Ruff/Sluff

Just what is a ruff/sluff? A ruff/sluff is when the opponents lead a suit where you can trump (ruff) in one hand while throwing (sluffing) away a loser in the other hand. Obviously in order for this to occur you need to be void in the suit that the opponents lead in both your hand and Dummy.

That doesn't even really make any sense at all. You need to see this in action.

Let's take a simple look at a ruff/sluff

Dummy
♠T6
♥3
♦
♣

Declarer
♠84
♥2
♦
♣

♠ are trump. The opponents have no more trump left. They do however have a good ♥ so my ♥ is not a winner. I need all the rest of the tricks. My RHO is on lead. They lead...a ♣. Now I can make my contract! Do you see how? They gave me a ruff/sluff!

Play it out at home to see this in action.

From my hand I can throw away my losing ♥. Then I can trump it in Dummy. Now I have a trump left in my hand. No losers.

Alternatively I could have trumped in my hand and then from Dummy throw away my losing ♥. Now I have a trump left in Dummy. No losers.

Why would the opponents do this? Why didn't my RHO just play the winning ♥?

There are several reasons why Defenders will give you a ruff/sluff. Perhaps RHO has no more ♥ left. Perhaps they thought it didn't matter. It is more than likely they just made a mistake. They are human just like you are. In any event you need to take advantage of these acts of kindness when you receive them.

Let's see a slightly more complicated example:

Dummy
♠T6
♥A32
♦
♣

Declarer
♠84
♥K54
♦
♣

♠ are trump and the opponents have no more trump left. ♥ have not been played yet. You need the rest of the tricks. Your RHO is on lead and they lead a ♦. What do you do?

That's right. You throw away a ♥ from your hand and trump the ♦ in Dummy. You should have no more losers.

Of course it is equally acceptable to throw away a ♥ from Dummy and trump the ♦ in your hand. You should have no more losers either way.

Okay. Now let's see something similar with a full hand:

Dummy
♠AKT6
♥A32
♦Q53
♣A76

Declarer
♠QJ984
♥K54
♦642
♣K2

You are in a contract of 4♠. Your LHO is on lead. They start with the 7♦ which RHO wins with the J♦. Now RHO plays the A♦ and then a low ♦ to LHO's K♦. They took the first 3 tricks. I cannot afford any more losers. Now LHO is on lead and plays the last ♦. Your play. Think about it and then play it out to see if it works.

So the first thing you need to do is to count your losers. (You should have done this before playing to the first trick but it all went so fast...)

So looking at my hand I will count losers.

♠0 losers
♥1 loser
♦3 losers
♣0 losers

Hmmmm. I've already lost the 3 ♦ tricks. Not much I can do about that. I have to get rid of the ♥ loser. Hmmmmm. I could try to throw it away on a winner...but there are no winners I can throw it away on. Hmmmm.

Maybe that ♦ lead would help? Can I throw away a losing card from Dummy? Let's try that.

Which loser should I throw away? I have a couple of losers in Dummy. A ♥ loser and a ♣ loser. Which one should I throw away? Does it matter?

It does matter. You do have 2 losers in Dummy but you are only concerned about one of them. The ♥ loser. You know what you are going to do with the ♣ loser. You are going to trump it. That is not the one you have to worry about.

So throw away the 2♥ from Dummy and then trump in your hand. You should now have this:

Dummy:
♠AKT6
♥A3
♦
♣A76

Declarer:
♠QJ98
♥K54
♦
♣K2

So looking at my hand I will count losers again.

♠0 losers
♥1 losers
♦-
♣0 losers

It looks like I still have 1 loser but I can trump that loser in Dummy. I should be good to go once I take out trump!

Could I have done this another way? Yes. You could have trumped in Dummy first and thrown away the losing ♥ in your hand.

Since I am trumping Dummy I'd better make sure I trump pretty high. I know my RHO can overtrump me since they also have no ♦ left. So I will trump with the T♠. (or the A♠ to show off a little bit!) From my hand I can throw away the 4♥.

Now I have this:

♠AK6
♥A32
♦
♣A76

Declarer
♠QJ984
♥K5
♦
♣K2

So looking at my hand I will count losers again.

♠0 losers
♥0 losers
♦-
♣0 losers

I should be good to go once I take out trump!