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Ruff (cards)
In trick-taking games, to ruff means to play a trump card to a trick (other than when trumps were led). According to the rules of most games, a player must have no cards left in the suit led in order to ruff. Since the other players are constrained to follow suit if they can, even a low trump can win a trick. In some games, like Pinochle and Preferans, the player who cannot follow suit is required to ruff. In others, like Bridge and Whist, he may instead discard (play any card in any other suit). Normally, ruffing will win a trick. But it is also possible that a subsequent player will overruff (play a higher trump). Historically, ruff meant to "rob" i.e. exchange a card with the stock.
"Ruff" is normally a verb, meaning "to play a trump card when a non-trump suit was led". "To trump" can be used as a synonym of "to ruff", but "ruff" is normally preferred, for clarity. As a noun, "ruff" and "trump" are completely different – "a ruff" means only "an instance of ruffing", while "(a) trump" means only "the suit that outranks all other suits", or "a card in this suit". Hence:
West plays the grand slam of 7♠ despite having only 5 high card points. The declarer can draw the outstanding trump king, ruff the diamonds in dummy, going back to the hand by club ruffs. Unless both minor suits are divided 6-0, one of the minor suits will ultimately become high and provide the missing two tricks. In summary, the declarer took one trick by leading a high card (the ace of trumps) and 10 tricks by cross-ruffing; the remaining two tricks came as result of long suit establishment.
A ruff and discard (also known as ruff and slough or ruff and sluff) occurs when a player leads a suit that neither opponent has – typically in a suit contract, a defender leads a suit in which dummy and declarer are both void and dummy and declarer have at least one trump each. This gives declarer the option of discarding a losing card from one hand while playing a trump from the other, usually garnering an additional trick in the process. Thus, the ruff and discard is generally to be avoided by the defenders, except in rare cases where declarer has no side suit loser to discard. It is often inflicted upon the defence via an endplay.
In the position shown, West is on lead and spades are trumps: When West leads a heart, declarer can ruff in one hand and throw a club loser from the other, making both the remaining tricks. With any other player on lead, declarer would only make one trick.
However, if one of N-S hands had a diamond instead of a club, then West's lead would make no difference: the declarer can always take the remaining two tricks by crossruffing clubs and diamonds.
Similar events can occur in other trick taking games where partnerships exist (e.g. whist) and occasionally for the defending side in bridge.
Dummy reversal (also known as reverse dummy) is a technique in contract bridge whereby declarer uses trump cards to ruff from the hand with more (longer) trumps, and retains the trumps in the other (shorter) hand to draw the opponents' remaining trumps. Normally in play technique, ruffs are taken from the hand with shorter trumps, retaining trumps in the longer hand for control. Declarer, being the first to have bid the suit, usually has more trumps than his partner (the eventual dummy) and so the term "dummy reversal" is used to describe the case where during the play, dummy is made to have more.
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Ruff (cards)
In trick-taking games, to ruff means to play a trump card to a trick (other than when trumps were led). According to the rules of most games, a player must have no cards left in the suit led in order to ruff. Since the other players are constrained to follow suit if they can, even a low trump can win a trick. In some games, like Pinochle and Preferans, the player who cannot follow suit is required to ruff. In others, like Bridge and Whist, he may instead discard (play any card in any other suit). Normally, ruffing will win a trick. But it is also possible that a subsequent player will overruff (play a higher trump). Historically, ruff meant to "rob" i.e. exchange a card with the stock.
"Ruff" is normally a verb, meaning "to play a trump card when a non-trump suit was led". "To trump" can be used as a synonym of "to ruff", but "ruff" is normally preferred, for clarity. As a noun, "ruff" and "trump" are completely different – "a ruff" means only "an instance of ruffing", while "(a) trump" means only "the suit that outranks all other suits", or "a card in this suit". Hence:
West plays the grand slam of 7♠ despite having only 5 high card points. The declarer can draw the outstanding trump king, ruff the diamonds in dummy, going back to the hand by club ruffs. Unless both minor suits are divided 6-0, one of the minor suits will ultimately become high and provide the missing two tricks. In summary, the declarer took one trick by leading a high card (the ace of trumps) and 10 tricks by cross-ruffing; the remaining two tricks came as result of long suit establishment.
A ruff and discard (also known as ruff and slough or ruff and sluff) occurs when a player leads a suit that neither opponent has – typically in a suit contract, a defender leads a suit in which dummy and declarer are both void and dummy and declarer have at least one trump each. This gives declarer the option of discarding a losing card from one hand while playing a trump from the other, usually garnering an additional trick in the process. Thus, the ruff and discard is generally to be avoided by the defenders, except in rare cases where declarer has no side suit loser to discard. It is often inflicted upon the defence via an endplay.
In the position shown, West is on lead and spades are trumps: When West leads a heart, declarer can ruff in one hand and throw a club loser from the other, making both the remaining tricks. With any other player on lead, declarer would only make one trick.
However, if one of N-S hands had a diamond instead of a club, then West's lead would make no difference: the declarer can always take the remaining two tricks by crossruffing clubs and diamonds.
Similar events can occur in other trick taking games where partnerships exist (e.g. whist) and occasionally for the defending side in bridge.
Dummy reversal (also known as reverse dummy) is a technique in contract bridge whereby declarer uses trump cards to ruff from the hand with more (longer) trumps, and retains the trumps in the other (shorter) hand to draw the opponents' remaining trumps. Normally in play technique, ruffs are taken from the hand with shorter trumps, retaining trumps in the longer hand for control. Declarer, being the first to have bid the suit, usually has more trumps than his partner (the eventual dummy) and so the term "dummy reversal" is used to describe the case where during the play, dummy is made to have more.