When you’re playing in a suit contract and you’ve seen your dummy, count your probable losers before playing a card. If you see too many losers, find a way to eliminate one of them.
Here’s a test case: Sitting South, with North dealing and North-South vulnerable, you hold:
♠️ A 10 9 5 2
♥️ Q 10
♦️ A J 8
♣️ K 7 6
The bidding proceeds as follows:
North East South West
1♣️ Pass 1♠️ Pass
2NT Pass 3♦️• Pass
3♠️•• Pass 6♠️ All Pass
• New minor forcing, which asks if partner has three spades or four hearts
•• Shows three spades
Opening lead: ♦️3
Now you can see the dummy:
North
♠️ K J 3
♥️ A K 2
♦️ Q 7 4
♣️ A J 3 2
You got a break and won with the ♦️J, but there still may be a loser
in the suit. In addition, you could lose finesses in spades and clubs. Any way to get rid of a loser?
Yes. Cash the ♥️Q, ♥️A, and ♥️K, then discard a diamond from your hand. Suddenly you have no diamond losers. As a result, you only need to win a finesse in spades or clubs to make the slam. That’s a 75% success rate.
Here are the hands:
NORTH
♠️ K J 3
♥️ A K 2
♦️ Q 7 4
♣️ A J 4 2
WEST EAST
♠️ Q 6 4 ♠️ 8 7
♥️J 9 8 3 ♥️ 7 6 5 4
♦️ K 10 5 3 ♦️ 9 6 2
♣️ 10 9 ♣️ Q 7 6 3
SOUTH
♠️ A 10 9 5 2
♥️ Q 10
♦️ A J 8
♣️ K 8 5
As you can see, the spade finesse works, and you’ve got your 12 tricks. What made it possible? The discard of the diamond loser.







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