Some people take finesses just for the practice but a good declarer
will take only those that are necessary. Take a look at this hand.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #46
Dlr
E
Vul
E/W
952
QJ93
J2
AQJ3
KQ10
54
K1087
K986
A873
10
96543
1052
J64
AK8762
AQ
74
West
North
East
South
Pass
1
Pass
3
Pass
4
All Pass
BIDDING: North invited
game with a limit raise and South accepted.
PLAY: West led the king
of spades and East encouraged with the eight. West continued with
the queen of spades and East won the third spade with the ace.
East now switched to a low diamond and without much thought, declarer
played the queen to end up one down when the finesse lost. This
was not good bridge. It didn't matter where the diamond king was
located; the contract depended upon finding the king of clubs in the
West hand. When that finesse succeeded, a repeat club finesse
would allow declarer to discard his diamond loser on the ace of
clubs. This was not difficult and declarer should have understood
the contract depended upon the king of clubs before he played to trick
one. This shows the importance of playing the hand, not the suit.
It's efforts like this that send players scampering to the Partnership
Desk.
