No Finesse Needed #11-29

IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
with Larry Matheny

A strong declarer will resort to a finesse only when presented with no other better option. This declarer found a way to avoid the guess for a missing queen.

Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)

#11-29
Dlr	N
Vul	E/W

	A654
	A10
	KJ1082
	92

	K10832
	32
	64
	J743

	QJ97
	865
	Q75
	K86


	KQJ974
	A93
	AQ105

West	North	East	South
	1	Pass	1
Pass	1	Pass	2 *

Pass 2 Pass 2

Pass 3 Pass 6

Pass Pass Pass

*fourth suit forcing

BIDDING: South’s rebid of 2 was artificial and game forcing. North rebid diamonds and then raised hearts after South showed a strong suit. Expecting a good diamond suit in dummy, South confidently bid the slam.

PLAY: West led the unbid suit but the club lead turned out to be good for declarer. With twelve tricks available, most declarers simply drew trumps and took the diamond finesse. They lost to the queen but had their twelve tricks. At one table, declarer found a better line. She won the club, cashed the other high club, and trumped a third one in dummy. Then it was a spade ruff back to her hand followed by the last club. She trumped it in dummy and returned to her hand with the ace of diamonds. She then had only to draw trumps and discard a diamond on dummy’s ace of spades.

This hand was well bid and well played. Unfortunately, I was East at the “other” table and no other N/S pair made the over trick so we received a zero.