What's the Diffence?

What's the Difference?

What's the difference between leading a side-suit card in a trump contract followed by ruffing it, and leading the trump, sluffing that very same side-suit card? And is it important?

Well, we'll start with the obvious, answering the first question and then move into the not-so-easy-to-answer second question. The difference, of course, is that when you lead a side-suit card to ruff, everyone holding that suit is obliged to play a card from that suit, while if you lead a trump, sluffing that card, those holding trump are obligated to follow suit.

And is it important? Well, yes, on some hands, and no on others. Fr'instance, if you're ruffing out a 5-1 suit in hopes of developing a winner out of the 5th card, on a (hoped-for) 4-3 split of the defensive holding, then of course it makes a big difference that the opposition is obligated to follow suit, allowing you to exhaust their holding if the split is indeed 4-3.

In the other direction, if you have a rather modest 5-3 trump suit, you don't wanna ruff out that suit with trump you'll probably need to keep control of the hand, especially on a 4-1 trump break.

And then there's the third case which I just came across and which prompted me to take up this topic, and that's where declarer has a long and powerful trump suit and a void in the closed hand and a three-card holding in his void suit in dummy, and he goes to dummy to ruff a card in the three-card holding. It doesn't really matter whether you ruff those cards with that long trump suit or run the long trump suit sluffing cards from that suit.

Oh, yes, qualifications always seem necessary. I should say it probably doesn't matter. If declarer has just used up a valuable entry, then it matters for that reason. He might wish he had that entry later. On the other hand, if declarer has A Q low, low and all the entries he needs, he just might drop a twice-guarded K if he ruffs out the two low cards.

The bottom line is that there might be a difference and declarers would do well to take this difference into account, and hold off from shortening his trump suit or using up entries unless he has a positive reason that he can articulate for doing so. Voluntarily ruffing a side-suit in a long, powerful trump suit doesn't add to your trump winners. Can it add up to a side-suit winner?