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Finesse to Success!

Well, it looks like you have made the wrong decision for your side. You are playing Swiss Pairs and you should have left the final decision to your partner who would certainly have wielded the axe!

 

 

The opponents would not be quiet and you seemed to have too many spades to want to defend 5. That clouded the fact you had rather a lot of potential losers in the minor suits to think you could make 5. On the other hand, if partner was weak and one opponent was void in spades, then maybe 5 was making.

One look at your dummy showed that that was not the case. You should have passed 5 round to your partner and would have been defending, successfully.

That’s all in the past. You now have to make 5. West led A. What’s your plan?

You have 7 spade tricks and two aces. It is time for a piece of optimism. That club finesse just has to work: that’s an order! That still leaves you a trick short. You might think of end-playing an opponent to give you a ruff and club discard but it is almost certain that line would not work.

It comes down to taking what is a slightly unusual finesse...and for that you can thank your partner for having such wonderful hearts!

 

 

 You need just one successful finesse and are quite happy if two more fail, though not the club finesse! So, ruff the opening lead and play A and a second spade to dummy. Your saving grace is 9, your next play. If East plays low, you discard a diamond. They chose to play J which you ruff and play another trump to dummy to play 10 and assuming East plays low, you now discard a diamond. K wins. It does not matter which minor suit West plays as you will take a winning club finesse (remember, that was part of the deal. The club finesse had to work!) and discard your small club on the high Q.

That’s a nice loser on loser play, throwing one diamond loser on the 9 (if East had not covered). Had West held J, your only losers would have been two heart tricks. At the table, you lost K and a diamond.

Therefore, once the A had been led at trick 1 (and who could blame West for doing so), 5 was cold. After a diamond lead, South has to lose 2 hearts and a diamond. Despite the successful finesse, there are three inevitable losers after a club lead. After an initial trump lead, South can still survive as long as East holds J, another necessary successful finesse.

Who says finesses always seem to fail when you need them to work? “Wishing” or "demanding" goes a long way to making them work.

Oh, 5x would only be a mere 3 down, +500. +650 was much better, the hard way, with finesse!

Richard Solomon

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