Contract Bridge

The Sure Way

Some people greatly enjoy taking finesses — especially when the finesses win. But the fact is that finesses should be avoided like the plague, and should be taken only when no better option is available.

Consider this deal where South is in four spades. He has four possible losers — a heart, two diamonds and a club. Since the heart and club losers can’t be avoided, the hand boils down to losing only one diamond.

One way to tackle this problem is to lead a diamond from dummy to the queen. If East has the king, the contract is made, but if West has it, the contract goes down.

In this case, however, it would be wrong for declarer to stake everything on the diamond finesse, which would give him about a 50-50 chance of succeeding. Instead, he should adopt a line of play that allows him to avoid the finesse altogether — one that will make the contract regardless of who has the king of diamonds.

Accordingly, declarer takes West’s king-of-clubs lead with the ace and draws two rounds of trump, having made a mental note that West is marked by the opening lead with the queen of clubs. South then cashes the king and ace of hearts and leads a third heart. East wins with the jack and returns the ten of diamonds.

South does not try the diamond finesse, as there is now no point in risking it. Instead, he wins with the ace and exits with a club, saddling West with the lead.

West is helpless. If he cashes the king of diamonds, he establishes South’s queen, while if he leads a heart or club — giving declarer a ruff-and-discard — his play is equally ineffective.

Observe that when declarer leads the third heart, it does not matter which opponent actually wins the trick or how the defense proceeds from then on. South is certain to succeed, as there is no way the opponents can wriggle out of the trap he has laid for them.