diamonds and hearts.

In fact, after overruff, ace and another heart, South plays a club and even if West guesses the ten, the defence prevails as there is only one trump in dummy and South's queen is guarded. It's usually right to ruff low – even when it looks wrong.

Published Saturday 13.Apr.2024