Contract Bridge

An Unusual Approach

Most finesses are taken in the hope that they will win, but once in a while a situation arises where declarer hopes a finesse will lose.

This seeming paradox is illustrated by today’s deal where declarer had to find the best line of play at three notrump. After taking East’s king of spades with the ace at trick one, he naturally concluded that his best chance for the contract was to try to make use of dummy’s long diamond suit.

However, instead of playing the king and another diamond and finessing the jack, which seems the normal thing to do, South led the five of diamonds to the jack at trick two, hoping to lose to the queen. But East smartly declined to cooperate with declarer’s plan and allowed the jack to win the trick.

South thereupon led a club to his queen, and after the finesse succeeded, he next played the king of diamonds and overtook it with dummy’s ace. He was hoping that either East or West had started with the Q-x of diamonds, in which case he would score six diamond tricks.

But when the queen did not fall, declarer countered by leading a club to the jack, then continued with the ace and another club. As a result, he finished with 10 tricks consisting of two spades, two hearts, two diamonds and four clubs.

On balance, declarer’s method of play, though unusual, was the most flexible choice in a difficult situation. If he instead starts by playing the K-x of diamonds, planning to finesse, he has very little chance of making the contract if the finesse loses. But if he begins as he did by leading the five of diamonds to the jack, he not only retains a reasonable chance of scoring five or six diamond tricks, but also gives himself the alternative possibility of utilizing his club suit to get home safely.