LOSER ON LOSER
Discarding a losing card in one suit on a losing card in another is a fundamental part of Declarer play.
The concept is simple.
A Defender is winning a trick and you discard a card that must be lost from another suit on it.
There are a number of occasions when you may choose to do this but the main reason is to either change two losers into one or to avoid allowing one loser become two.
A quite common situation
The contract is 4 Hearts by South.
West leads the King of Diamonds and East overtakes with the Ace knowing that his partner has the Queen, and plays his second Diamond back which West wins.
When West plays a third top Diamond, if Declarer ruffs in Dummy East will over ruff and eventually South will lose a Club and go one off.Of course South cannot see Easts hand and there is a possibility that they have a third Diamond.
But there is no need to take a chance.Remember South has a losing Club trick.
To ensure the contract South throws a losing Club from Dummy on the third Diamond and later ruffs the third Club from hand in Dummy. It doesnt matter what East does,follow, ruff or discard, South can now only lose three Diamonds
South has played a Losing Club on the Losing Diamond
| ♠ A10832 | ||||||||
| ♥ 543 | ||||||||
| ♦ 106 | ||||||||
| ♠ K7 | ♣ K74 | ♠ QJ965 | ||||||
| ♥ 105 | ♥ 76 | |||||||
| ♦ KQJ954 | ♦ A2 | |||||||
| ♣J63 | ♠ 4 | ♣ Q1082 | ||||||
| ♥ AKQJ98 | ||||||||
| ♦ 873 | ||||||||
| ♣ A95 | ||||||||
Spoiling the Defenders Plan
After West opened 1 Heart South finishes in 4 Spades.
West leads the King of Clubs and East signals with the Nine.
West switches to the 2 of Diamonds, which is won in Dummy by the Jack.
South realises that this must be a singleton.If West has the Ace of Spades he will put is Partner in with the Ace of Clubs and get a Diamond ruff. If East has the Ace of Spades he will rise with it and give West a ruff and then they will cash the setting Club trick.
There is only one chance. As long as West has the Ace of Hearts, highly likely on the bidding, Declarer must play the King of Hearts from Dummy and, as long as East doesn't cover, throw the losing Club on it.If East has the Ace of Hearts there is nothing to be done.
But if West has it he cannot put his Partner in and Declarer can only lose one Spade, one Heart and one Club.
The Losing Club was discarded on a Losing Heart!
| ♠ 72 | ||||||||
| ♥ K7652 | ||||||||
| ♦ KQJ | ||||||||
| ♠ A85 | ♣ 864 | ♠ 3 | ||||||
| ♥ AJ94 | ♥ Q1083 | |||||||
| ♦ 2 | ♦ 109865 | |||||||
| ♣ KQJ103 | ♠ KQJ10964 | ♣ A92 | ||||||
| ♥ - | ||||||||
| ♦ A743 | ||||||||
| ♣ 75 | ||||||||
Establishing a Side suit
After South opened 1 Heart West overcalled 1 Spade and South duly finished in 4 Hearts.
West leads the King of Spades, East following with the 2, which South ducked. West persisted with the Queen which South won.
In view of West's overcall South was not very confident of making the King of Clubs.
It looks like there are two Clubs, one Diamond and a Spade to lose.
South leads a Heart to Dummy. He can be fairly confident that West has the Jack of Spades so he plays the 10 and throws a small Diamond.
West can cash his Ace of Clubs but that is the end of the Defence,winning only two Spades and the Ace of Clubs. If he doesn't Declarer takes a second round of trumps, plays Ace, King of Diamonds, ruffs a Diamond, returns to Dummy with the third trump and discards both Clubs on the established Diamonds and makes 11 tricks with the loss of only two Spades!
| ♠ 1093 | ||||||||
| ♥ QJ8 | ||||||||
| ♦ AK843 | ||||||||
| ♠ KQJ85 | ♣ 63 | ♠ 762 | ||||||
| ♥ 72 | ♥ 53 | |||||||
| ♦ 97 | ♦ QJ10 | |||||||
| ♣ A987 | ♠ A4 | ♣ QJ1042 | ||||||
| ♥ AK10964 | ||||||||
| ♦ 652 | ||||||||
| ♣ K5 | ||||||||
Finally an example of changing three losers into one!
South is in 5 Diamonds after West had opened 1 Spade and made a jump rebid showing a six card suit
In view of West's bidding it looks like there are likely to be one loser in Spades and two in Hearts.
West leads the Ace of Spades followed by the Queen which South ruffs. He then goes to the Dummy with a trump and ruffs a third Spade to ensure that East will not have any left when his plan moves forward.
After taking out the last trump he then plays Ace of Clubs, King of Clubs and ruffs a Club
The nine of Spades is played from Dummy and the 6 of Hearts discarded.
West is helpless, all he can do is play a Heart into the Ace-Queen or play a Spade to give Declarer a ruff in Dummy whilst the Queen of Hearts is discarded.
Potentially three losers turned into one!!
| ♠ 9852 | ||||||||
| ♥ 742 | ||||||||
| ♦ KQ95 | ||||||||
| ♠ AKQJ104 | ♣ A7 | ♠ J63 | ||||||
| ♥ KJ5 | ♥ 10983 | |||||||
| ♦ 73 | ♦ 4 | |||||||
| ♣ 1065 | ♠ 7 | ♣ QJ842 | ||||||
| ♥ AQ6 | ||||||||
| ♦ AJ10862 | ||||||||
| ♣ K93 | ||||||||
Just try to get the idea into your head and if it looks as if there may be trouble ahead have a think to see whether there are any opportunities like these to avoid it.