Daily Bridge Club

Saturday, February 13, 2021

Simple Saturday

“Simple Saturday” columns focus on improving basic technique and logical thinking.

The finesse — say, leading toward an A-Q in your hand and playing the queen after right-hand opponent plays — is a useful technique. But because finesses lose as often as they win, they are good to avoid. You certainly don’t want to try more than necessary.

Against today’s six diamonds, West led the ten of hearts, and South took the ace and led the ten of trumps to finesse. When East won, the defense cashed a heart. South escaped for down only one when the spade finesse worked for him later.

HEART LOSER

South took one finesse too many. Suppose the trump finesse wins. To make the slam, South still needs a winning spade finesse to discard his heart loser from dummy. So whether the trump finesse works is only a matter of an overtrick. South should lead a trump to the ace at Trick Two and return the queen of spades.

Avoid a “practice finesse” whose gain will be negligible even if it wins.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: ♠ A J 10 ♥ A6 3 ♦ Q 10 9 8 ♣ A K Q. South in today’s deal opened one diamond with this hand. Do you agree with that call?

ANSWER: South held 20 highcard points with balanced pattern, plus two tens. Many partnerships agree that their range for a 2NT opening bid is 20 to 22 points; they would have opened 2NT. If instead your partnership range is 21 or 22 points, then to open one diamond would be acceptable. Discuss with your partner.

South dealer

N-S vulnerable