Bridge lessons · Lesson 11 of 26
Ruffing in Dummy
Updated 16 October 2026
Ruffing your losers in dummy turns them into extra tricks. Your own long trumps take their tricks anyway, so a ruff in your hand adds nothing, but each ruff with one of dummy's trumps wins a trick your losing cards never could. When you need those ruffs, take them before you draw all the trumps, or dummy may have none left to ruff with.
Which ruffs make extra tricks?
Say you hold five hearts as trumps, the ace, king, queen and two small ones, and dummy holds four. Once the opponents' trumps are gone, your five hearts take five tricks. Dummy's four hearts take none of their own, because they fall on the same tricks as yours.
Now suppose dummy has a single club and you have three small ones. Lose one club, and every later club you lead can be ruffed by dummy. Each of those ruffs is a trick your clubs could never have won, and your five hearts still take their five tricks. Two ruffs in dummy turn five trump tricks into seven.
Ruffing in your own hand, the one with the long trumps, is different. Your five trumps were going to take five tricks anyway. Using one of them to ruff a card from dummy wins a trick, but the same trump would have won a trick later in any case, so the total does not change.
Counting losers
In notrump you count winners. In a suit contract it often helps to count losers too, the tricks the opponents could take. Count them from the hand with the long trumps, usually yours, and look at each suit in turn. Look only at your own cards, the first three at most, and count a loser for each of those rounds that neither you nor dummy can win with a high card. Then compare the total with what the contract allows. Four of a major needs ten tricks, so you can afford three losers and no more.
If you have one loser too many, look for a suit where dummy is shorter than you. Each card you hold there beyond dummy's length can be ruffed in dummy, as long as dummy still has a trump left to do it.
Ruff first, then draw trumps
Every round of trumps you lead takes one of dummy's trumps too, and that is how dummy runs out before the ruffs are taken. So when you need ruffs in dummy, count how many trumps dummy must keep, take the ruffs, and only then draw the trumps that are still out. Keep a way back to your hand between ruffs, since each ruff leaves you in dummy.
You are South in 4♥. Count your losers, then watch the clubs.
South opens 1♥. North has four trumps, 8 points and a singleton club that dummy can ruff with, enough to invite game with 3♥, and South, with 16 and more than a minimum, accepts with 4♥. West leads the ♦Q. Count your losers: one spade, no hearts, no diamonds and three clubs, four in all and one more than you can afford.
The habit to keep
In a suit contract, count your losers from the hand with the long trumps. If there are too many, look for a suit where dummy is short and plan the ruffs there. Take them before you draw all the trumps, and keep an entry back to your hand for each one. Ruffs in your own long trump hand do not add tricks, so there is no reason to aim for them.
For another way to count a hand by its losers, see losing trick count. For the whole flow of a deal, see how to play bridge.
Practice: ruffing in dummy
Eight quick questions on what you just read.