An Extra Chance...

[OliverC]

Sometimes it pays to give yourself that little extra chance to make a contract (even if it later turns out not to have been needed), when you feel like the obvious line is probably going to fail. Take the following hand, on which you are South at Game All, and the Dealer is East:

South
QJ10943
8
984
754

Bidding
East     South     West     North
1       2         No         4
All Pass

Yes, I know, 2 was a little "frisky". I'd certainly have passed over a 1m bid from East, but decided I couldn't resist over 1 .

West led the King and Eszter put down her fine dummy:

North (Dummy)
K865
AJ94
J5
AKJ

King led

South
QJ10943
8
984
754

East encouraged at trick 1 and trick 2 was a small Diamond to East's Ace. Ace and another Spade followed (West followed to the first Spade and discarded a Diamond on the second). How do you plan the play from here?

With plenty of choices I took the second Spade with Dummy's King. The problem is that it is more likely that East has the Queen and the Heart Honours, so taking the Club finesse was not the topmost priority I had, but I realised it might be something I had to fall back on eventually.

At trick 5 I led the Ace of Hearts and then a small Heart, hoping that West might have 10x or 10xx and that East might therefore rise with the Queen or King just in case I had the 10. This did indeed happen (so clearly East didn't have the 10 but did have the KQ) and when West played the 7 on the second round of Hearts, I knew I was home: I ruffed a Diamond in Dummy and led the Heart Jack, pinning West's 10. East hesitated for a few seconds and then played low to I discarded the losing Club.

As it turned out, West did have the Club Queen after all, so I was destined to make whatever line I took. Only 3 of us were in 4 making, the rest allowing EW to play in Heart part-scores or playing in a Spade part-score instead. +620 was worth a useful 8½ IMPs.

Sometimes it is worth just giving yourself that extra chance to avoid taking a finesse you think is probably losing, especially if you always retain the option of trying the finesse after all. I knew it was very unlikely that West held a Heart honour, especially when they didn't lead Hearts at trick 1, but it was possible they had the 10. Psychologically, I thought it might be difficult for East, starting with KQxxx, not to play an honour (because they'd look really foolish if I won the second round of Hearts with the 10 and they let the contract through. If East didn't play the 10, then clearly West had it.