Contract Bridge

Assume you have reached six diamonds on the bidding shown, and West leads the four of spades. How would you play the hand?

Though neither you nor your partner has done anything unreasonable in the bidding, the final contract is a poor one, since you appear to have two inescapable spade losers. However, given West’s oneheart overcall and his opening spade lead -- almost surely a singleton -- you actually have a very good chance to bring in the slam!

After taking the ace of spades at trick one, you lead a heart to the ace and ruff a heart. Next you cash the A-K of diamonds and ruff another heart. The A-K of clubs are now played, and a club is ruffed in dummy.

At this point, you have two small spades and two trumps in your hand, while dummy has two spades, a trump and the six of hearts. The stage is now set for what you hope will be a successful denouement.

The heart six is led, and when East, as expected, fails to follow, you discard a spade. West wins the trick but finds himself in a hopeless position. Since he does not have a spade, he must return a heart or a club, allowing you to discard your last spade as you ruff in dummy, and the slam is home.

The maneuver used to make the contract is known as a “loser on loser” play, whereby declarer telescopes two losers into one by discarding one loser on another. Here, the discard of a losing spade on a losing heart has to be timed so that there are no more hearts or clubs in the North-South hands when the six of hearts is lost to West.

The concession of a heart

trick declarer apparently does not have to lose thus pays a huge dividend. In exchange for losing that trick, both of declarer’s spade losers vanish.