IMPROVE YOUR PLAY
With Larry Matheny
Before playing to
the first trick a strong declarer will analyze the hand and include the opening
lead in the mix. Then he will proceed
with his plan. Taking an unnecessary finesse
is not part of a good plan.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
|
|
Bidding: South’s 2NT rebid showed 23-24 high card
points. North did the math and bid the
slam.
Play: West
led the ten of spades and declarer stopped to count his tricks. If he could bring in all five diamonds he has
13 tricks: 1 spade, 4 hearts, 5 diamonds, and 3 clubs. It seemed the only time the spade finesse was
needed was if it succeeded but he had to lose a diamond trick. Feeling it unlikely West had underled the
spade king, declarer rose with the ace.
He continued with a low diamond to his ace as the queen dropped from the
West hand. The Rule of Restrictive
Choice told declarer that a singleton queen was twice as likely as a doubleton
QJ, so he went to dummy with a club followed by a diamond to his ten. It was now a simple task to claim the
overtrick.
Those who took the
spade finesse came to only 12 tricks.
That is, if they also played the diamonds correctly. The spade finesse could be described as an
unnecessary or “practice” finesse.
Copyright ©2013 Larry Matheny