Ruffing in Defence: Turn Shortness into Tricks
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We are very familiar with one of the central ideas in defence of getting ruffs. Often we lead or switch to singletons for that exact reason.
It takes a little bit more insight to imagine your partner's hand, and help her get a ruff. It should however be in your mind.
Rule: Try look for partner’s singleton.
Example 1. You lead the ♥7, declarer wins the ♥Q in hand, and plays two more top hearts, pitching the ♣K from his hand. You ruff that trick, what next?
It turns out declarer had a singleton club, not so surprising. He also had 6 spades. Can you see what the winning line is? Declarer is 6241. Your partner has a singleton diamond. Play a diamond, then when you win the first round of trumps, play a second diamond, giving partner a ruff.
Example 2
We love leading singletons against suit contracts, but sometimes we can try lead our partner’s singleton.
Take a look at this hand, what do you see?
Partner should have seven hearts. He is also might have three spades, since there isn’t much reason to think the opponents have more than a 9 card fit. That would leave partner with 37(21) shape. In other words, partner has a singleton somewhere. There is reason to expect partner’s singleton to be in diamonds, simply because you have lots of them.
The winning defence on this deal was to lead the Ace of diamonds, give partner a ruff, then win the first trump (obviously) and give partner a second ruff. That’s two Aces and two ruffs, for one off.
Where to next
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