Suffolk v Norfolk (2) - Delayed Finessing
We return for another deal from the Suffolk versus Norfolk match reported last week. As featured in that article there were some tricky play hands and this was another (hands rotated for convenience):
| ♠ AKJ6542 | ♠ 73 | ||
| ♥ A | ♥ J73 | ||
| ♦ 83 | ♦ AQ109 | ||
| ♣ AJ9 | ♣ 8732 |
West usually opened with a strong two-bid and reached the spade game. After giving a negative response, east was clearly worth raising three spades to four. North started with a low heart, south contributing the ten when dummy played low. West played two top spades and discovered that north started with three to the queen. What now?
A number of approaches present themselves:.
A) Take a diamond finesse; if that fails, take another
Simple and to the point, at least you won't develop a reputation as a slow player. If one of the diamond honours is on-side you make your contract. If both are with south you'll go down. That will happen only one time in four - not bad odds.
B) Concede a spade to the queen and see what the opponents do.
Attractive; after north wins say they play a club; that may well damage their holding in that suit. But they'll probably play a heart, you can ruff with one of your many trumps and have another look. Plan (B) can be no worse than (A).
C) Say you try (B) and they do play a heart, you think that taking a diamond finesse is your main chance so you play low to the ten. It loses to the knave and a third heart is played. Now try ducking a club - with the knave. If south holds the king-queen they win the queen but cannot attack diamonds so they play yet another heart. What good has this done you? You play all your trumps and the club ace, the ten falls from north, and reach:
| ♠ --- | ♠ --- | ||
| ♥ --- | ♥ --- | ||
| ♦ 8 | ♦ AQ | ||
| ♣ 9 | ♣ --- |
Down to two cards, south has the king of diamonds and the king of clubs - he had better discard fluently because he cannot keep that diamond protected and north is out of clubs. Nice play - Peter Sutcliffe for Suffolk found this line and made four spades. He needed to be tuned to the table to get this right as it was possible that the diamond king was on-side all the time.
D) Play clubs at trick three - again, leading the knave from hand. The presence of the nine gives you some intriguing chances. If south had king-queen-any, king-queen-low-low or honour-ten they have to win the first round of the suit. South cannot attack diamonds so declarer can try to play for an extra trick in clubs before committing to a diamond position. If north can win a club, you have brought about Peter's ending when they play a diamond. The full deal:
| ♠ Q98 | |||
| ♥ Q952 | |||
| ♦ 7542 | |||
| ♣ 105 | |||
| ♠ AKJ6542 | ♠ 73 | ||
| ♥ A | ♥ J73 | ||
| ♦ 83 | ♦ AQ109 | ||
| ♣ AJ9 | ♣ 8732 | ||
| ♠ 10 | |||
| ♥ K10864 | |||
| ♦ KJ6 | |||
| ♣ KQ64 | |||
Stratagems (C) or (D) will work. Playing on clubs wins by force as it simply establishes a trick for diamond discard - north can never get in to play diamonds. Moreover, it feels best - it's not necessary to look at percentages - delaying your finesses while you exploit other chances is invariably right.
Published Saturday 23.Feb.2008