This week I was playing bridge, specifically as dummy in a no-trump contract. With two tricks to go, the lead was in dummy, and my partner said "Play either, they're both losers." Actually she had miscounted, so that one lead would win a trick, and the other would lose both. Law 43 says 'Dummy may not participate in the play, nor may he communicate anything about the play to declarer', so the obvious course of saying "actually, it makes a difference; which do you want?" is specifically forbidden. The same Law says 'dummy should not initiate a call for the Director', but I might have stretched a point and asked the director to choose one of the two at random, had I not been acting as director myself that afternoon.

Does anyone know which card I should have played? Laws or EBU rulings preferred: rulings by other bodies such as ACBL useful as supporting evidence.


From the Laws of Duplicate Bridge, Law 46.B.5,

If declarer indicates a play without designating either a suit or a rank (as by saying “play anything” or words of like meaning), either defender may designate the play from dummy.

  • So that would mean I ask a defender which to play? – Tim Lymington supports Monica Feb 22 '17 at 15:10
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    In this case you should just play the loser. If you play the winner, a defender will call the director, who will come and tell you to play the other one. – ruds Feb 22 '17 at 15:12
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    While a very helpful point to remember in this case, it doesn't tell the dummy player what the dummy player can or should do, just what their opponent is able to do. The answer by J.John is much more applicable; nobody needs to play any cards by the time anybody wonders whether to lead the loser or the winner. – Nij Apr 15 '17 at 22:58

From Law 70.B:

B. Concession Defined

  1. Any statement to the effect that a contestant will lose a specific number of tricks is a concession of those tricks; a claim of some number of tricks is a concession of the remainder, if any. A player concedes all the remaining tricks when he abandons his hand.

Declarer's statement states that regardless of the play, he will lose both tricks. This meets the definition of a concession. Your opponents should have accepted the concession and ended the hand without further play.

As far as what the dummy should do, the best option would be to ask "is that a concession?" as it provides no additional information. Regardless of what you do at this point, the hand should be over.

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    You might note that if no sequence of legal plays can achieve the concession, then declarer should be awarded the number of tricks that is guaranteed to be won by all legal sequences of play. The actual Law is worded more precisely, but that is the gist. An example would be if a Defender who must win Trick 12 is then also required to lead back to Dummy's winner at Trick 13. – Forget I was ever here Sep 5 '17 at 20:36
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    @ForgetIwaseverhere Thanks for the clarification! Yes, if there's no possible way that both of those cards can be losers, then you would award the tricks accordingly (although at that point you might want to internally question your partner choices :) ) In general, assume that the claimer/conceding player makes the worst possible decisions. – J.John Sep 6 '17 at 22:24

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