Keep this safely in your folder so that you can refer back to it.
|
I
adventure into finesses
|
1. You sometimes find yourself in the following situation:
| in dummy: | A Q |
 |
|
| in hand: | 7 2 |
it is certain that you will make the Ace, whether played from hand or from dummy. Let's look, however, at the two possible situations:
| a) | The King is on the right: in this case there is nothing to be done, unless you hope it is a singleton, i.e. it is all alone; but this possibility is so rare that you must ignore it; |
| b) | The King is on the left: when you play from hand, it is never in the interest of the opponent on the left to lay the King: that would gain him nothing and would only serve to solve declarer's problem. So he won't lay it but you will play as if you were sure that he has it; you will settle therefore for putting the Queen from dummy and if indeed the King is on the left, the Queen will be sufficient to win the trick. |
This way of playing is called finessing the King; one out of two times (each time the King is on the left, i.e. well placed for the declarer) you will win a trick; whereas if you play the Ace, you don't give yourself the chance to win an extra trick above the one to which you have a right (the Ace).
You can also finesse other missing high cards, like the Queen in the example below:
| in dummy: | K J 6 |
|
|
| in hand: | A 3 2 |
First you play the Ace (in case the Queen falls from the opponent on the right) then the 2 and, if the opponent on the left plays a small card you play the Jack from dummy hoping that he had the Queen.
It is said that the high missing card - the King in the first example and the Queen in the second - is trapped [in a fork] when it is placed before the group of honours A-Q or K-J: these two cards represent in effect the two prongs of a fork between which the King or the Queen are trapped.
2. Leading the "fourth highest".
In No-Trumps leading in a long suit is designed to establish long suit tricks. When you have to lead a suit in which there is no sequence, you choose a low card according to the following rule:
|
Arranging the
cards from highest to lowest, you lead the "fourth best"
|
| Examples: | K J 7 6 4: | the 6 |
| Q 10 3 2: | the 2 |