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Less of a guess: No finesse!

If one had a choice of a slam that needed no finesses to succeed or one which needed one out of two, only a true masochist would choose the latter. However, on the board below, several declarers were either unaware of their club fit or chose to play in 6NT. What made 6NT even more tenuous was that one of the finesses was a dreaded two- way finesse and if you did not want to guess which way to take it, then there was a finesse in a third suit you could take instead..and that was a simple one-way finesse!

 

The above is one way of reaching the better slam after a 15-17 1NT opening. 3 was game-forcing with long clubs and a 4- card heart suit. South liked their controls especially in clubs. 4 was Roman Key Card, the response showing 0 or 3 key cards. 4 asked for the Q and the reply said “yes” but no outside kings, the latter being no surprise to North who held them all!

With a spade and a heart disappearing on AQ, all a declarer would have to do is ruff a heart in the South hand and give up a trick to the K, perhaps in reverse order.

Yet, most who played slam reached 6NT, South receiving a diamond lead. When the club finesse works, South has 12 tricks on top (apart from a 4-1 or 5-0 club break). However, when the finesse failed as it did, South needs a successful finesse in one of the major suits.

Some were successful; others not. Those who failed did not explore all options. Let’s say after the Q lost to West’s K, West exited a second club with East following low. One option would be for South to play J looking for a cover but no queen appeared. So, win A and play a club to the ace. These were the four hands:

One could abandon the heart finesse and throw two hearts on the AQ. That produced an interesting heart discard from East. When South next played a heart to K and cashed J, they knew that West had started with 6 diamonds, 3 clubs and at least 2 hearts. The odds were firmly in favour of East holding Q.

Howick’s Faisal Alam went one step further. He received a diamond lead, lost the club finesse and received a second diamond from West (a somewhat fortunate exit). Faisal discarded a spade from dummy. Next came 4 more rounds of clubs on which West discarded a heart and a diamond and East 2 spades and a heart. Faisal cashed A and these cards remained:

 

Faisal played K and then J with East playing low. He won the trick with A and played Q discarding J from dummy. East had a very unpalatable choice of discards and when they threw Q, the slam had made.

Certainly, West could have made life harder by keeping a couple of small hearts allowing East to come down to their two queens. However, slam made without a major finesse.

So, there need be no guess as to which of the three finesses to take though life would still have been much easier playing in the club slam. In 6NT, cash all your side-suit tricks if you can before you decide on which finesse to take. Sometimes, as here, the shape of the opponents’ hands makes the finesse one way much more likely to succeed.

Richard Solomon

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