The Vanishing Loser By Omar Sharif

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Source: The Dispatch – 2 May 2007

Both vulnerable. South  deals.

Opening lead: K

Be careful about suggesting a line of play when you are given a hand with low cards denoted by an ‘x’. As this hand shows, those spots can be deceiving. The auction was straightforward. Once North raised South’s opening bid, to bid anything less than four spades would have been craven indeed.

West led the king of hearts and continued the suit, banking their two heart tricks and then exiting with a heart, ruffed by declarer. Obviously, the problem was to avoid losing two club tricks.

The solution was simple. Trumps were drawn in three rounds and both diamonds were cashed. Declarer led a club and simply covered any club produced by West. Here, East will win with the ten and any suit returned but a club concedes a ruff-sluff and the contract.

If East returns his low club, declarer simply plays low and, if West shows out, dummy wins cheaply. If East return an honor, declarer plays low from hand. If West follows, the suit is breaking. If West discards. declarer wins on the table and then takes the marked club finesse to limit his losses In the suit to one trick and three tricks in all.