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You were going to lose the trick anyway

A loser on loser play in bridge is a technique where declarer discards a loser rather than ruffing when the opposition have led a suit.

Loser on loser play in bridge

Bidding after a preempt from the opposition

East opens 3, which is a preempt. That shows a 7 card suit and less than opening hand. Many players also preempt with 6 card suits, especially when not vulnerable.

loser on loser in bridge

With the South hand it's much better to overcall 3♠ rather than double. I've only got one suit to show, spades, so I simply bid 3♠ and North raises to 4♠.

Play of the hand in 4♠

West leads the 2, which is going to be a singleton because, remember, East opened 3 showing seven of them.

loser on loser in bridge

The contract seems fairly straightforward at first glance but it could get awkward if East keeps playing diamonds.

I'm going to follow suit here. Sure enough, East plays another diamond and another. What are we going to do?

We could ruff the third round of diamonds, but if we ruff low West is just going to over ruff. I could ruff with the ♠K but that would weaken my trump holding and I'll lose to a spade trick unless the suit breaks 2-2.

So I'm simply going to throw away my heart loser. Notice that I've got a heart loser no matter what I do. I'm always going to lose one heart trick, so I'm going to throw it away now. Now if East plays another diamond and West ruffs I can over ruff in the North hand.

tags:

I'm in Japan this month. It's cold but I've got a hat and the food is delicious. Overall pretty good!
Published:
Heather Templeton
Thanks Graeme for all these learning lessons, big help for me.

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