Hand of the day #415
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This conundrum was written by Eddie Kantar and was originally published in the book Take All Your Chances - you can find out all about it further down the page.
A jump shift followed by a jump preference from partner (1♦-1♥; 2♠ 4♦), then control bids of 4♥ from you and 4♠ from partner, lands you in a touchy grand slam. Your contract is 7♦ and the opening lead is the ♣K. Plan your Grand Slam play.
You have a possible heart loser, a loser that can be avoided if East has the ♥Q. On the other hand, if West has the ♠J, you can lead a spade to the ♠10. If the ♠10 holds you can discard two hearts from dummy on the ♠KQ. No more heart loser. In other words, you are looking at two finesses and if either works you can make your grand slam — but if you take the wrong one… down you go. If only you knew which one to take
When either of two finesses will give you your contract, one suit missing a queen, the other a jack, play the ace and king of the suit missing the queen (here, hearts). If the queen doesn’t appear, take a finesse in the suit missing the jack (spades). Since one finesse is as good as the other, you pick up something like an extra 20% by cashing the ♥AK before taking the spade finesse as the ♥Q might fall under the ♥AK. Testing the hearts without giving up the lead has kept you alive to take the spade finesse, not to mention that extra 20%
What a difference a spot makes! If declarer has ♠KQ9x then it is right to play off the three top spades first, hoping the jack will drop (37%) and keeping the heart finesse in reserve if it doesn’t.
The West hand: ♠J832 ♥Q87 ♦2 ♣KQT42
The East hand: ♠975 ♥T65 ♦43 ♣A9865
Selecting the best line of play in a bridge hand as declarer is not easy. Most novices know something about basic odds and percentages, and can often find a line that offers a reasonable chance of success. However, the expert will skillfully combine options, so as to take advantage of more than chance. Rather than putting all his eggs in one basket, he will 'stay alive', squeezing out every extra chance. In this book of intermediate problems, Kantar shows the reader how to do this — there is always a line of play that will allow you take all your chances, and bring home your contract.
