IN BRIDGE TERMS, WHAT IS LOL?

What do the letters LOL mean to you?

No doubt “laughing out loud,” but now we have a bridge usage. A new book entitled “LOL” has been written by James Marsh Sternberg and Danny Kleinman (AuthorHouse). The letters stand for “loser on loser.” This is when declarer contrives to dump two losers on one trick. It is a play that was easy to overlook until this worthwhile book containing 132 loser-on-loser deals appeared.

In this example, how should South play in three spades after West leads the diamond ace and shifts to the club two? (A good idea is to lead the king from ace-king when you are thinking of switching to a singleton at trick two.)

Did West wonder about overcalling with three no-trump? Maybe, but here that would have been unlucky because the diamond suit would not have generated six winners.

This deal arose during a team-offour match. At the first table, South took the club shift in his hand and tried a sneaky low spade to dummy’s nine. However, West, knowing his partner was void of spades, stepped in with his king, then led the heart nine (top of nothing). East won with his ace and returned a club for his partner to ruff: down one.

North muttered under his breath, “Even the parking attendant knew that club was a singleton.”

At the other table, South realized it. He won trick two with dummy’s club ace and led the diamond queen. Then, when East played low, declarer did not ruff — instead, he made a loser-on-loser play, discarding his heart queen. Now East could never get on lead to deliver the lethal club ruff.