Eating losers in a trump contract

Craig Brown, an English critic and satirist, said, "Everyone must know by now that the aim of Scrabble is to gain the moral high ground, the loser being the first player to slam the board shut and upset all the letters over the floor."

Once, an opponent of mine almost tore his cards in two when his partner removed a penalty double of a vulnerable four-spade contract (which would have cost 1,400) to five clubs.

More often, though, when we discuss bridge losers, we are talking about tricks that we might concede. Often, our job is to eliminate a loser or two. In this deal, for example, how should South play to make four hearts after West leads the club queen?

Three diamonds was a help-suit game-try, asking North to look at his red suits. Here, North was rightly optimistic. He had two sure tricks, a diamond shortage and four trumps.

When this deal was played in a social game, South won the first trick, drew two rounds of trumps and gave up a diamond trick. But East won and cashed his high heart. The contract could no longer be made.

Declarer started with five losers: one spade, one heart and three diamonds. He had to play to ruff two diamonds in the dummy.

Some variation in this trick sequence is all right, but South should play the ace and another diamond (or duck a diamond). Suppose East wins and shifts to the spade king. Declarer plays low, takes the next spade, cashes his high hearts and the diamond ace, then ruffs a diamond on the board. East overruffs, but declarer trumps the next spade, ruffs his last diamond and claims.