July 2018 - 46

Newer Players

Play & Learn
BY PAT HARRINGTON

ppharrr@gmail.com

Fast losers, timing and entries
We learn early to count our losers in
a suit contract. Equally important is
determining whether those losers are
fast losers or slow losers. This knowledge can affect declarer's choice of
which suit to play first.
Dlr: South ♠ 9 7 4 2
Vul: Both ♥ K 5 3
♦QJ6
♣J74
♠AK
♠6
♥ Q J 10 8
♥972
♦9742
♦ A 10 8 5
♣985
♣ Q 10 6 3 2
♠ Q J 10 8 5 3
♥A64
♦K3
♣AK
What is South's plan in 4♠ after
West leads the ♥Q?
We have four losers. The defenders
can cash the ♠A K and ♦A whenever
they get the lead, so these are fast losers. The heart loser is slow for the moment, but slow losers can become fast
losers once declarer's winners in the
suit are gone. West's lead has made the
slow heart loser only one loss of lead
away from becoming a fast loser. One
loser must be eliminated.
Notice the lopsided diamond suit,
with dummy having three cards while
declarer has only two. We can drive
out the ♦A to promote two diamond
tricks. A loser can be discarded on
dummy's third diamond, and that discard must be the heart loser since the
other three losers are unavoidable.
If we play even one trump before

46 Bridge Bulletin July 2018

driving out the ♦A, West gets in to
continue leading hearts, making our
heart loser a fast loser that the defenders can cash when East wins the ♦A.
Our plan is to win the opening lead
and attack diamonds immediately, but
there is one more concern: entries.
Once the ♥K is gone, we have no fast
entry to dummy to reach the third diamond. Following the practice of playing the high card from the short side
first in diamonds will help the situation, but what if East waits until the
second diamond lead to win the ace?
We will need a dummy entry outside of
diamonds. What is it?
We must win the ♥A at trick one
and save the ♥K for that entry so we
can discard our third heart, which has
become a hot-potato fast loser. Only
then can we draw trump.
Dlr: North ♠ Q 8 6 5
Vul: E-W ♥ Q 6 5
♦AK52
♣63
♠A2
♠94
♥K982
♥ 10 7 4 3
♦ Q J 10 9
♦64
♣974
♣AK852
♠ K J 10 7 3
♥AJ
♦873
♣ Q J 10
What is South's plan as declarer in
3♠ after West leads the ♦Q?
We count three fast losers - the
♣A K and ♠A - and two slow losers
- one in each red suit. Again, one loser
must be eliminated.

At first glance, it appears that a heart
finesse is the best solution to make the
contract. If the finesse loses, dummy's
♥Q will become good and we can discard our diamond loser on it. Working
on hearts is a good idea, but the finesse
isn't! If we finesse and lose to West's
♥K, we must unblock our ♥A before
we can discard on dummy's ♥Q. The
defenders will have knocked out both
the ♦A and ♦K, making our diamond
loser fast, and we are left with no way
to get to dummy in time to discard it.
Trying reach dummy with a spade lets
East-West in to cash their diamond
trick.
Look at how much easier reaching
dummy is if we spurn the heart finesse
and promote the ♥Q by simply playing the ♥A followed by the ♥J. Now
that we've unblocked the heart suit,
our second high diamond is the needed
dummy entry to take the discard. Once
that's done, declarer can safely draw
trump. Before taking a finesse, look
for a better alternative. Relying on the
heart finesse gives us a 50% chance to
make 3♠. Simply promoting a heart
trick gives us a much better chance.
Both opponents will hold at least
three hearts about 80% of the time, but
all you have to know is that, lacking
other information, playing for the most
likely split of a suit is better than taking a finesse.
Making a contract often requires us
to work to set up winners in dummy to
provide a place to discard losers. When
doing this work, we have to consider
fast and slow losers, entries and timing.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2018