Are finesses winning or losing?

Luka Sulic, who was born in Slovenia, said, “It can rock like the hardest rock guitar, and it can sing like the human voice. ... It’s a hard instrument to play. There are no frets, and it takes finesse and technique to play.” Which musical instrument was he talking about?

Some contracts play like a perfectly tuned instrument, especially when key finesses succeed. But getting to those contracts may require guesswork. In today’s deal, for example, look at the North hand. Your partner opens one spade, you respond one no-trump (6-9 points), and he rebids two hearts. What would you do now, if anything?

There is a natural reaction to pass, but with a maximum nine points, North should rebid two spades because if partner is strong enough to bid a third time, North-South can probably make a game. Here, South might well continue with three hearts (North raises to four hearts) or three clubs (North bids three hearts, and South raises to four hearts).

When the deal was played, West led a diamond against four hearts. South ruffed, played a heart to dummy’s queen (yes!), led a club to his queen (yes again!), played a spade to dummy’s king, took another club finesse, drew a second round of trumps with dummy’s ace, and started to run the spades. Declarer had no trouble taking 12 tricks, losing only to East’s heart jack.

Obviously, you would not want to be in slam (except that it makes!), but many pairs would not even reach the decent game.

Luka Sulic was discussing the cello. He and Stjepan Hauser form a duo called 2Cellos.

Look for the Saturday Bridge and Chess and local Bridge results in the new Saturday Fun & Games section