Planning Ahead

Dealer:  East Vul: N-S	Annie ♠A ♥KT64 ♦AKT973 ♣A5
Leah ♠Q86 ♥AJ985 ♦Q85 ♣82		Michael ♠T54 ♥Q72 ♦6 ♣QJ9643
	Betty ♠KJ9732 ♥3 ♦J42 ♣KT7

South	West	North	East
Betty	Leah	Annie	Michael
			Pass
2♠	Pass	4♠	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♣ 8

At a local club game, Leah and I had this hand come up. This is a pretty average hands. The 4♠ contract is straightforward to make. Betty has to lose a spade and a heart. The only question is, will Betty lose a diamond?

Betty won the initial club lead in her hand and then led a heart up to the board, won by Leah's ace. Leah led a 2nd club, won by dummy's ace. Betty then cashed the ♠A, and then the ♥K, pitching her club loser. She then ruffed a heart, played two more trumps (losing the 2nd to the queen), and then trumped the heart return. Now all she has left was a trump and 3 diamonds. Should she play for the ♦Q to drop by playing the AK or should she finesse?

The rule of thumb is "8 ever, 9 never" meaning with a 9 card fit you should play for the drop, not the finesse. Betty led the ♦J. What should Leah do? Despite the rule of "cover an honor with an honor", seeing the ♦T in dummy makes it clear that playing the queen won't help. More importantly, Leah had foreseen that Betty was going to lead diamonds at some point and she had decided ahead of time that she was going to play low. As such, she was able to "duck smoothly". When Leah didn't hesitate, Betty saw no reason to finesse and so played the ♦AK. Betty still made her contract, but this kept her from getting an overtrick and a top score.

What happens if Leah hadn't planned ahead? Well now Leah would have taken time to think about whether to play the ♦Q. Betty would have seen that and might have decided to finesse.

As a defender it is sometimes obvious that a suit will be led eventually. If you can, think about what you are going to do early in the hand, so that when the time comes you can play smoothly and not give anything away.

Finesses Aren't the Only Option

Dealer:  South Vul: All	Molly ♠Q ♥J63 ♦AJ8753 ♣A65
Kathleen ♠97652 ♥KT ♦T4 ♣T843		Michael ♠JT83 ♥842 ♦Q62 ♣QJ2
	Eddie ♠AK4 ♥AQ975 ♦K9 ♣K97

South	West	North	East
Eddie	Kathleen	Molly	Michael
1♥	Pass	2♦	Pass
3NT	Pass	4♥	All Pass

Opening Lead: ♠ 5

Playing with a friend, Kathleen, at a local club we had this hand come up. Put yourself in Eddie's shoes. How many tricks do you think you would win?

The heart finesse loses, and it looks like you have a club loser. So it should make 5♥. There's nothing you can do about the heart loser, but can you get rid of the club? Here's how Eddie tried.

After winning the opening spade in dummy, he took the heart finesse. He won the club return in hand, drew trump, and then played the ♦K and then finessed the ♦J. This was a pretty good plan. If the finesse worked, he could use the ♦A to throw away his club loser. If the finesse failed, well, he loses a diamond he didn't need to but can still throw away a club on the ♦A to make 5. Unfortunately for Eddie the diamond finesse failed, and he only made 5.

Could he have done better?

He has an 8 card ♦ fit. When you have an 8 card fit, the outstanding cards will split 3-2 approximately 68% of the time. This is a higher percentage than the 50% odds that a finesse gives you. Eddie should have played the ♦K and the ♦A and then ruffed a diamond. If diamonds split 3-2, dummy's long diamonds are now good, and he can use dummy's ♣A to get over to them.

Setting up a long suit seems to be less obvious than a finesse. No one else at the club made 6 either. However, finesses are only 50-50 propositions. It never hurts to see if there is a different option that is more likely to work first.