Bridge Lesson 3: Trumps, Ruffing and Overruffing

The trump suit in bridge is the one suit, chosen in the auction, whose cards beat every card of the other three suits. When you cannot follow suit, you may play a trump, and the lowest trump beats even an ace of the suit led.

In lesson 2 we played with no trumps, so only the suit led could win. Most contracts have a trump suit, and it changes the play completely. This lesson shows how.

Each deal is played either in notrump (no trump suit, as in lesson 2) or with one of the four suits as trumps. The bidding decides which, and you will see how in lesson 6. For now, take it as given: "hearts are trumps" means every heart is now a special card.

The rules from lesson 2 do not change. You still must follow suit if you can. The only new rule is about the tricks where a trump appears:

• If no trump is played, the highest card of the suit led wins, as before.
• If one trump is played, it wins the trick.
• If several trumps are played, the highest trump wins.

Trumps can also be led like any other suit. Then everyone must follow with a trump if they have one, and the highest trump wins.

Playing a trump on a trick of another suit is called ruffing (or simply trumping). You can only ruff when you are void, which means you have no cards left in the suit led. You may be void from the start, or you may become void during play once your cards in that suit run out.

Ruffing is optional. When you are void you may ruff, or you may discard a card of another suit, exactly as in notrump. If your partner is already winning the trick, a discard is usually better: there is no point in using a trump to win a trick your side already has.

South is declarer in a heart contract, so hearts are trumps. West leads.

Trick 1. West leads the ♣A. North follows with the ♣2, East with the ♣8 and South with the ♣3, South's only club. Nobody played a trump, so the ace wins.

Trick 2. West leads the ♣K. North plays the ♣4 and East the ♣10. South has no clubs left, so South is void and ruffs with the ♥2, the lowest heart. A two is a tiny card, but it is a trump, so it beats the king. South wins.

Trick 3. South leads the ♠4. West has no spades and decides to ruff with the ♥3. North holds spades, so North must follow suit and plays the ♠K. East follows with the ♠2. A king cannot beat a trump, so West's little ♥3 wins the trick.

Trick 3 shows the limit of the rules: North held spades, so North had to follow suit and could not trump. Now change one thing. Suppose North had no spades. Then North, playing after West, could beat West's three with a higher trump. That is the next idea.

When one player ruffs and a later player in the same trick is also void, the later player may play a higher trump. This is an overruff, and the highest trump on the trick wins.

Say a diamond is led, West is void and ruffs with the ♥3, and North, also void in diamonds, plays the ♥Q. North's queen beats West's three, so North wins. Overruffing works only for a player who plays after the ruffer in that trick, and only when that player is void too.

This is why the order of play matters so much. The player who plays last to a trick has the best view: they see whether a ruff is needed and how high it must be.

Look at West's clubs in the diagram: ♣A K Q 9 7 6. In notrump, once West gets started, every one of those clubs wins a trick, because nobody can beat a club except with a higher club. On this exact deal, if North-South played in notrump, East-West could take nine tricks and leave North-South only four (a computer check of every line of play confirms it).

With hearts as trumps, the picture turns over. West cashes one club, and on the second South ruffs. West's long suit no longer runs, and North-South take nine tricks.

So trumps protect you against the opponents' long suits, and they let you win tricks with small cards. That is why most bridge contracts are played in a suit, usually one where your side holds eight or more cards. A big trump holding means the opponents run out of trumps long before you do.

• Follow suit first. Check your hand before you ruff. Trumping while you still hold the suit led is a revoke.
• Do not ruff partner's winner. If partner's card is already winning, discard instead.
• Ruff low when a low trump wins, and ruff high when an overruff is possible after you.
• Keep count of trumps. You will learn to count the opponents' trumps in lesson 10, and the simplest way to start is to notice every trump that falls.

To get a feel for ruffs, enter any deal in the free BridgeDummy analyzer and compare how many tricks each side takes in notrump and in each suit. It shows all five numbers at once, and you can play the deal card by card to see where the ruffs come from.

Previous: Lesson 2: Tricks and Following Suit. Next: Lesson 4: Declarer and Dummy, where one player plays two hands.