Dubious Logic

Queen-knave opposite ace-low

Lesson two in finessing usually takes the beginner from the magic position of ace-queen opposite low cards to ace-low facing queen-knave. The same trick taking economy is present and some players habitually treat them as the same. Not so of course; with the luxury of a trick to be lost in the suit, it is might be better to lead towards that queen-knave holding. And it might be more complicated than that:

As West, you force yourself to four spades and buy a reasonable dummy. North leads the heart king, South playing the ten. You win and play trumps, fortunately South has the ace and no more hearts so plays a diamond through to your ace and you draw the rest of the trumps, North having two. How then, to play the clubs?

If you could get to dummy you'd be able to take a finesse but you are entry less. You could try the club ten tempting South (if North has the club king there's no hope) but the defence are quite competent and unless he has a doubleton king – unlikely – South will duck. The solution is to play a low club out of hand: if South takes the king you'll have discards, if he doesn't, hey! You've got your entry to finesse. Suffolk player Jonathan Green found this line in a recent Gold Cup match. In the same set of eight boards, this hand also occurred:

East led his singleton diamond to the queen and ace. West saw no future in his partner ruffing a loser so he returned the club king; declarer won and played four rounds of trumps, putting East on lead in this position:

East tried a heart. North couldn't resist the 'free finesse' but suddenly realised when West ducked the heart queen, he could no longer make his contract. On any lead from East, North should play ace and another heart, establishing winners in dummy while the diamond king is an entry.

Published Saturday 16.Jun.2007