No Messing With Finessing

29th August – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.

It takes ages to get people to finesse and even longer to get them not to and the hand below was almost textbook……

	North: S J 10 9 8 3 2 H J D K 10 9 6 C Q 10
West: S A 5 H Q 9 5 3 D A 8 3 C K J 7 2		East: S 4 H A 10 8 7 6 2 D Q 7 4 C A 6 4
	South: S K Q 7 6 H K 4 D J 5 2 C 9 8 5 3

West	North	East	South
		1H	No
2NT	No	3S	No
4D	No	4H	End

There are probably many ways of getting to 4H and the one I suggest uses a Jacoby 2NT response to show a high card raise to game or better. 3S shows a singleton and 4D is a cue and 4H says that’s enough. Anyway let us suppose South leads the king of spades. How do you proceed? In cases such as these you should assume the adverse cards are lying as badly as possible in which case you might lose one heart, two diamonds and a club. Win the lead and play a low heart aiming to cover whatever card North plays. In this way you can guarantee to have one trump loser at most. When North plays the jack you obviously win with the ace and should now play the king of clubs, the ace of clubs and a low club towards the jack. If South has the queen it is true the finesse would have worked but that doesn’t matter because now the jack will be established as a discard for a diamond. But more importantly on occasion you will drop the doubleton queen from North when a diamond switch from that hand could be worrying. Indeed swap the king and knave of diamonds in the North/South hands and you would be defeated if you hadn’t played the clubs in the prescribed manner. As it happens – as it does so frequently – virtue has to be its own reward.

Too Many Finesses

29th November – Board 14: Love All. Dealer East.

West has a choice of bids at his second turn and while I would only bid 2♥ if partner had responded 2♣, the healthy diamond fit makes a game forcing rebid of 3♥ just about viable. As a matter of interest I would also rebid 3♥ if partner had responded 1♠ because the spade fit is a positive asset although of course 3♥ is now not forcing.

The play is interesting on the ♣Q lead and continuation. Declarer only has two entries to dummy and really would like to take three finesses – two in hearts and one in diamonds – but that is impossible. However the diamond finesse is the one that really needs to work for if it doesn’t declarer has to play the heart suit without loss and that will only happen if South holds precisely king and jack doubleton. So ruff the second club and play a spade to dummy to take the diamond finesse. When that works lay down the ace of trumps, cross to dummy with a spade and lead the remaining heart and either hope that an honour appears – as it does – or you make an inspired guess as to whether to play North for doubleton king or doubleton jack.

Left Boot

23rd August – Board 19: East/West Vul. Dealer South.

With a little science and good visualization the pairs sitting North/South should have enjoyed the following hand:

6♣ is an excellent contract on the two hands and the above auction cannot be considered too outrageous. East might feel compelled to bid more at his first turn with a seven card suit but 7-2-2-2 hands always play like a left boot and at the unfavourable vulnerability I think caution should be advised. When North hears of a good hand opposite with a spade stop I think a bid of 4♣ is justified – forcing of course, because you never remove a game contract into a partscore. Then when South shows first round control of hearts he can hardly stop short of a slam. With the trumps dividing nicely declarer can set up a long diamond in dummy by ruffing the fourth in hand, and take the heart finesse for the overtrick. Indeed with East showing values 7♣ is a good contract but maybe too difficult to reach with any confidence.

Those who reach 6NT will find they make all thirteen tricks without really trying but only by keeping a little alert. On the run of the clubs West is in all sorts of difficulties. He has to keep the diamonds guarded so must come down to just a doubleton heart. Now, after cashing three diamonds declarer is forced to take the heart finesse and finds he makes three tricks in the suit. In all he makes, one spade, three hearts, three diamonds and six clubs.

Long Stop

26th July – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

People tend to overlook the power of the lower cards but they certainly pulled their weight on the hand shown below where West needed a minor miracle to bring home his contract.

I think that North hand is too good for a weak two, with such a good suit and an ace outside. Not that opening 2♥ would have made much difference, because East would surely have doubled and although South would now have passed West would still have bid everybody’s favourite game. On the ‘obvious’ lead of the heart king West should hold up of course and now one of two things might happen. If North continues with a low heart West will duck again and the suit becomes out of play when South has to win. But if North continues with the queen of hearts then West wins because - mirabile dictu – he now has a second stopper with the eight and the six. So after winning he can afford to attack diamonds with North unable to cash more than one heart trick. Finally with the spade finesse working declarer will emerge with a slightly unexpected ten tricks. Can the defence ever prevail? Yes, but only if North makes the very off-centre lead of a low heart to start with.

Shrinking Violet

14^th June – Board 20: Game All. Dealer West.

It is tempting sometimes when opening light opposite a passed partner to back-pedal later on fearing that there might be a danger of the pudding being well and truly over-egged. I know of some Easts who fell into just such a trap on the hand shown below, turning from aggressive tiger to shrinking violet in a matter of seconds.

There is nothing wrong with opening 1♦ third in hand on that East hand and as a matter of fact it is hardly ever wrong to open on sub-standard hands in that position for the simple reason that partner is not likely to get too carried away. (So if you have a good suit and a rebid ready just go for it.) When partner responds 1♥ however that ten count becomes just huge for any number of reasons, a fact substantiated by the Losing Trick Count of just six. A bid of 3♥ is the order of the day and West will happily raise to game which, while not exactly laydown, is easily within the limits demanded of a vulnerable game. For the record this is something less than 40% because the bonus for making a vulnerable game is so large. And indeed for a non-vulnerable game you still need only about a 40% chance of success to make bidding it worthwhile. In the hand above if the diamond finesse is successful you just require there to be no more than two trump losers, so either a 2-2 split or for South to have singleton ace or his actual holding of AQJ. If the diamond finesse is failing however you would require trumps to be 2-2 with the ace in the South hand. Those mathematically minded can work out the odds.

Cast Aside

3rd May – Board 5: North/South Game.  Dealer North.

It is not often that a minor suit game can be made and the no-trump game can’t when declarer holds stops galore in every suit, but that’s exactly what happened on the deal shown below.

You may not like that 3♥ bid but that’s the way it goes these days. With a high-card raise to 3♥ West would cue bid the opponent’s suit, 3♣, so his actual choice is pre-emptive. If you don’t believe it works you can see that 3♥ will only go two down so that even if it is doubled the loss is just 300 compared with a vulnerable game the other way. In any event such macho posturing will be cast aside as North has an easy raise of his partner’s suit and South will doubtless add one for the road, being significantly stronger than he might be. With the club king onside there are eleven easy tricks but notice that 3NT will fail on the obvious heart lead. Unable to get to dummy to take the club finesse declarer will lose three hearts, a spade and a club.

View the play of the deal:

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The Forgotten Bid

8th March – Board 10: Game All. Dealer East.

The single jump response in a new suit is the forgotten bid of bridge and although it happens rarely it can be worth its weight in gold. Those who eschew it can find that bidding problems might occur later which are almost impossible to overcome.

West	North	East	South
		No	1S
No	3H	No	3S
No	4H	No	4NT
No	5S	No	6C
No	6H	End

Just imagine for a moment that you only bid 2H at your first go as North and partner rebids 2S. What now? 3H is non-forcing and 4H hardly does the hand justice and there is no semblance of another bid. Much better to make a jump shift in the first place showing a hand with a very good five-card suit or better and normally about sixteen points or more. (Here you can afford to shade those values because of the quality of the suit.) A rebid in the suit more or less dictates that that suit will be trumps so South has an easy way forward via RKCB. 6C of course is a grand slam try and only now should North back-pedal. As it happens the slam should be easy to bid even after a 2H response because opener will now reverse with 3C, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is best to show one’s hand in one go if possible rather than by a series of convoluted manoeuvres.

When declarer discovers that there is a trump loser he will be forced to take a club finesse in order to pitch the losing spade. For the mathematically minded this equates to 68% + ½ of 32% - or 84%, well within the odds for a small slam.

Too Difficult

19th January – Board 2: North/South Vul. Dealer East.

I think most pairs found themselves in a slam on the featured hand and were probably sorry not to have gone the whole way when the spade finesse works – not that you want to be in a grand slam on a finesse of course. A straightforward approach cuts out any possibility of a misunderstanding I suppose and the auction shown below has the merit of simplicity.

West	North	East	South
		No	1H
No	4NT	No	5S
No	5NT	No	6D
No	6H	End

Once South shows the two missing aces and the queen of hearts North can ask for any outside kings and the usual arrangement is to respond on a step sequence. However if South had held the king of spades and not clubs the grand would have been laydown but that depends on South holding the queen of diamonds too. Try as I might I cannot find a convincing sequence which would allow the grand to be bid if South had held a more useful king. Somethings are just too difficult.

Heavy Weather

8th December – Board 20: Game All. Dealer West.

A lot of pairs made heavy weather of the featured hand but maybe that was because some basic bidding theory was missing – namely that when partner has responded to your opening bid of one in a major by responding at the two-level in a minor (as here) a jump to four in that minor by opener is game forcing. The reason for that is clear, because it enables responder either to start a cue-bidding sequence at a low level if appropriate or to give delayed support for opener’s major.

West	North	East	South
No	No	1S	No
2C	No	4C	No
4S	End

With such a poor club suit and with wasted values likely in hearts West should have no ambitions beyond game and I imagine that South would lead the jack of hearts, whereupon declarer has an easy route to at least twelve tricks, but even if South is inspired enough to lead a diamond the defence are only likely to make three tricks at most. Looking at the two hands you can see that four spades is easily the best contract, needing as it does just for the club finesse to work or for the trumps to be 3-3 or for a non-diamond lead.

A Different View

24th November – Board 3: East/West Vul. Dealer South.

Just because you have a ‘gadget’ does not mean you have to use it come what may, and that fact is illustrated most clearly in the following hand which arose last Thursday. At the vulnerability South might be tempted to open with a weak 2S, but this six-loser hand is far too good to do that. (The diamond suit is a one-loser suit because of the good impletion.) With his weak no-trump hand North should have no game ambitions and would either pass or at the very most raise to 3S as a defensive measure, not forward going as he would use Ogust if that were the case, and as a result the cold game would be missed. But if South took a different view and imagined that his partner had opened one-no trump then surely he would have a shot at game. The bidding would proceed:

West	North	East	South
			No
No	1NT	No	2H
No	2S	No	4S
End

The game is a good one and is not particularly lucky to make – the trump finesse is right but the diamond finesse is wrong. Just remember that a weak two is the sort of hand which would make a weakness take-out if partner opened one no-trump.

Guessing Games

27^th October – Board 5: N/S Vul. Dealer North.

Some hands are just so difficult to bid with any degree of certainty. All kinds of things might have happened – and indeed did – on the featured hand, but who was right and who was wrong is hard to say.

West	North	East	South
	1H	No	2D
2S	4H	4S	No
No	5D	End

South might conceivably have bid 1NT at his first turn, lest partner got too excited, but I can’t see that 2D can come to too much harm, and 1NT seems just a bit too off-centre for my liking. West is bound to compete giving North a tough decision, but with the good diamond fit a direct bid of 4H does not look unreasonable. Of course East should not be silenced at that vulnerability but with no wasted values in spades opposite North should probably have one more go with 5D. In truth nobody really knows who can make what and 6D is on the (failing) diamond finesse. And if West decides to compete at the five-level then he will find that to be a cheap save against the vulnerable game.

Unhappy Outcome

13^th October – Board 12: North/South Vul. Dealer West.

East would doubtless feel disappointed if his partner failed to land the slam on the hand shown below but in truth the layout was not kind for declarer.

West	North	East	South
1NT	No	2H	No
2S	No	3D	No
4S	No	6S	End

East takes a practical approach when his partner shows positive spade support with West unable to hold enough ‘right’ cards for the grand slam to be viable. However on the normal looking lead of the jack of hearts declarer is faced with a series of guesses. If the diamond finesse is working there is clearly no problem but as long as the defence keep completely passive and fail to open up any other suit declarer will ultimately be faced with the decision of whether to hope for the 3-3 break in diamonds or take a finesse against the ten. My instincts tell me the latter is right but I know I would do the former!