January 2025 - 46

Newer Players
Play These Hands with Marc
Leading towards honors
T
he finesse comes in numerous
guises, but the basic premise
is that you can often generate
extra tricks by leading towards honors.
Sometimes you need to manage
your entries carefully so that you can
take a finesse more than once. Take a
look at this deal:
s K 6 5
h 7 6 2
d A K 3
c 10 9 7 5
s 10 9 8 4 3
h 10 5
d 8 6 4
c Q 6 2
s 7 2
h A 9 8 3
d 7 5 2
c J 8 4 3
s A Q J
h K Q J 4
d Q J 10 9
c A K
West North East South (You)
2c
Pass 2d(1) Pass 2NT
Pass 6NT All Pass
(1) Waiting
You quickly bid to 6NT and West
leads the s10. How will you play?
As always in a notrump contract,
you start by counting your top tricks.
You have four in diamonds, three in
spades and two in clubs. That's a total
of nine, so you need to make three
heart tricks to bring home your slam.
When will this be possible?
Things are easy if the defenders'
hearts split 3-3. You will make two
of the first three tricks from your
honors, and the h4 becomes good on
the fourth round.
If hearts are not 3-3, you need
East to hold the hA. To take advantage
of this, you need to lead toward
46 | Bridge Bulletin | January 2025
s 9 8 7 6 4
h 9 2
d Q 10 6 4
c Q 7
s 10 2
h A Q 8
d K 9 3 2
c A 6 3 2
West North East South (You)
1c 1h 3NT
All Pass
West leads his partner's suit, the
h9. How do you play?
It is important to pay attention to
your heart honors at least twice, and
maybe three times. Two leads will
suffice if East began with a doubleton
hA, as his ace will appear on the
second round. When East holds four
hearts including the ace, he will play
low the first two times that you lead
towards your honors. You then need
to lead the suit from dummy a third
time.
Let's see how the play should go.
Win the opening lead with dummy's
sK and play a heart. After winning
with the hK, return to dummy with
a high diamond and lead another
heart, winning with the queen.
Finally, cross to dummy's remaining
diamond winner and lead yet another
heart. Whether or not East takes his
ace on this trick, you have the three
heart tricks that you need. Slam bid
and made!
On this deal, you need to focus on
the play in two suits:
s A K 5 3
h 10 6 4
d A 7 5
c J 10 4
s Q J
h K J 7 5 3
d J 8
c K 9 8 5
BY MARC SMITH
the intermediate cards. Doing so here
tells you that your h8 has suddenly
grown enormously in stature. By covering
West's 9 with dummy's h10,
you promote your 8 into a third heart
trick. East covers with the hJ and
you win with the queen, leaving you
with a finesse position against East's
hK. What now?
Counting tricks, you see that three
heart winners bring your total to
eight. One possibility for a ninth trick
is to find the diamonds breaking 3-3,
but that will happen only just over
one-third of the time. You can more
than double those odds by instead
taking two finesses in clubs, hoping
either that the suit splits evenly or
that West holds one of the missing
honors.
At trick two, you should lead
towards dummy's cJ 10 4. If West
hops up with the cQ, your problems
are over immediately. Let's assume
West plays low and dummy's cJ
loses to East's king. It makes no difference
what East returns; suppose
he plays another heart. You finesse,
winning with the h8. You now continue
by playing a second club toward
dummy.
This time, West has no choice but
to take his queen, and you have your
ninth trick. Had the c10 lost to East,
you would still make your contract
with a 3-3 club break.
Needing two tricks from this club
suit, many players might mistakenly
start by leading the jack from
dummy. That loses to West's queen,
and East's club holding would then
prevent you making a second trick in
the suit. To generate extra tricks, it is
generally best to lead toward honors
rather than by leading an honor. 2
January 2025

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