Which way?

[OliverC]

You are South, NS Game, and Partner and you have rocketed to a small slam in Spades after your 1NT Opening with no opposition bidding:

North
  KJ864
  Q43
  84
  AKQ

South
  A102
  AK7
  K109
  J762

West kindly leads the Ace of Diamonds and continues with another Diamond to East's Jack and your King. How do you plan your play?

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.
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12 tricks clearly presents no problem as long as you can "find" the Queen of Spades. You can finesse for the Queen against either opponent, but which way should you take?

There are no clues from the bidding and no reason to place the Queen with one opponent or the other so it seems like a 50/50 choice. There is, however, one very good reason why you should finesse against West for the Queen: Suppose one opponent or the other holds Q9xx. If East has that holding, you cannot possible draw trumps for no losers. You can only finesse once against East. You can, however, catch Q9xx in the West hand: Cash the Ace and run the 10. If West covers with the Queen and East shows out, you can return to hand with a Heart and finesse again against the 9.

In practice, Partner and I were in 4 rather than 6 and the Spades were not 4-1, but that doesn't detract from the fact that you should be finessing against West here. It's just good practice even if there is only a second overtrick at stake.

There are lots of variations on this theme and positions where an apparent choice is actually no choice: (Obviously this is assuming that there are no clues from the bidding or early play about how to take the finesse. Sometimes there are clues which might override these considerations)

For example:

(1) A8xxx opposite KQ9x
You can only catch J10xx in one hand if it's lying under the KQ9x so you should always cash the Ace first

(2) A109x opposite K7xx
If the hand sitting over the A109x has QJ8x you are doomed to lose 2 trump tricks, but if that holding is sitting under the A109x, then you can escape for one loser, so you should cash the King first.

[onoway]

 If for example one of the opps bid some sort of lead directing  bid, how would your thinking go then? 

[OliverC]

I think it depends on the exact sequence, Pam. If West overcalled Diamonds but didn't lead a Diamond, then I might take the finesse the other way, because I cannot afford a Diamond through my K109 from East, but here West led Ace and another Diamond, so that's not a danger any more.


It's really not a great slam to be in since you're missing an Ace and a Spade honour. As I said before, we had stopped in 4 (just as well, since my Partner hadn't read this post before playing the hand, and finessed against East, making only 11 tricks).

[kenberg]

Something O said is worth an emphasis I think.
 He says lead the A then run the T. Note  that it would be an error to lead teh A and then small to the J. If RHO shows out, then LHO has the Q9 left. The Q smothers your T, the 9 is good.

Easley Blackwood calls this 3 candy bars for 25 cents to highlight the numbers 2, 3,5.  The opponents hold 3 cards, the Q9x in this case, and they include the 2nd, 5th highest of the KQJT9. I think of it simply as: After the A is played, there are 3 cards still out. If they are 2-1 it doesn't matter whether I lead the T or small to the J, if they are all on my right it also doesn't matter, but if they are all on my left it does matter. As soon asyou see this it is clear to lead the T.

This comes up quite often. Say you have been blessed with a six card suit with four in the dummy:

AQ9x

Jxxxxx


You are going to finesse so anytime the K is on your right you will lose exactly one trick. When the K is on your left you will bring in the suit, but if all 3 on are your left you had better start with the J rather than small to the Q.