Choose Your Finesse – Part 5

On many occasions when you are declarer the success of your contract would depend on a successful finesse. Sometimes declarer has a choice between finesses. He has to decide which finesse to take (or whether to take a finesse at all...) This is Part 5 of Oren's series on Finesses. If you missed the previous articles, you can find them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4

Take these hands and see if you choose the right finesse:

Start the test now!

41. You play 6♥ on a ♠J lead . Which finesse do you take, if any?

You play 6♥ on a ♠J lead. Win with the Ace, play two rounds of trump, ending in hand, and continue with the ♣K, throwing the ♠Q from dummy. Play ♦A and continue with another Heart to dummy. Now play the ♦8, intending to run it if West plays low (or playing the ♦K if West covers). That way you will lose only one Diamond.

If you play 3 rounds of Hearts and then ♦AK and another - You will lose two Diamond tricks and go down.

If East shows out on the second Diamond - Play the K and continue with a third Diamond to the J. That way you lose no more than 1 Diamond against any 4-1 split.

42. You play 4♠. East opened 1♣ and West lead the ♣8. East took the ♣A and switched to the ♦2. West won with the ace and played another Diamond. East ruffed and played another Club to your ♣Q. Which finesse do you take, if any?

You play 4♠. East opened 1♣ and West lead the ♣8. East took the ♣A and switched to the ♦2. West won with the ace and played another Diamond. East ruffed and played another Club to your ♣Q.

Count! East has 4 Clubs and 1 Diamond, which means he has 4-4 in the majors. That means that West is void in Spade! Finesse Spades to the ♠10, come back to dummy on the ♥A and finesse Spades again.

43. Against 3NT, West lead the ♥2 (4th best of his longest suit). Upon winning the ♥A, you played the Club suit and West followed twice... Which finesse do you take, if any?

Against 3NT West lead the ♥2 (4th best of his longest suit). The lead tells us that West doesn't have 5 cards in any suit as the ♥2, the lowest card in the suit, shows he has only 4 cards in Hearts.

The success of the contract depends entirely on finding the ♦Q. Therefore, after you decide to win the ♥A, play 4 rounds of clubs and watch what opponents discard. You will notice that West follows only twice. This means he has at least 3 diamonds! (Because his lead indicated he has no 5 cards in another suit). Play ♦K and finesse the ♦Q next.

44. You play 4♦ after the auction below. West lead ♣AK and a 3rd club got ruffed by East, who switched to spade. You won in hand and played ♦Q. West followed with a low card. Finesse or Drop?

You play 4♦. West lead ♣AK and a 3rd club got ruffed by East, who switched to spade. You won in hand and played ♦Q. West followed with a low card.

Count! West has 4 clubs (as East had 2), 4 hearts (from the bidding ), and... 4 spades (spades must be 4-4 as neither East, nor West bid 1♠). So... West has 1 Diamond and East had 2 (only one now because he ruffed once). Play the Ace to drop the ♦K.

45. You play 4♥ and West lead the ♦J. Which finesse do you take if any?

You play 4♥. Win the ♦J lead, play another Diamond, continue with the ♥A and run the ♥10 (gaining if West has no more Hearts to play). West will win the ♥J but he is now endplayed in 3 suits: either Club, solving the club finesse problem, or Diamond, giving you a ruff/sluff (you can throw a spade loser from hand), or Spade, helping you score your ♠K.

46. You play 4♥ and West, who opened the bidding with 1♣, lead the ♣K (East responded 1♠). Which finesse do you take, if any?

You play 4♥ and West, who opened the bidding with 1♣, lead the ♣K (East responded 1♠). Win the ♣A, play a Diamond to the ♦A, and continue with a low spade from dummy.

If East wins - you score a spade trick. If West wins, he cannot play Heart, and so you will manage to ruff your 3rd spade in dummy. If, at trick 2, you play a spade to the ♠Q (or ♠9), East wins, returns a Heart and defense will manage to play two rounds of Hearts. You will lose 3 Spades and a Heart on that line of play.

47.You play 6♠ on a ♣J lead. Which finesse do you take, if any?

You play 6♠ on a ♣J lead. If you had the ♥Q instead of the ♥J, a good move would have been to throw a Diamond from dummy, promoting the ♣K when East wins the ♣A, and later on to throw another Diamond from dummy on the ♣K.

But as you have a Heart and a Diamond loser, you need to ruff, draw 2 rounds of trumps and try the Diamond finesse first. If it fails, you cannot afford any Heart losers and you need to play ♥AK later, hoping for the ♥Q to drop.

But as it happens here, the ♦J holds the trick – which means you can afford to lose one Heart. Play Heart to the ♥K and then a low Heart to the ♥J, scoring 3 Heart tricks whenever the ♥Q is with East, or if Hearts are 3-3 (and throw your Diamond loser on the 4th Heart).

48. You play 6♥ on a ♦Q lead. Plan your play.

You play 6♥ on a ♦Q lead. You have 9 top tricks. If you try two spade ruffs – You will go down.

Best play is to try the double finesse in clubs: Win the ♦K, play ♥AKQ and then ♣Q from dummy.

If East plays low - Throw one of your losers. West wins and plays the ♦J. Win the ♦A and run the ♣J, ruffing if East covers with the ♣K. Play ♠AK, ruff a spade and throw two more losers on the good ♣109.

Normally this line gives 75% chance to make your contract (you lose only if West has ♣AK, but it is more than likely that with ♣AK, West would choose to lead a top club, and not a diamond).

49. You play 4♠ on a ♦Q lead (East opened 1♦). East won with the ♦A and returned a Diamond to your ♦K. Which finesse do you take, if any?

You play 4♠ on ♦Q lead (East opened 1♦). East took the ♦A and returned Diamond to your ♦K, play 2 rounds of trumps, finesse with the ♥Q (East will play LOW) and play 2nd Heart to the ♥A. Ruff the 3rd Diamond, play 3rd Heart and throw a club from hand! East wins the ♥K but he is now end-played: Either by playing a club = You make your ♣K, or Diamond = you ruff in dummy and throw another club form hand.

50. You play 3NT on a ♦J lead. Which finesse do you take, if any?

You play 3NT on a ♦J lead. Win and play a low club, let it run without finessing. Later on try to finesse the ♣Q. If that works, cash the ♣A and give opponents the fourth club, promoting the last club. If the club finesse fails, try cashing the ♥A, and the ♣A.

If clubs split 3-3, you make the last two clubs, and if not - you can still try to play a Heart to the ♥Q to establish your heart suit.

Stay tuned for Part 6 of the test!