ACES ON BRIDGE

Today’s deal features a loser-on-loser play. Sometimes, this maneuver is not to protect yourself against trump losers, but to preserve an entry.

In four spades, declarer takes the heart lead for fear of a club shift and must play on diamonds immediately. When he leads a diamond from dummy, East echoes to show an even number, allowing West to duck the first diamond, win the second, then lead out his two remaining top hearts to try to promote a trump. What is declarer to do on the third round of hearts?

Ruffing high would be too extravagant. Now it would be impossible to draw trumps and reach the diamonds. If declarer tries to cash the diamonds before drawing trumps, West will ruff in, and dummy is dead.

Alternatively, South might try to ruff the third heart low.That is thriftier, but not good enough: East overruffs and returns a top club.

Again, declarer cannot draw trumps and cash the diamonds — after two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, West still has a third trump with which to ruff a diamond, leaving

South with an eventual club loser.

The winning play is counterintuitive: Pitch a club on the third round of hearts, saving dummy’s trumps for when they are needed. This is the defenders’ third trick, but a club or trump shift now clearly achieves nothing, and if West leads a fourth heart, declarer ruffs it in hand. Either way, he can now draw trumps ending in dummy, then cash the diamonds to pitch his club losers.

ANSWER: Bid two hearts. Do not hesitate to make wide-ranging jump overcalls opposite a passed partner. Whenever you cannot imagine taking a game on raw power, it can pay to jump and consume bidding space. This is probably not your hand, but keeping the opponents from bidding spades comfortably is a good idea. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at

bobbywolff@mindspring.com