Dummy Reversal

A dummy reversal is a ruffing strategy employed in suit contracts. Normally when a declarer holds a long trump suit in hand, he uses the short trump suit in dummy to ruff losers. A dummy reversal flips this concept around so that declarer's long trumps are used for ruffs, and dummy's suit is used to draw trumps.

		Dummy
		QJT7
		A54
West		J5		East
543		AT73		2
KJ3				Q987
AQ		Declarer		KT963
Q8542		AK986		KJ9
		T62
		8742
		6

South lands in 3. West, holding a motley collection of tenaces, tries a safe trump lead.

South can count 5 trump tricks, 1 heart, and 1 club. Two more tricks must come from ruffs. One line would be to ruff two diamonds in dummy. To do so, South wins the first trick in hand and leads a diamond. West wins the Q and leads another trump. South wins again and plays another diamond. West wins again and leads his last trump. The layout is now:

		Dummy
		Q
		A54
West		--		East
--		AT73		--
KJ3				Q987
--		Declarer		KT
Q8542		98		KJ
		T62
		87
		6

South can only ruff one diamond loser in dummy now, and the contract is defeated.

A better line is a dummy reversal. Instead of ruffing diamonds in dummy, South should ruff clubs in his hand. At trick two, the A is cashed in dummy and a club ruffed in hand. A spade is led back to dummy, and another club is ruffed. The layout would then be:

		Dummy
		T7
		A54
West		J5		East
5		T		--
KJ3				Q987
AQ		Declarer		KT96
Q8		A		--
		T62
		8742
		--

Declarer now crosses to the A and ruffs dummy's last club for his seventh trick. Dummy's remaining spades provide the eight and ninth.