Goren On Bridge: Disappearing loser

North cue bid four diamonds as a mild slam try, but South wasn’t interested. In fact, even four spades is a poor contract because the North and South hands are “mirrored” with the same distribution. There appear to be four certain losers - two hearts, one diamond, and one club.

South won the opening diamond lead with dummy’s ace and led a low trump to his ace. He was surprised when East showed out, not to mention disappointed. He now had five losers. South went deep into his personal think tank and he came up with a plan that offered some hope. West was known to hold three spades and, presumably, seven diamonds. Should his remaining three cards be exactly one heart and two clubs, there was a chance.

Declarer cashed the king of spades, the ace and king of clubs, and the ace of hearts, pleased to see West follow suit to everything. South now exited with the jack of diamonds to West’s queen. West cashed the high trump and then had to play diamonds. On the first diamond, South didn’t ruff, but rather discarded a heart from dummy and a club from his hand. On the next diamond, dummy shed another heart as declarer ruffed in his hand. South now had a crossruff for the rest of the tricks, and five losers had magically turned into three!

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