Playing in a 4-4 Heart Fit

Contract is 6♥
Lead is the A♣

It really helps to understand how to play a hand if you actually play it out. Grab a deck of cards and play along rather than just reading about it. See if you can figure out how to make this contract on your own first.

Dummy
♠KQ8
♥AK53
♦9652
♣J8

Declarer:
♠AJT54
♥QJ72
♦AK4
♣6

So I have arrived in a contract of 6♥.

Dummy is quite nice. Since it is a trump contract I need to count my LOSERS. I can count losers from either hand. Normally I would do the hand with the longest trump but since they both have the same number of trump I think I'll count the losers in my hand since that ♠ suit is so powerful!

♠0 losers
♥0 losers
♦1 loser
♣1 loser

Hmmmm. I have to figure out how to get rid of my losing ♦. Any ideas? Let's see how this plays out.

The opponents start by winning the A♣. Then they switch to a low ♦. I'm not allowed to lose ANY more tricks so I must win my A♦.

Now I take out trump. Luckily they split nicely. One opponent had two trump and the other had three trump. Now what?

Here's what it looks like:
Dummy
♠KQ8
♥K
♦965
♣J

Declarer:
♠AJT54
♥2
♦K4
♣

Any idea how to get rid of that ♦ loser yet? Hmmmm. Let's play a few more tricks.

That ♠ suit is good. How about I play on that suit. I play HIGH CARDS from the SHORT SIDE first. So I start with the K♠, then the Q♠ and finally a low ♠ over to my hand. Here's what I have now:

Dummy
♠
♥K
♦965
♣J

Declarer:
♠JT
♥2
♦K4
♣

Both those ♠ are good in my hand. Plus my K♦ is good since I had the A♦ originally.

So since I am in my hand I get to play my winning ♠. Since the ♠ are winners I can throw away losers from Dummy. I have four losers in Dummy -- the three low ♦ and the low ♣. I can throw TWO of them away. Does it matter which two cards I throw away? If it does, then which two cards do I throw away?

It does matter. It is crucial to my contract to throw the low ♦ away. I CANNOT throw away my low ♣. It is a loser that is true. But I don't need to throw that one away because I can TRUMP it in my hand! That ♣ loser is already being taken care of. Watch what happens when I throw away two low ♦. I come down to this:

Dummy
♠
♥2
♦K4
♣

Declarer:
♠
♥K
♦9
♣J

Now watch what happens to my ♦ loser. It has disappeared! I can play my K♦ and then TRUMP my last ♦ in Dummy. Making 6♥!

Let's see what would have happened if I had thrown away a ♣ instead of a ♦. I would come down to this:

Dummy
♠
♥2
♦K4
♣

Declarer:
♠
♥K
♦96
♣

My K♦ will win a trick BUT I still need to lose a ♦. I did NOT get rid of my loser.

Here are the four hands.

	Dummy ♠KQ8 ♥AK53 ♦9652 ♣J8
LHO ♠73 ♥86 ♦T873 ♣AK543		RHO ♠962 ♥T94 ♦QJ ♣QT972
	Declarer ♠AJT54 ♥QJ72 ♦AK4 ♣6

As a fun experiment try playing the hand in 6♠. How many tricks can you take if ♠ are trump? Why is there a difference in the number of tricks you can take?