With a waving gesture befitting any national flag, South dismissed his one trick set with, "Well, I couldn't do anything about that" (referring to the loss of two diamond finesses).

If only he'd read about the Elimination Play and applied the Five Phases. The magic play might have dawned on him. It will one of these days. Like many concepts we learn, we usually have to see a plan in action before it can become a permanent fixture within the old gray matter.

The Five Phases tell us the following:

1. Either hand could be the master on this one since in either direction, three suits are solid and diamonds are the problem. Holding the A and one fewer diamond loser, the South hand is anointed master.
2. Ditto here. From the Southern perspective, the A is accompanied by one loser too many. Total: 2.
3. Wouldn't it be nice if our ace could capture either missing high honor. We could afford to lose to the other. It would be just as nice if one of our spots (jack, ten, etc.) could steal a trick.
4. The opening lead was of no help at all but no instant harm either.
5. Timing and Transportation is where we find this hand's salvation. Let's plan to concede one diamond, but do so at a time where all of the following will be true:
   1. We will still own the A. In other words, they can't just cash out a second diamond winner the instant they win the first.
   2. They will have no trumps left while we will retain at least one trump on both side of the table.
   3. We will stick the opposition with the lead, but deny them the ability to get safely out of the lead, giving the opposition a type of transportation problem.

By process of elimination (literally), suit by suit, we can envision this plan.

• Draw trumps in one round. (Yes, this is a "Do Hand.")
• Cash three rounds of hearts, ending in dummy.
• Play a small diamond from dummy, planning to cover any honor East offers, otherwise finessing the 10.

Click "next" to see the hand as it looks at trick seven.

West is sunk. If he leads a major, you trump in dummy and discard the master hand's losing diamond. If he leads a diamond, he fulfills one of the improvements we planned for in Phase Three.

Guidelines for the "Elimination and Throw-In"

1. Look for a hand where dummy and declarer's hand are distributed more or less the same.
2. Imagine whether both dummy and declarer will have any extra trump after you've drawn the opponent's trump. If not, you'll have to try something else.
3. Envision which card will force the opponents to win the lead and the critical time; and don't play it prematurely.
4. Decide whether it matters if one opponent or the other gets stuck with the lead. If one of them has an easy return but the other doesn't, this may eliminate the Elimination Play as a candidate.

Statistical Note: In Bridge, we are frequently called upon the go with the odds, meaning that we try to find a play that carries the best percentage of success. When South tried the double finesse, he was employing a strategy that succeeds more often than not; it has a 75% chance of succeeding. Each finesse is 50%. Fifty percent times fifty percent is 25%, meaning that the double finesse will lose us two tricks only 25% of the time. But since we could envision the Elimination Play, we went with a plan that was 100% — a line of play that depends on no lucky breaks at all.