Contract Bridge

In assessing his prospects in a suit contract, declarer usually starts by counting his losers. In most deals this gives him a much better picture of his chances than if he tries to count his winners. But this is only a rule of thumb, and declarer should always be willing to readjust his sights when the occasion demands it.

Consider this deal where West leads a club against four spades. After dummy plays low, East wins with the king and returns the king of hearts, taken by South with the ace. The only remaining losers seem to be two hearts, but when declarer plays the ace of spades and West shows out, South learns he has a trump loser as well.

The 4-0 division apparently dooms the contract, but if South remains focused, he can still make 10 tricks. He starts by cashing the ace of diamonds, then leads a club to the queen and ruffs a diamond. A club to the ace is followed by another diamond ruff.

Declarer next cashes the K-Q of spades, ending in dummy, at which point he has already won nine tricks — the A-K-Q of trump, a heart, a diamond, two clubs and two diamond ruffs in his hand.

When he now leads dummy’s ten of diamonds, East is stymied. His last three cards are the jack of spades and Q-J of hearts, all theoretically winners, while South’s last three cards are the eight of spades and 6-2 of hearts, all theoretically losers.

If East elects to discard on the diamond ten, South ruffs to score his 10th trick; if East ruffs the diamond, South discards a heart and later scores the spade eight as his 10th trick. Either way, one of declarer’s four losers simply vanishes.