ACES ON BRIDGE

“I can guarantee the closest shave you’ll ever know.”

— Sweeney Todd

The intra-finesse, so named by Brazilian Gabriel Chagas, is mainly used as a tool for declarer, but can also be employed by the defense. Third hand puts in a spot-card to finesse against his right-hand opponent’s honordoubleton, then leads an honor to pin that doubleton later in the play.

Here, West’s diamond-three lead goes to the five and East’s nine, an example of an intrafinesse. By inserting the nine, East can later lead the queen to pin dummy’s jack, picking up the suit for four tricks. Playing the queen at once gives declarer a second trick in the suit. This play can hardly lose, since West’s spot-card is inconsistent with a six-card holding, and he does not really have room for both top diamonds. If declarer has ace-10-low, East’s play is a wash, so king-10-low is the only critical holding. Incidentally, inserting the nine also unblocks the suit if West began with diamond king-10-seven-low. The diamond nine forces declarer’s 10, and declarer tests hearts, hoping to set up the ninth trick without letting East in. Not today, though.

When the third heart reveals the split, declarer turns to clubs. If East follows low, declarer will duck, again losing the lead to the safe hand. So East must put up a high card to prevent the duck. The 10 should suffice, but putting in the club queen to swallow the jack is even better. This way, declarer cannot make use of the club suit at all, and East eventually gets in to return the diamond queen.

ANSWER: Pass. Overcalling one spade is within the realm of possibility, since if you catch a raise, you stand to make a fair number of tricks. The problem is when partner doesn’t have a fit but takes you seriously, bouncing in no-trump or doubling the final contract. You need better spades and quite a bit more in the way of values to bid here.