IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

I think it's safe to say that most declarers love finesses.  The experienced player will avoid taking a finesse unless it's the best option available to him.  Here's a hand where the obvious finesse wasn't the best choice.

Scoring:  Matchpoints (Pairs)
 
Hand #12
Dlr   E
Vul BOTH
S AQ43
H KJ109
D Q2
C 872
S 10987652
H
D J106
C KQJ
    
S K
H 86
D 987543
C 9654

S J
H AQ75432
D AK
C A103
West North
 East
 South


Pass 1H
   Pass    3H    Pass
     6H
All Pass   
     
   

BIDDING:  North's 3H bid was a limit raise showing 10-12 support points for hearts.  South bid what he thought he could make.

PLAY:  West led the king of clubs and South was disappointed to find dummy's wasted diamond queen.  Looking at two club losers, it seemed declarer must rely on finding the spade king on his left.  However, South saw that the spade finesse could be postponed.  He ducked the first club and won the second when West continued with the queen.  Since East had played discouraging clubs, it was safe to assume West also held the club jack.  Next, South played off seven trumps and two diamonds to come down to a two-card ending.  Then he led the jack of spades and when West followed with a small one, South knew West's other card was the jack of clubs so he played the spade ace and made the slam.  Although the odds were very much against the king of spades being singleton, this "show-up" squeeze proved the finesse to be wrong. 

Most N/S pairs went down in this slam.  Notice that declarer must duck the first trick for this end position to occur.

Copyright ©2007 Larry Matheny.