THE FINESSE – PART II
By Larry Matheny
In the first session
on this topic I showed how to finesse.
Now I’m going to encourage you to look for other options.
When we first learned
to play bridge we discovered the finesse.
This seems to be so much fun that we start taking every finesse in
sight. Eventually we discovered that the
finesse should be our last resort, not our first. Here are some example hands to illustrate.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
West leads the king of
diamonds and you quickly see a diamond loser plus a possible loser in the club
suit. Is there a way to avoid the 50%
club finesse?
There is a play to
ensure the contract. Win the ace of
diamonds and play a heart to your ace followed by a heart ruff in dummy. Then a spade to your hand to draw the trumps
and another heart ruff in dummy. A
second spade to your hand will allow you to ruff your last heart in dummy. Now simply lead a diamond and West is end
played. His choices are to lead a club
or give a ruff and a sluff allowing you to discard your club loser.
This simple elimination play was missed by many of the other declarers. Most weren't in slam but overtricks are
important in pairs events and making only five was a poor result.
This hand illustrates
the theme throughout this lesson: Look for ways to avoid a finesse.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
West leads the ace of
hearts and then shifts to a spade. You have two hearts losers and two possible
club losers. Is there a play that doesn’t rely on the club king being
on-side?
Play another heart at
trick three and West wins and exits with his last trump. Next, play ace,
king, and a third diamond ruffing in your hand. Now ruff your last heart
in dummy and lead the last diamond. When East shows out, you can pitch a
low club from your hand. Poor West wins the diamond but now has to lead a
club into your AQ or give a ruff/sluff. What if East had held the last diamond? You would ruff and fall back on the club
finesse.
You can see there was nothing difficult about this hand. You merely
needed to stop and look at all of your options and select the one with the best
chance of success. Here we found one that was 100%.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You are South declaring a 4
contract. West leads the ten
of hearts and you stop to count your losers. You see a diamond loser, a possible club
loser, and one or two spade losers. It
seems right to lead trumps first so you win the first trick in dummy and a low
spade goes to the king and ace. It’s
going to be two spade losers as West continues with the spade jack. You win the spade queen and take the diamond
finesse. (You can’t avoid them
all!) East wins and exits with heart to your
ace. It looks like you need to find the
queen of clubs on your right but is there a better plan?
Yes, you can try to
eliminate diamonds and force a club lead from West. Lead a diamond to the ace and another back to
your jack. Next, lead your last diamond
and pitch a club from dummy. With the
red suits eliminated, simply play a
third spade to West who now has to lead a club into your hand or provide a
sluff/ruff.
Making four was a
good result because several declarers failed after relying on the club finesse.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
West leads the six of
spades so let’s stop and count our possible losers. That number comes up as three: one heart and
two diamonds. It appears we need the
king of diamonds to be in the West hand or we have to find the queen of
hearts. Can we avoid a guess?
Let’s try another
elimination-endplay. All we have to do
is draw trumps, ruff dummy’s last spade in our hand, and followed by ace and
another diamond. The defenders can cash
a second diamond trick but then must lead a heart or concede a sluff/ruff.
Hmm…maybe finesses
aren’t that good of an idea.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
West leads the king
of clubs against your optimistic slam and you are disappointed to find dummy's
wasted diamond queen. Looking at two
club losers, it seemed you must rely on finding the spade king on your left. Is there no other possibility?
With our recent
experience, let’s put the spade finesse off for a bit. Duck the first club and win the second
round. East discouraged in clubs so it’s
clear West also holds the club jack. Next, play your seven trumps and two diamonds
to come down to a two-card ending. Now
when you lead the jack of spades and West follows with a small one, you know West's
other card is the jack of clubs so you go up with the spade ace. Wow!
You made this contract. Although
the odds were very much against the king of spades being singleton, this
"show-up" squeeze proved the finesse to be wrong.
Most N/S pairs went down in this slam. Notice that you must duck the first
trick for this end position to occur.
The recurring theme of this lesson is to see that the spade finesse was
not necessary.
Is the message
coming through?
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
West leads a low spade to the king and you win the ace. You see two aces to be knocked out as well as
a possible finesse for the queen of diamonds. First things first so at trick two, lead a
club to the jack. East wins the ace and
continues spades. Win with the ten and
lead a low heart to the king and ace. Now
East clears the spade suit but you have ten tricks: 3 spades, 2 hearts, 2
diamonds, and 3 clubs. An eleventh trick
could come from a 3-3 heart break or by winning a trick with the jack of
diamonds. After winning the third spade you
play the jack and queen of hearts. East
follows once but discards a spade on the third heart. Next you cash the ace of diamonds followed by
a club to your hand. You now play your
club winners as West discards two diamonds. When you lead a diamond at trick twelve, West
follows but you know his remaining card is a heart so you rise with the diamond
ace. The queen drops and you have eleven
tricks.
This is another
example of the “show-up squeeze”. It occurs
frequently and eliminates the need for a finesse.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You are declaring 4
and West leads the jack of hearts won by East. At trick two, East shifts
to a low spade and if you like to finesse, here is your first
opportunity. Before you make that decision, let’s stop and count our
losers. We have lost one heart, we may
lose a spade, and we have a club guess.
While it’s possible East has underled the king of spades, let’s not take
that chance. When we play the ace, West
follows low so we do have a spade loser.
Now what do we do?
Yes, there is
another possible elimination play. Let’s
play the ace of diamonds followed by the king and queen of hearts pitching two
diamonds from dummy. The red suits are gone so now we just throw West in
with the spade king. He has to either lead a club or give us a sluff and
a ruff.
Of course you can always make the contract by guessing clubs, but that is a 50%
proposition. If East made a sneaky play of a spade away from the king at
trick two, you still make the hand with a club guess.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
West leads the ace of clubs and continued with
the king which you ruff. It’s clear the
contract is in no danger with only two possible diamond losers. But, it’s a pairs game so let’s look for a
way to hold our diamond losers to one.
You can play West (who overcalled) for both diamond honors, or you can
try to guess who holds a doubleton honor.
Is there another way to play the diamond suit rather than rely on our
recent poor record of finessing?
How about if you
simply play for the diamonds to be 3-2 with the honors split? Let’s begin to eliminate the spades by
playing the ace of spades followed by a spade ruff. Next, lead a heart to your hand drawing
trumps and then ruff your last spade.
Now simply play the ace and a low diamond. West wins the king but has only black cards
to lead allowing you to trump in dummy and discard your diamond loser. Making the overtrick will give you a good
matchpoint score.
Note this line of
play in the diamond suit works whenever there is a doubleton honor in either hand.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You arrive in a 6
contract
and West leads the jack of diamonds. When
you stop to analyze the hand you see a likely loser in spades and another in
the diamond suit. It’s unlikely but
possible that West has underled the king of diamonds so let’s try the
queen. No, East plays the king and we
win the ace. It seems now the most
obvious play is to take the spade finesse but is there a better solution?
Let’s combine our chances and instead of taking the spade finesse, let’s cash
the ace-king. We got the 3-2 division we
needed but unfortunately, the queen has not appeared. Now we have to find the opponent with the
queen of spade with at least three clubs.
We run the clubs and poor East can’t ruff until the fourth round and
that is when we discard our diamond loser.
Those declarers who relied on the spade finesse failed.
Some of these hands
may have been difficult for you, but I hope you have learned to stop and look
at all of your options before you simply take a finesse.