Bridge Theory for the Practitioners

Amit Chakrabarti

	46.		Meek Rules: The Power of Under-ruffing

Under-ruffing can be effective for both defense and the declarer. For defense, the effectiveness of under -ruffing is prominent when you have a discard problem. If you discard from any other suits, you do not do very well. So you discard your small trump. Another situation where under-ruffing for defense might work well is when you are trying to avoid being end played. For declarer, under-ruffing can be most effective when you are trying to set up a trump end play (sometimes this play is called a trump coup; but they are actually different. More on this topic in a later article). Here are a couple of examples:

Example 1. Under-ruffing in Defense (Discard Problem)

The auction goes 

S		W		N		E
	
1N		2H		3D		P
4C		P		5C		all pass.

Dummy: 	95 		7 2 			A K T 9 6  			J T 9 4 
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LHO:											You:

											Q J 7 3 
											T 3 
											Q J 8 3 
											6 5 2
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Partner leads A K of hearts and you echo. He then leads a third heart which declarer ruffs with the Jack of C. Which card do you play? You have a discard problem. To keep your length in both S and D, you discard a small trump --- also known as under-ruffing.

Yes, the under-ruff tells the declarer where the Queen of trump is and he drops it in two rounds. However, he cannot establish an extra trick in either S or D and goes down. The declarer’s hand was:

Declarer:	A K 8 2 			Q 8 6  			7 5  		A K 8 3  
  
Example 2. Under-ruffing by Declarer (as part of a trump end-play)

The auction goes

S		W		N		E

1S		P		4S		P
P               X               all pass.

The lead is A of H.

Dummy: 	T 7 4 2  	7 6 5 4  		3 		A K 8 3   
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LHO:											RHO:

Q J 9 3  	 									----  
A K J 8   										Q 9 3   
Q J 2 											T 8 7 6 5  
T 4 											J 9 6 5 2  
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Declarer/You:	A K 8 6 5 		T 2 			A K 9 4  		Q 7 

You ruff the 3^rd round of H in hand and plan how to handle all four trumps being with West.  Here is what you do next.

Trick 4.		C to the A.
Trick 5.		Ruff the 4^th H.
Trick 6-7.	Cash the A, K of D, pitching a C.
Trick 8.		Ruff a D in dummy.
Trick 9.		This is a critical play. Cash the K of C (never mind the Queen of C.)

These are the 4 cards in LHO, dummy and your hand

Dummy: 	T 7 2  		---  		 ---		 		8    

LHO:										RHO: immaterial

Q J 9 3  	 									 
Nothing else
  		
Declarer:	A K 8  		 --		4  				--

Trick 10. 	Play the C-8 from dummy and ruff with the A of S.
Trick 11.	4 of D from hand. West ruffs with the J and dummy under-ruffs.

West is now end-played and 4S-X making.

References:

Both of these hands are from Guy Leve, “Encyclopedia of card play techniques in Bridge”.