Contract Bridge

Things Are Not What They Seem

One occasionally hears the term “free finesse” applied to a seemingly helpful lead made by an opponent, but sometimes there is a question as to whether or not the finesse is really free. It is easy to misapply the term, which is exactly what declarer did in this deal where he unnecessarily went down one.

West led his singleton club against South’s five-spade contract. Acting under the impression that he was getting a free finesse, declarer played dummy’s jack and took East’s queen with the ace.

After drawing trump, South led a club to the king, hoping to find the suit divided 3-3 so that he could later discard a diamond on dummy’s fourth club. But when West failed to follow to the second club, there was no way declarer could avoid losing a club and two diamonds for down one.

It might seem that South is sure to fail whatever he does, but actually he can make the contract with proper play. He should assume from the bidding and the opening lead that the eight of clubs is a singleton. No harm can come from making this assumption because if West has the queen of clubs, it can be trapped later on.

South should therefore play low from dummy at trick one and take the eight with the ace.

After ruffing two hearts in dummy and drawing trump, South then plays the ace and another diamond. The defenders can collect their two diamond tricks, after which they are stymied.

If West winds up on lead, he must return a heart or a diamond, allowing dummy to ruff as South discards his club loser. If East wins the third diamond, he must either yield a ruff-and-discard or lead a club into dummy’s K-J. The so-called free finesse at trick one turns out to be an illusion.