Egg and bacon

Here's a hand featuring what you might called a 'marked finesse'. Sitting North, you've ended up in 3NT after West's overcalled 1♥ - surely marking her with the ♥Q10 - which bodes well for your contract. East, however, hasn't led a heart, but the ♠5. What's your plan?

It's looking good, isn't it? If East has the ♠A you have not just one but two spade tricks. And even if West doesn't have the ♥10 * you've surely got three heart tricks. Add to that two club tricks and at least 4 in diamonds - 5 if you can catch the ♦Q.

First, let's see what happens at trick 1: you play low in dummy, West plays the ♠J and you win with the ♠Q. OK. What next?

Well, taking the heart finesse of the ♥J as a given, all you have to do is sort out the diamonds. What's your best chance of making 5 diamond tricks?

Sure. Finesse to catch the ♦Q. A 50% chance. Can you improve on that? Yes you can! How?

If the Queen's missing ...

... you have the A and the K. So you don't need to take the finesse right away. It's a good idea to begin by cashing the Ace or the King, in case the Queen is a singleton. Imagine that you lead the ♦J at trick 2, play low from dummy and lose to the ♦Q ... and it turns out that it was a singleton. A great way of getting egg on your face!

There's no need to risk such embarrassment. At trick 2 simply lead a low diamond to the Ace: if West drops the ♦Q, all's fine, and if not you just get back into your hand (via the ♥J - why not?) and now take the diamond finesse.

OK. Most of the time, West won't be holding the singleton ♦Q (the odds are a bit under 6%) but on the odd occasion that she does have it, you'll be getting a better score than a lot of other declarers ...

... and, as you can see if you check out the whole deal, this deal is one such odd occasion.

On the night

On the posh night, every table played in 3NT, one declarer going off (!), three making 10 tricks, and only two making 11 tricks. One made 12, having presumably played West for the ♥10 as well as the ♥Q and getting the diamonds right as well.

In AP, the three declarers in 3NT made 9, 11 and 12 tricks, while one North somehow ended up in 1♥.

Conclusion 

It's a simple enough precaution: missing the Q, cash a top honour first in case the Q is singleton, and if it doesn't appear take the finesse as planned. Most of the time it won't make a ha'pence of difference, but it costs nothing and sometimes it will bring home the bacon.

cj 

* Some players insist on overcalling with rubbish suits, in spite of my banging on about the 'suit quality test' all the time.

Wrong vulnerability

Here's a strange deal that would end up being a lot of fun if the vulnerability were reversed - that is, if NS (the stronger side) were vulnerable and the EW (the weaker side) were non-vulnerable.

You pass, as does East, and your partner opens 2♣, promising either a balanced hand with 23+ points or 9 or so tricks in an unspecified suit. You have 5 spades, but otherwise you're as weak as a kitten, so you propose to respond 2♦ and await partner's rebid. This would be my plan:

• if partner responds 2NT, I'll transfer her into spades and then bid 3NT. With my 3 points, we should have enough for game.
• If she bids clubs, diamonds or hearts, I'll show my spades and hope partner doesn't think I'm stronger than I am. (She should understand, as I didn't respond 2♠ to her opening bid.)
• If she bids spades I'll raise her straight to 4♠. An example of 'fast arrival', meaning 'You want to be in game, partner. OK. Here you are. Please don't go any further!'

In the event, West gets in the way. Unexpectedly, as they're vulnerable and West knows that South's got a pretty strong hand. To show that you were intending to respond 2♦ you now pass. Don't be tempted to bid 2♠ just because you can: partner will expect you to have 7+ points and could go leaping off into all sorts of unmakeable slams! Just pass and wait and see.

And as it happens, spades is partner's suit too, so (as planned) you sign off in 4♠ and partner, knowing you're weak, passes.

Can you make it?

Now you're sitting South. Here's your hand:    West leads the ♥A against your 4♠ contract. Can you make it?

Maybe - but maybe not. You've already lost one trick, you've got 2 diamond losers ... and unless you get a bit of luck you're in line to lose a club trick as well. 

As it happens, you're OK, as you'll see if you look at the whole deal. Even if West finds the switch to diamonds on trick 2, you don't have a club loser: The singleton ♣Q drops under the ♣A, giving you 3 club tricks, and you can discard dummy's 4th club on your ♥Q. Phew! Good thing you didn't look for the slam.

What's all this about vulnerability, then?

Well, if the vulnerability were reversed, the EW bidding would be a lot bolder. East would surely raise her partner's hearts straight to game, and West would then 'sacrifice' in 5♥. Leaving South having to decide whether to go on to 5♠ or double for penalties.

Either is disastrous: as we've seen, 5♠ goes off, but more dramatically, 5♥ actually makes. With just 16 points between the two hands: EW lose just one heart trick and one club trick. 

Sadly, the vulnerability was the other way round, so the results were in the main rather pedestrian:

On the night

On the posh night, NS were in 4♠ at all the tables bar one, all making 10 tricks. At the other table, a frisky EW ignored the vulnerability and punted 5♥, which was duly doubled ... and made with an overtrick for 1050. Lovely.

In AP, the contract was 4♠ at every table, making 10 tricks.

cj