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Not so “useless” after all.

A hopeful but not outlandish slam which seems to depend on one of two finesses working. That’s 75%, reasonable odds and let’s face it, you would claim that you are due to have a few successful finesses to balance out those that failed. (It’s called “selective memory”!)

Yet, the play may be a little trickier than it first appears.

 

Well, you jumped there. You had better make at least 12 tricks!

1NT was 15-17,2 a transfer and 2was natural and committed the partnership to game. 4 was thus minimum but you decided your void might come in handy.

West leads 3 and East follows to trick 1 with 2. Plan the play.

Great trumps and a reasonable side suit albeit requiring a finesse. However, the minor suits are not so flash. Clubs can provide a couple of tricks and ruffing losers in dummy appeals though do not expect any help from those useless diamonds. Somewhere along the line, you are allowed to lose a trick, perhaps one of those losing finesses.

So, you could win in hand and take the club finesse: it works! Return to the South hand with a trump and ruff a club but no king appears. So, back to the South hand with a heart to …? The heart finesse works as well as you insert the J. There are now 2 lines you could take. Ruff your last club or just draw trumps and lose the club. Alas, both lines failed!

 

Just losing the club failed when West held as many trumps as South and the heart suit was not as friendly as you had anticipated. Ruffing the last club trapped declarer in dummy, forcing them either to ruff a diamond or lay down the A which West could ruff, still leaving South with a heart loser.

Back to the drawing board

So, what should South have done? As is so often the case, the wrong decision was made at trick 1. The problem with the North-South hands was one of communication. It was awkward to find entries back to the South hand after playing and ruffing clubs. It was more straightforward finding entries back to the North hand. Yes, a dummy reversal! Our ruffing would be of that apparently useless diamond suit! Watch!

Dummy Reversal

Win the first spade in dummy and ruff a diamond. Now, a club to the queen and ruff a second diamond (K) and back to the A and ruff a third diamond. Back then to the A and draw all West’s trumps. North has still that losing K and the contract appears to depend on the location of the Q but this is the situation before the second round of trumps is played:

 

East can throw their low diamond and their club on the first two rounds of spades…but on the last spade? A is a true give-away and a heart allows for not just a successful finesse but sets up the suit so that there is no losing trick for declarer…making an overtrick!

Now, we were not really interested in making an overtrick initially but it's worth having and is quite an impressive achievement with the above cards. Note that this line relies on successful finesses or at least one of them in much the same way as setting up the South hand did. Had the club finesse lost and a second round of trumps been played, you might have had to change course. Had the trump break been more friendly, and a club been lost, the heart finesse might have had to be taken earlier…and there was always the chance when you led the first diamond away from dummy that East might put up their ace.

So, if you seem to be in a slightly awkward contract, do not lose sight of the fact that it could be your dummy hand which you will establish rather than yours, declarer's. The defence often lead the suit which you need to ruff in your own hand but as you see here, not always.

Keep a long-distance eye on dummy when it first appears….and sometimes long “useless” suits may be more useful than you think.

A Nice Little Hand

 

This is a question of Hand Evaluation and to a lesser extent system. We will assume 1 promises at least 5 spades..and we are playing Teams. What would you bid?

Richard Solomon

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