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Keep going. This particular topic

 is one of the most important in 

the game.

Ruffing in dummy 

In general, more contracts are played in no-trumps than with a trump suit since 3NT is the cheapest way of making game.

However, if our hand is unbalanced with shortages, there is the great danger that opponents will run lots of tricks in these short suits and we will be unable to stop them. This is when we must be in a trump contract. Experienced players sometimes take risks with shortages and decide to play in no-trumps rather than five clubs or five diamonds but this must carry a health warning.

In the three hands below, it looks very dangerous to be in a no-trump contract, and we would be seeking a suitable trump suit.

In our choice of trumps, we are looking for a suit with a combined total between the two hands of eight cards, at least. This card-count is more important than the high cards in the suit. With eight cards, the remaining five will divide (break) 3:2 most of the time (68%) and we can draw trumps and still have some left for later on. If we only have a combined seven-card trump suit, there will be six cards outstanding and most of the time (48%), they will break 4:2. This is very troublesome in play since you cannot easily draw the opponents trumps and expect to have any left for later on when you may still have short suits that can be attacked.

When playing in a trump contract, as soon as we can, we normally play sufficient rounds of trumps to remove all the opponents trumps. This prevents them from ruffing our high cards in the other suits.

Note the special cases when we delay the drawing of trumps 

Ruffing can clearly occur either in dummy or in declarer's own hand.

When the trumps are 5:3,it is important to realise that extra tricks are generated by trumping in the hand with the three cards (the short hand). Often this needs to be done early.

Equally important is the realisation that trumping in the hand with five trumps (the long hand), does not give extra tricks. Clearly we may do this if the suit is attacked or if we need entries, but these ruffs never constitute extra tricks.

When the trumps are 4:4, the extra trick advantage may come from trumping in either hand, but not both.

Some examples will clarify.

Hearts are trumps and a club is led. Two extra tricks are available through ruffing the spades in dummy if this task is tackled immediately. Drawing trumps first will take away this option and will yield no extra tricks from dummy's small trumps. Note that ruffing the clubs in declarer's hand gives no extra tricks.

Spades are trumps and a diamond is led. You have nine top tricks and two others available through ruffing hearts, the second time with the ace of spades, to avoid an over-ruff. Note that ruffing clubs gives no extra tricks.

In a contract of four hearts, we can afford to draw trumps first as we shall always have two hearts left in dummy to ruff the losing spades.

In a contract of two spades, we have three natural tricks in trumps if they break 3:2. We get one extra by trumping a diamond in dummy or a heart in declarer's hand. We may make both these moves, but the trump suit only yields four tricks in total not five.

This contrast between the value of ruffing in the short hand versus ruffing in the long hand is one of the most important principles in the game. It affects declarer play, the bidding and defence.

Declarer play: We have already laboured the point that ruffing in the short hand gives extra tricks while ruffing in the long hand does not. The associated problem is that setting up a ruff in the long hand often uses up one of dummy's precious entries and perhaps wastes the opportunity of a finesse.

The bidding: We should give extra credit to shortages in the hand with fewer trumps--three points for a void, two for a singleton and one for a doubleton. We should not give extra credit to shortages in the hand with the majority of trumps; this can be a liability rather than an advantage. 

Defence: If it looks as if declarer is taking advantage of a shortage in dummy, the defender's job is to lead trumps, thus reducing dummy's ruffing potential. If declarer is ruffing in her own hand (usually the long hand), you can lead this suit as a defender quite happily. At worst it does no harm, and at best it may embarrass declarer who may find she has insufficient trumps to ruff in and draw the opponents trumps (the forcing defence).        

When you are ready, have a look at these practise hands which encompass concepts from all aspects of declarer play.