A Pretty Hand, a lesson for the advanced
This hand was played in a practice team match for Canada Master Point Press Women. This is the ladies team that Master Point Press is sponsoring. They will be representing Canada in Brazil at the World Championships this year.
All of the hands for this match were provided by the coach so many of them had lessons. The one on this hand is a pretty play point. I don’t expect almost any student to be able to figure this one out. It is an advanced point. I have seen this idea in many bridge problems but it does come up from time to time on at the table. I will give you a hint. Think ‘loser on loser”.
| Dummy | ||
| ♠ Q75 | ||
| ♥ KQ83 | ||
| ♦ 654 | ||
| ♣ K32 | ||
| West | East | |
| Declarer | ||
| ♠ J | ||
| ♥ AJ10974 | ||
| ♦ AQ7 | ||
| ♣ A86 |
You are playing in 4♥ and the opening lead is the ♠A. You follow with the ♠J hoping that West will continue with the ♠ K. But West shifts to the ♣ Q. Let’s plan the play. First count losers. One spade, no hearts, possibly two diamonds and a club. That is one too many. How can we get rid of a loser?
If you are an intermediate student you would probably think about the diamond finesse right away. They is a good plan and will work a lot of the time. On some hands that would be your only option. If you are an advanced player or expert you might think of an elimination. Here is how that would work. In fact this play has a cute name – a strip and endplay.
The idea is to strip West of all his trump and spades, the elimination. Then you want to throw him in on the third round of clubs. That is the endplay. West won’t be able to lead a spade or a club (that would give you a ruff-sluff allowing you to ruff in dummy and throw your diamond loser from hand). West will have no hearts left. So he will have to lead a diamond right into your AQ. If you can do all this you don’t care if the diamond finesse is onside.
To achieve this you will have to ruff dummy’s two spades while drawing trump. You might start by winning the club in hand and playing a trump to dummy’s king and ruffing a spade. Now you play another trump to dummy and ruff the ♠Q. If necessary you can draw a third round of trump but on this hand trump break 2-1. This is the story now. Lets look at East-West hand at this point
| Dummy | ||
| ♠ – | ||
| ♥ 83 | ||
| ♦ 654 | ||
| ♣ K3 | ||
| West | East | |
| ♠ K | ♠ 10 | |
| ♥ – | ♥ – | |
| ♦ KJ103 | ♦ 982 | |
| ♣ J7 | ♣ 1095 | |
| Declarer | ||
| ♠ – | ||
| ♥ AJ | ||
| ♦ AQ7 | ||
| ♣ 86 |
If everyone is asleep you can now play a club to the ♣K in dummy. Then you play another club and West will win the ♣J. You will have succeeded in your strip and endplay. But an expert defender can throw their ♣J away to avoid the endplay and that is what happened at the table I watched. When declarer played a club to the ♣K the defender play the ♣J under the ♣K. Now when East won the third round of clubs she was able to play the ♦9 and declarer could not make the hand.
Both sides played the hand very well in expert fashion. But declarer missed something. Can you see a better way to endplay West? Look in the original dummy. Do you see a card that only west can win? if you could strip West from exit cards (the same type of strip we saw) and then play the ♠Q then West would be on lead at the critical time, forced to lead a diamond. You simply lead the ♠Q and throw a loser on it (the ♦7). This hand illustrated both a loser on loser on and endplay. Let’s walk through that. No, I was not expecting you to work this all out. This is a tough play to see even for experts.
At trick two West played the ♣Q. Let’s duck that. Why? We need to eliminate the club suit and we don’t want East to get the lead. Ducking the ♣Q is safe since West will win the trick. Let’s say West continues with a trump. You draw trump ruffing one spade along the way and cash the ♣K and ♣A. You are eliminating all of the exit cards from West. Here goes:
| Dummy | ||
| ♠ Q7 | ||
| ♥ Q83 | ||
| ♦ 654 | ||
| ♣ K3 | ||
| West | East | |
| ♠ K84 | ♠ 10963 | |
| ♥ 6 | ♥ – | |
| ♦ KJ103 | ♦ 982 | |
| ♣ J7 | ♣ 1095 | |
| Declarer | ||
| ♠ – | ||
| ♥ AJ1097 | ||
| ♦ AQ7 | ||
| ♣ A8 |
Here we go. The first three tricks were ♠A, ♣Q and now West played a trump. You win and ruff a spade and play another trump. The trump actually split 2-1 so all our gone. You are now at this point.
| Dummy | ||
| ♠ Q | ||
| ♥ Q8 | ||
| ♦ 654 | ||
| ♣ K3 | ||
| West | East | |
| ♠ K8 | ♠ 109 | |
| ♥ – | ♥ – | |
| ♦ KJ103 | ♦ 982 | |
| ♣ J7 | ♣ 1095 | |
| Declarer | ||
| ♠ – | ||
| ♥ J109 | ||
| ♥ AQ7 | ||
| ♣ A8 |
Can you see what will happen now? A friend of mine in a similar position said something at this point like; “ this is going to be really good.” First you eliminate clubs ending in the dummy.
| Dummy | ||
| ♠ Q | ||
| ♥ Q8 | ||
| ♦ 654 | ||
| ♣ – | ||
| West | East | |
| ♠ K8 | ♠109 | |
| ♥ – | ♥ – | |
| ♦ KJ103 | ♦ 982 | |
| ♣– | ♣ 10 | |
| Declarer | ||
| ♠ – | ||
| ♥J109 | ||
| ♦ AQ7 | ||
| ♣ – |
You have completed the elimination. West has no safe cards to exit. Now it is the critical moment. You play the ♠Q and throw your diamond loser. West has to win the ♠K and he has no choice but to give you your game going trick. If he leads the ♠8 you can ruff in dummy and throw away your ♦Q. If he leads a diamond he is leading right into your AQ.
We can’t all see these plays at the table all the time. But knowing this kind of loser on loser play you can at least look for them. Loser on loser plays are used for many purposes, the strip and endplay is the most complex.