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PLAYING THE CARDS
In this series of articles, we will feature hands played well or where there could be, shall we say, a little room for improvement.
You learn to finesse at an early stage in your bridge career. It is so often the pathway to scoring extra tricks. However, sometimes you have to consider the implications if your finesse fails. (Many, or shall we say, all, players claim that they take many more losing than successful finesses. If this is true, then you had better be aware of the consequences!)
THE WRONG FINESSE
On the following deal, West has the option of taking five maybe even six finesses. Following on from the above comment, if you had to take six, at least 4 would fail! So, let’s minimise the finesse taking if we can. Plan the play in 3NT on the lead of the ♥5.
West East
♠ A92 ♠ QJ64
♥ 98 ♥ AJ104
♦ AQ72 ♦ 3
♣ A1084 ♣ KQ32
Bidding:
West East
1NT (12-14) 2♣
2♦ 3NT
Pass
If you finesse at trick one as you surely must, this will lose to the queen. (See… one finesse down already) South returns ♦10. What now?
Let’s deal with the club finesse first. Unless North discarded on either the first or second rounds of this suit, there is no reason to take that finesse. So, let’s assume a normal club break. We need some tricks. We can see four club tricks, two in spades even if the finesse loses to the king and at least one in each red suit. That’s nearly the nine tricks we need! So, the 9th has to come from either a red suit or maybe the 13th spade or a second spade finesse (low to the 9). We must be mindful of not losing more than 4 tricks, though. So, finesse the heart at trick one. However, the declarer ran into trouble at trick 2.
Dealer West North
All Vul. ♠ K5
♥ K7652
♦ KJ85
♣ 75
West East
♠ A92 ♠ QJ64
♥ 98 ♥ AJ104
♦ AQ72 ♦ 3
♣ A1084 ♣ KQ32
South
♠ 10873
♥ Q3
♦ 10964
♣ J96
South played ♦10 and West decided to finesse. North won the king and played back ♦5 to South’s ♦9, ducked by West. ♦4 went to West’s ace. West now took a second heart finesse (this time successful) and now needed two spade tricks for his contract. Alas, ♠ Q lost to the king and North cashed the ♦J to beat the contract by one trick (3 diamonds and one trick in each major suit).
So, where did West err? By playing the ♦Q. If South had the king, the diamond suit presented no danger to West. Yet, it should not have been a danger suit, even though North held the king.
The key to the hand is that the North hand is a safe hand to finesse into as long as West still holds the ♦Q as a threat. The defence can only take one diamond trick quickly as long as declarer rises at trick two with the ♦A, certainly no finesse.
Win the ♦A at trick two. Cross to dummy with a club to the king and play ♠Q. Had South held the ♠K and played that card, you can win and either play for your ninth trick by taking another heart finesse or by trying to make 3 tricks from the spade suit.
With the spade finesse losing, North plays another low heart and you can either finesse or rise to play a spade to the 9 hoping that South has the ♠10. As you can see, both major suit finesses work (see, sometimes they do!) and you will have 9 tricks without having to worry about diamonds. Had the second heart finesse failed, you would just have had to have some luck in the diamond suit. You will never be worse off than those who took the early diamond finesse….and as you can see above, you may well be much better off.
Rising with the ♦ A at trick 2 was not a 100% line but it was a lot better than an early finesse. Finesse if you must, when you need to and hopefully into a hand that can do less or no damage to you.
Richard Solomon
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