Alder's NEA Bridge: Exceptions occur rarely

Today's deal contains two features that are seen infrequently, and it came within a whisker of a third rarity. Do you see them? Defending against four spades, West led the heart king. Declarer won with dummy's ace and played a trump to the king and ace. West cashed the heart queen before exiting with his last spade. South won in hand, played a club to dummy's king and a club back to his queen. West won with the ace and returned the club jack, which declarer ruffed. Next, South led the diamond jack: queen, king, three. Finally, declarer ran the diamond nine through East and claimed his contract.

What were the rarities? First, it is unusual to bid and make a game after an opponent has opened with a strong no-trump.

Second, there was South's handling of the diamond suit. With this holding, it is customary to take a simple finesse. Here, though, South noticed that he was missing only 16 points. That meant West had to have the diamond queen. Was she doubleton or not? When West turned out to have only two spades and at most eight cards in hearts and clubs, South knew the answer to that question. If West had queen-third of diamonds, the only chance was the backward finesse, which South accomplished successfully. Normally, one doesn't attempt a backward finesse because it requires two cards, the queen and 10, to be well placed, whereas a simple finesse requires only one card onside.

The near miss was East's hand. But for the diamond 10 he would have held a perfect Yarborough, which should occur once in every 1,827 deals.