Keep this safely in your folder so that you can refer back to it.
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I
fight for my contract
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When you play a contract in a suit you must count the losing tricks that you have in the base hand.
This concerns tricks that you must concede to the opponents because you do not have master cards in dummy on which you can discard losing cards from hand.
For example, if I have 5 3 2 in Spades in hand, but if in dummy I find Ace, King, Queen of Spades, I can say that my three losers are wiped out (we actually say "covered") by dummy's three masters.
If I have:
| in hand: | 5 3 2 | in dummy: | A K 6 | I would count one loser in hand |
| 5 3 2 | in dummy | A 7 4 | I would count two losers |
We distinguish two types of losers:
a) obligatory or inevitable losers, i.e. losers that you must concede without being able to do anything about it; for example, if I have 5 3 2 opposite 9 7 6 and if the opponent attacks this suit I will concede three tricks because he has all the high cards above my highest (the 9);
b) transformable losers, i.e. those that I can transform into winners; we know at least two ways:
| 1. | ||||
| the discard on a master
card of another suit. For example in this deal where I am playing
Spades as trumps and where I possess: |
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 8
4 |
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 K
Q 6 |
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 |
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| A
3 |
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| A
7 |
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I count one loser in Hearts and none in Diamonds in the hand (thanks to the King of Diamonds to cover my 7); but, even if I get a Heart lead I only have to play Diamonds three times (high and short, remember!) and on the Queen, the master card, discard the 3 of Hearts. |
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| 2. | ||||
| trumping
in (as we saw in document
9). |
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| So, the whole problem
before starting a contract in a suit is to think carefully and make
a game plan which involves the following three stages: |
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| · | choose a base hand | |||
| · | count the losing cards in the hand (after seeing if there isn't a master card in dummy to cover them). | |||
| · | sort out the obligatory losers and the transformable losers | |||
| · | study the ways to transform these into winning tricks | |||
| · | Attack the problem immediately of this transformation and don't count on the opponent to resolve it for you or by saying to yourself that "there's no hurry - I'll deal with it later"; backing away from a problem never solves it. | |||
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