How to eradicate two unavoidable losers

Unlucky Louie and his family attend a church near the bridge club, and Louie serves on the building and grounds committee.

“Didn’t you tell me last year that a squirrel had taken up residence in your church’s kitchen area?” I asked Louie.

“We solved that problem,” he said.

“You hired an exterminator?”

“That wasn’t necessary,” Louie replied. “We trapped the squirrel, baptized him and made him a member of the church. Now he doesn’t show up except on Christmas Eve and maybe Easter Sunday.”

When Louie was declarer at today’s slam, he had a similar problem: how to eradicate two seemingly unavoidable losers.

Against his six spades, West led the queen of hearts, and Louie won with the king and cashed the A-K of trumps. West wasn’t in the Christmas spirit; he threw a diamond. Louie stewed for a while, took his queen of trumps, stewed some more and finally tossed in his cards, conceding a trump and a heart.

“I hold 26 high-card points,” Louie grumbled, “and take a minus score.”

Did Louie give up too easily?

After Louie takes his three high trumps, he cashes the ace of hearts and A-K of clubs, leads a diamond to dummy and ruffs a club. He takes the K-A of diamonds — fortunately, East must follow suit — and leads dummy’s last club at the 12th trick.

East is helpless. If he ruffs, Louie discards his heart loser and wins the last trick with his last trump. If instead East discards, Louie ruffs, and East-West’s heart trick and trump trick fall together at Trick 13.