Loser on Loser Play Answers

1. Draw trumps, cash a second club, strip diamonds, ending in dummy, and lead the ♣10, discarding a heart. West, presumably holding the ♣J, will have to break hearts or give you a ruff and a sluff. Either way, you will make your precious overtrick.

2. Ruff the heart lead, draw trumps, ruff another heart, strip clubs, ending in dummy, and lead the ♥Q, discarding a diamond. West, surely holding the ♥A, will have to either lead a diamond or give you a ruff and a sluff. Nicely done!

3. After all we have been through, don’t tell me you trumped this! Discard a spade - a possible loser. Then it is easy enough to draw trumps and take the rest of the tricks. If you ruff the third diamond and East overruffs, you will be at the mercy of the spade finesse, and you know how many finesses work in this class!

4. Once again, you have ten tricks if you can just draw trumps with four pulls. In order to do that, discard clubs on the second and third round of hearts. If a fourth heart is continued, ruff in dummy, and there should be no further problem. The hand becomes very awkward if you trump either the second or third round of hearts and one opponent has four spades. The clubs are losers in any case. By voiding dummy in the force suit, you have avoided taking the force (trumping) in the long hand.

5. Draw trumps and ruff a spade. Next, test the diamonds to see if they divide. Once you discover that West has four diamonds, lead a fourth diamond and discard a heart. West is endplayed and is your partner ever impressed!

6. Win the ♦A, draw trumps, and play the ♣A, ♣K and ♣J. If East wins, your problems are over. If East plays low, discard the ♦J. If West wins, you have two more good clubs in dummy upon which you can discard two hearts.