AUDREY GRANT'S BETTER BRIDGE MAGAZINE September / October 2021 | Page 4

BY DAVID LINDOP

PLAY OF THE HAND

BY DAVID LINDOP

The Crossruff

Suppose we are in a spade contract and after five tricks have been played , these are the remaining cards and we are on lead :
♠�Q 10 8 7
♥ —
♦ 8 6 3 2
♣ — ♠�6 4 3 2 n ♠�5 ♥ Q 10 8 3 w e ♥ J 5 2
♦ — s ♦ Q 10 9 7
♣ —
♣ —
♠�A K J 9
♥ 9 7 6 4
♦ —
♣ — If we simply draw the outstanding trumps , it will take four rounds and we will be left with four losers at the end . Instead , we can “ crossruff ” by leading a heart loser and ruffing in dummy , leading a diamond from dummy and ruffing in our hand , and so on . Playing this way , we ’ ll take eight tricks rather than four .
This is the basic idea of a crossruff . We score our trumps separately by ruffing in dummy and ruffing in our hand . Of course , the conditions will rarely be this straightforward . If one of the opponents were on lead , for example , they could lead a trump and spoil our plan – holding us to seven tricks . It ’ s also nice to be holding all the high trumps . When we lead a diamond from dummy and ruff , West can ’ t overruff with a higher trump .
So , crossruffing can be a good idea , but we still need to go through the planning process before we start to verify it is the best approach and to make sure we do things in the right order .
2 AUDREY GRANT ’ S BETTER BRIDGE | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2021
PARTIAL CROSSRUFF
Quite frequently , we don ’ t need an
entire crossruff . We can afford to
draw some of the opponents ’ trumps
beforehand to reduce the chance of
being overruffed .
Consider this deal where we reach
4♥ after this auction :
WEST NORTH
EAST
SOUTH
1NT
Pass
2♣
Pass
2♥
Pass
4♥
All Pass
West leads the ♣K . What ’ s our plan ?
♠�A
K 6 4
K 7 5 3
8 5
8 6 3
4♥
♠�J
9 n
Q 10 8 w e
Q 10 6 3 2 s
K Q J
♠�8
5
A 6 4 2
A K 7 4
A 7 2
♠�Q
10 7 3 2
J 9
J 9
10 9 5 4
Assuming the five missing hearts are divided 3-2 , we have one heart loser , two diamond losers , and two club losers . We can ’ t do anything about the heart and club losers , so we plan to ruff both diamond losers in dummy . However , there are some problems .
If we don ’ t draw any trumps before ruffing the diamond losers , we might get overruffed – as on the actual deal – and have to lose more than one heart trick . If we do draw some trumps , we ’ ll need a way to get back to our hand after ruffing a diamond , so we ’ ll have to accomplish that by ruffing a spade . In effect , we can plan to finish with a crossruff .
After winning the ♣A , we draw exactly two rounds of trumps with the ♥A and ♥K , leaving the last trump – West ’ s ♥Q – outstanding . Now we start our crossruff . We take the ♦A-K and ruff a diamond loser in dummy . Since East is out of trumps , East can ’ t overruff . To get back to our hand , we take the ♠A-K and ruff a spade . It turns out West can overruff , but it ’ s with the ♥Q , a trick we had to lose anyway . West can take the two club winners , but that ’ s all . We can finish our crossruff , ruffing our last diamond loser with dummy ’ s last trump and ruffing dummy ’ s remaining spade with our last trump . 4♥ bid and made , losing only one heart and two clubs .
TAKE SIDE SUIT WINNERS EARLY On this next deal , we reach 6♦�and West leads the ♥Q . What ’ s our plan ?
♠�10
♥ K 8 3 2 6♦
♦ K 10 9 4
♣ J 9 7 4 ♠�Q 8 5 4 n ♠�K 9 2 ♥ Q J 10 4 w e ♥ 9 7
♦ 6 s ♦ 8 7 3 2
♣ Q 8 5 3
♣ K 10 6 2
♠�A J 7 6 3
♥ A 6 5
♦ A Q J 5
♣ A
If we consider the plan from the perspective of losers , we have four spade losers and one heart loser – four too many . When considering a crossruff , it is often easier to think in terms of winners . We have one spade winner , two heart winners , and one club winner . Four tricks . If we can ruff four spades in dummy and clubs in our hand , we can get eight trump tricks , for a total of twelve .
So the plan is to ruff all our spade losers in dummy and use club ruffs to get back to our hand . There ’ s a danger , however . If we don ’ t take our heart winners early , one of the defenders – East on the actual deal – may be able to discard hearts while we are crossruffing . Now , East can