Contract Bridge

Players inclined toward masochism can indulge their whim whenever they are confronted by a two- way finesse for a missing queen. This form of entertainment — if you can call it that — might appeal to some declarers, but most players would rather not be faced with such a challenge. Indeed, whenever possible, the expert tries to circumvent the two- way guess by avoiding it altogether.

Consider the present case, where South can easily make three notrump by taking a heart finesse in the right direction. Instead of subjecting himself to a straight- out guess, however, declarer might be able to get the opponents to do his work for him.

West leads the king of spades, which South ducks as East follows with the deuce. Another spade lead would hand declarer the contract, so let’s say West shifts to the jack of diamonds. Again declarer ducks, hoping the diamonds are divided 3-3, in which case guessing the heart finesse would no longer be crucial. West then continues with a low diamond, East’s queen forcing the ace.

South now leads the king of clubs. West wins and returns the diamond ten to dummy’s king. When East shows out, South is still faced with the problem of acquiring his ninth trick. The good news, though, is that he no longer needs to stake the outcome on a heart guess. Instead, he cashes the J- Q of clubs, then leads dummy’s eight of diamonds and discards his last club.

This puts West on lead, and he must return either a spade or a heart. Whichever he chooses gives South his ninth trick.

Declarer thus makes his contract without attempting the crucial heart finesse. He solves the problem by evasion.