Uh-Oh

	J 9 8 4 2
	5 2
	A 10 9 4
	A 10
10		7 6 5 3
8 3		Q J 10
K Q J 8 6 3 2		7 5
J 3 2		K Q 9 8
	A K Q
	A K 9 7 6 4
	------	Contract: 4 spades
	7 6 5 4	Opening lead: K of diamonds

Declarer won the opening lead with the ace, sluffing a club, drew three rounds of trump, then took two rounds of hearts and ruffed a heart with the 9 (though East had to follow). Uh-oh. Now, let's see. You've got an established heart suit and no way to reach it. Indeed, the opponents couldn't give you the lead if they tried. They have no more hearts and East has no clubs under the 7! You wanna know how to count losers on that line of play? That's easy, because you're now playing a dummy reversal, whether you intended it or not, and the closed hand can do nothing for dummy's losers. So you're going to lose three diamonds and one club for down one.

Declarer must preserve an entry in the form of the last round of spades before touching hearts. You cash two rounds of spades, and if everybody follows, cash two rounds of hearts, and if everybody follows to that you've got a 12-trick hand. Ruff a heart high, come back on a trump lead and with your remaining three hearts sluff three of dummy's four losers. Capiche?

But wait! Spades don't split evenly. Actually, you've got an 11-trick hand even on the bad break, with a crossruff. First, let's do a little counting. If two rounds of hearts are going to fly, then you've got four side-suit winners and are in a ten-trick contract. So you're going to need 6 spade winners. Since you can pick up five by simply leading out trump, it shouldn't be such a task to get one more by ruffing in the short holding. But you can actually ruff twice in the short hand and with the 10 of spades falling short, that gives you seven spade winners, thus:

Ace of diamonds on opening lead, cash the A of clubs, then cash two hearts and lead a third, sluffing dummy's club. You've always got a club loser. If West by chance ruffs with the 10 of spades, that's their last trick, since West can't lead a spade. The same holds if East wins with the Q but fails to lead a spade. But for practical purposes, let's suppose East wins and does lead a spade. Okay. Ruff a club, and when that holds, you're now on a high crossruff. You've taken six tricks (four side-suit winners, one trump lead and one ruff in dummy). And you have five trump left, all high. Ruff a heart, ruff a diamond, ruff a club and ruff a second diamond. You now are out of trump in the closed hand but have only high trump in dummy, losing only the third round of hearts and a diamond at the end. Eleven tricks.

You have all the classic elements of a crossruff there, which I see as three: A goodly supply of the high trump, side-suit winners quickly cashable off the top, and the distribution that allows you to ruff in each hand.

Okay, maybe it slipped the declarer's mind. But how does that play after two trump leads, expecting to play as first outlined above and discovering spades are 4-1? Well, surprisingly enough, you can still make the contract, though not with an overtrick, thus: Cash two spades, noting the break, realizing you can't set up hearts and be in the closed hand with all trump out. So now you cash two hearts and ruff the third round high and ruff a diamond in the closed hand. That's all you needed for 10 tricks, to get one winner in the short trump hand. Your winners are two hearts, one club, one diamond, two trump winners on lead in the short hand, one on a ruff (that's three), the ruff of a heart with the J and the 9 8 remaining. That's six in the all-important trump suit.

Please note that here you can't afford to sluff the losing club on the third round of hearts, for now East could lead a trump, holding you to a pedestrian 5 trump winners. You must ruff that third round of hearts, not to set up hearts, but for an entry to ruff a diamond in the short trump hand. Now the hand falls into your lap. But if you start with the crossruff, now if West ruffs on the third round, that's a gift if you sluff the low club.