Aces On Bridge

“The time was out of joint, and he was only too delighted to have been born to set it right.”

— Lytton Strachey

There are many reasons for rejecting a possible finesse. All too often, it may not be necessary, since the loser may be discarded elsewhere. Equally, though, the loss of a tempo if the finesse fails may be critical.

Declaring four spades, South takes the diamond lead in his hand. He sees he may have two diamond losers, as well as two club losers and one spade loser. Some of these may be discarded on dummy’s clubs, so he must set up that suit. Thus, declarer plays a club from his hand while he still retains his trump entries to dummy.

West will duck his club king, of course, and East wins his ace and should return a heart. Be careful now! At this point, declarer should not finesse, since his immediate goal is to discard diamond losers on the clubs. If the finesse succeeds, it may produce an overtrick. If it fails, declarer loses a vital tempo — which could be fatal. West can return a diamond after winning the heart king, setting up a winner before clubs can be established for the discards needed.

So South takes the heart ace and plays another club. West takes his club winner and cashes the heart king, but that is all he can take. Declarer can ruff a small club high in hand after taking dummy’s diamond king. He ends up in dummy after cashing three rounds of trumps, and he can then discard both diamond losers on the two established club winners.

This line needs the trump break, but that’s better odds than a finesse.

ANSWER: Everyone ought to have a way to support their partner’s major and set up a forcing auction. It may not be the only way to do so, but the simplest approach is to use the response of two notrump to a major as a forcing raise. In response, opener shows shortness, jumps to game with a balanced minimum, rebids his major or three no-trump with extras, or bids a strong five-card side suit at the four level.