Dummy Type 3: Ruffing Dummy and How to Counter It

In the declarer play section there is an article titled " Pattern recognition #1 RSID ", Ruff stuff in dummy. This article  is about identifying that same type of dummy (ruffing dummy),  but this time from defenders point of view. In several ways it echoes the same concepts, and its a good idea to read that short article as well as this one. 

Lets look at the Key characteristics of this type of dummy

1. Dummy will have some trumps and a shortage. 

2. Dummy will generally be weak and not have much potential to set up suits. 

*A brief note. Often dummys can be a mix of two or more types. Sometimes it can be a combination of ruffing dummy plus a trick source dummy. I'll tackle that in future articles, but it doesn't really change anything. It is still the same ideas that run throughout. 

lets look at some examples

This is from recent play

Partner led the  ♥10

You win the lead and now what? Look at dummy, its close to useless, it can really only be useful in one way - ruffing one of declarer's diamond losers. A trump return at trick two looks very sensible. 

I'm deliberately not showing the full hand, because its better to look at it single dummy and get used to recognising that dummy type. Bridge becomes so much easier when our "heuristics" are sharp (heuristics is more or less a fancy word for pattern recognition). 

An observation about the previous hand: Its worth noting that the shortage was a doubleton, and dummy only had two trumps. Most people become aware that declarer might ruff when they see a singleton in dummy, but its good to recognise that possibility when we see a doubleton as well.

Lets continue with a fairly typical example.

Defending 4S, Partner leads the  ♦3 (playing third highest leads).

Starting to get it? Dummy's long suit is fairly useless. Its not strong enough to set up. Such a suit could be set up, even if declarer only had a singleton diamond, but it would require many entries to dummy to set it up and then another entry to get back to dummy and enjoy it. Overall, such a plan is not in the picture. Its clearly a hand where declarer intends to utilise dummy by taking ruffs. A trump at trick two looks very sensible. 

Lets move onto similar themes in the final example

You lead the ♣A and see this dummy, what is your next move?

A trump return is what you want to do, but it looks difficult to lead away from your KJ. In fact a spade return is the best return, the full hand is as follows.

It might look lucky that partner happened to have the Ace of spades (Queen of spades would have been fine also). But even if partner had no spade honours, its still okay because you are cutting down declarers diamond ruffs by playing trumps twice, once now and once when you get on lead with the diamond.

Overall, when you are focused on the defensive idea of reducing declarer's ruffing power, you may find good plays where you did not before. So any time dummy looks like it will mainly be useful for ruffing, think of playing a trump. It will be correct far more often than not. 

Where to next

• -> Next: Dummy Type 4: Passive Dummy and Active Defence
• -> Related: Defence Basics: Build a Plan at Trick One
• -> Back to Defence Articles Hub