By Phillip Alder

TWO INTO ONE WILL NOT GO

Lawrence Welk said, “I knew nothing of the real life of a musician, but I seemed to see myself standing in front of great crowds of people, playing my accordion.”

Against four hearts, West led the diamond jack. Things looked like smooth sailing to South. He won trick one in hand with the diamond king and cashed his heart ace. However, West’s discard was a rude shock. Suddenly there appeared to be four inescapable losers: one spade, two hearts and one diamond.

Hearing the strains of an accordion in the street outside, South had a clever idea. He led his spade. East won and returned a trump (a diamond is no better). Declarer won with his king, crossed to dummy with a club to the jack, ruffed a spade, played a club to dummy’s queen and ruffed another spade. Now came the diamond ace and the club ace.

South had won nine tricks: two spade ruffs in hand, the heart ace-king, the diamond ace-king and three top clubs. Left in his hand were the heart eight-seven and the diamond four. East had the heart jack-10 and the diamond queen.

Declarer called for dummy’s spade jack. How could East defend? If he discarded, South would ruff for his 10th trick. However, when East ruffed, declarer discarded his diamond loser. He had a trump trick to come.

South had squeezed two losers into one with a loser-on-loser play. The accordion or its close cousin the concertina are good analogies.