Bridge Corner
By Gary Mitchell, Jan 19, 2007

The bidding

East’s double was for take-out. However, when South jumped to game, West decided to pass.

The play

This one is rather simplistic, but it is amazing how many declarers would get this wrong. So, let’s start by counting our losers, which is what we do in a suit contract. We have one Spade loser, two Heart losers (yes, we do), one Diamond loser and one Club loser, for a total of five losers. After determining that you have two too many losers, you need to figure out how to eliminate them. You can see that you can trump two Hearts in dummy. This leads you to realize that you have work to do before you pull trump. The error people make is in the counting of their losers. They count three losers, so proceed to pull trump. Then they realize much later that they no longer have sufficient trump in dummy to trump two Hearts. Down one. Count your losers correctly, and you will avoid this pitfall.

Questions: gary@smabridge.com 

Lessons: 152-6351.