September 2019 - 51

Intermediate Players

Mike's Bridge Lesson
BY MIKE LAWRENCE

michaelslawrence.com

A timing play plus a wish
Dlr: South ♠ A 8
Vul: None ♥ 10 3 2
♦AQ8653
♣J3
♠QJ3
♥AJ6
♦74
♣A8542
West

North

East

Pass
Pass

1♦
3NT

Pass
All Pass

South
1♣
1NT

South plays in 3NT after a fairly normal auction. South's opening and 1NT
rebid are normal enough, and North's
raise to 3NT is a sane choice. North
hoped his diamonds would be worth
six tricks, and the ♠A would make
seven. South would need only a couple
more.
West led the ♠5. South finessed,
hoping West had led from the king. If
that had happened, South was going to
go after the diamond suit. South could
see a lot of potential tricks.
East happened to have the ♠K. He
won trick one and returned the ♠10 to
dummy's ace.
This wasn't what South wanted at
all. He had hoped that he could win the
first spade in his hand, which would
leave the ♠A as an entry to dummy.
Where are nine tricks going to come
from? South has two spade tricks, one
heart, one diamond and, if he plays on
clubs and gets lucky, he can get three
club tricks. That's seven tricks. Even
with good luck, South needs three dia-

mond tricks, and he will get these only
if the diamond finesse wins.
So, what is South's best line?
Given that the diamond finesse has
to win, South can see a route to nine
tricks. If he focuses on the diamonds,
he has the potential to take two spade
tricks, one heart, one club and five
diamonds. This is nine tricks, enough
for game, and it only requires that
diamonds divide 3-2 and that the diamond finesse works. It's not great odds,
but it is decent odds, and it's the only
thing that has a chance.
What should South do after taking
the ♠A at trick two? Lead the ♦3 from
dummy. No matter what happens in
the play, South can't get nine tricks
without tricks in diamonds. And, no
matter what happens, South must lose
a diamond trick before he can take the
diamond winners. What South is doing
is giving up a diamond trick before taking the diamond finesse.
When he leads the 3 towards his
hand, East plays the 10, which wins the
trick. East continues spades and South
is in.
What we have here is one of those
good-luck/bad-luck scenarios. South
leads his second diamond and West
plays the jack. The odds say that South
should finesse, and he does. It wins.
East follows. When this happens,
South gets nine tricks. This is the
good-luck scenario. If the diamond finesse had lost, South would have taken
fewer tricks. He would have gotten
two spades, a heart, no diamonds and a
club. Down five. This would have been

the bad-luck scenario.
Here is the complete (good-luck)
layout:
♠A8
♥ 10 3 2
♦AQ8653
♣J3
♠97652
♠ K 10 4
♥Q87
♥K954
♦KJ2
♦ 10 9
♣Q7
♣ K 10 9 6
♠QJ3
♥AJ6
♦74
♣A8542
Postmortem: South took the only
line of play that would create nine
tricks. He saw a need (the ♦K being
onside and the suit dividing 3-2) and
played on that assumption. Giving
up the first diamond was necessary
because declarer had no further entries
to dummy.
Coming to his hand in hearts or clubs
to finesse in diamonds wasn't a good
idea because that would set up winners
for the defense.
South's play of a low diamond
from dummy had two ways to win.
If the situation was as it was, South
would make 3NT. If East had the ♦K
doubleton, he might grab it, which
would be good for South. (Would you
know to duck the diamond lead holding
the ♦K 2 in the East seat?) East might
even take his king when holding three
to the king. Shouldn't happen, but
defenders have been known to do the
wrong thing now and then.
◾
September 2019 Bridge Bulletin

51
http://www.michaelslawrence.com
September 2019

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