Skip to main content

A Simple Finesse of Grand Slam?

This is the last deal in 2017 Michael Seamon JUSBC U26 USA2 Finals.

Board 30
Vul: None
Dealer: East

East:                              East           West
♠ AQ3                            2♣              2♢                       5NT: ♢Q without ♠K
♡ 5                                 3♢              3♡
♢ AKJT84                      3NT            4♢
♣ AKQ                           4NT            5♣
                                      5♡             5NT*
                                       ?

Total IMPs before the last segment is 102:95, a little bit ahead of opponent.
Other boards in the last segment are as followings:
   
     Board 2: Opponents bid a grand slam with a missing key card. Although East makes a lead directing bid, West chooses the wrong suit for leading.
     Board 5: West does a wrong decision from finesse and 3-3, which leads the game contract down.



NOW, THE LAST BOARD COMES !!!
Gambling or not, that is a question. From East's point of view, there is a large chance to bring a grand slam home. If West holds ♡AKQ, if West holds ♡AKXXX and 3 diamond, the grand slam is easy to reach under a normal distribution. The worst situation is a finesse in spade. In such backward circumstance, it is worth to gamble. East bids 6♠ at last and 7♢ becomes the final contract.

The whole cards are as follows:

Lead: ♢2



Trick     1     2     3     4
      1       ♢2  ♢4   ♢9  ♢Q
      2       ♢7  ♢5   ♢A  ♢3
      3       ♢K  ♢6   ♠4  ♣6
      4       ♢J   ♣T   ♡2  ♠2
      5       ♢T  ♣9   ♡9  ♣3
      6       ♢8  ♡7   ♠8  ♣4
      7       ♣A  ♣5   ♣2  ♣7
      8       ♣K  ♡6   ♣J   ♣8
      9       ♣Q ♠5   ♠T   ♡4
     10      ♡5  ♡3   ♡A  ♡J
     11      ♡K  ♠7   ♠3   ♡T
     12      ♠J   ♠9   ?

West wins the ♢Q in hand and draw trumps and clubs in 9 rounds. South follows 3 trumps and 3 clubs as well as discard 2 hearts and a small spade in order.
The last two cards:









It seems to be a simple finesse in spade, however West finds an extra chance, SQUEEZE when South holds both ♠K and 5 cards of heart. Now, South actually holds 5 cards of heart and no one knows it is fortunate or not. The extra chance exactly appears now. How to choose, simple finesse or squeeze?
PS: South is an experienced bridge player.

Obviously, the probability of 4 cards with K is much higher than the one of doubleton K. In addition, South is an experienced bridge player. He will recognize that he will be squeezed in the endplay in an early stage if he holds both ♠K and 5 cards of heart. So he will discard one spade as soon as possible and remain singleton ♠K in a high possibility. Although finesse may be a better choice for declarer, he plays ♠A after a long pause.

The full deal:
Board 30
Vul: None
Dealer: East








East is my partner in primary school. He told me what he could after laying cards was looking up, praying. No one could understand such powerlessness. Success or failure? 14 imps, the cost of gambling, losing 7 imps in total.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Online training: An unexpected but reasonable ducking

HAHAHA, after one month off bridge, I'm back!!! This deal happened in our weekly online training, Nov 5th, 2018. First of all, I have to admit my mistake. Hahaha, to be honest, the training was quite boring. After 12 boards, the scores were still 2:2. Although I knew X was not allowed and I would be fined if 3♣X was brought home, I still couldn't help to doing that. Board 13 Dealer: North Vul: Both North    East    South    West  Pass     Pass      1♢         2♢*   2♡*      2♠       Pass       Pass   3♣         X         AP 2♢: Michael 2♡: ♣ suit, better than 3♣ Lead: ♡3 (if hasn't raised, count has a priority. That is to say, xxx lead the smallest card) Table followed ♡9. Normally, you would play ♡Q causally. Would it be correct in this case? Leading analysis: East seems to hold 3♡, unless East hold ♡32. In that case, North might not scramble for 3♣ under such vulnerability if North has 4 cards ♡. Bidding analysis: There is no doubt that East doubled,

Asian Game_ Pairs Final: Creating an entry!

This deal happened in the last segment of Asian Game Pairs Finals. Who played this deal would never be mentioned in my blog. I was quite afraid of being accused of insulting players. Board 15 Dealer: South Vul: N-S South    West    North    East  2♡*        Pass     Pass        X  Pass       2♠       Pass      3NT   AP 2♡: Weak 6 cards ♡ Lead: ♣4 North followed ♣Q and you won with the ♣A. And now, how to play? Now you had 3♣, 1♡, so you need 4♠ and 1♢. You must assume that South hold ♢A and North hold ♠K. Otherwise it would down quickly. The leading was quite strange. If he was 1-6-3-3, he would lead ♢. If he was 2-6-2-3, ♡ was the normal leading. I felt South hold 4 cards ♣, because he led quickly. However, it was hard to say. Anyway, you need 2 entries to finesse ♠K. One was ♢K, appreciating the leading, ♣9 became another entry. Before everything, you must knock out ♣J first. 1. If South won with the J and returned ♣. The distribution was clear. And South must hold d

Online training: Please remember to detect the honors beforehand !!!

This deal happened in our weekly online training last Monday. I couldn't concentrate my attention due to the lack of card sense online. Rookie mistake should be mentioned here. Board 13 Vul: Both Dealer: North East    West 1NT      2♣  2♡       4♡ Lead: ♠7 South led ♠7 while North followed ♠J. And I won with the ♠Q. Now what's your plan? ♠7 seemed to be doubleton. Firstly, you couldn't avoid to lose 1♠, 1♢ and 1♣ at least. In other word, you must make a right guess in who had ♡Q. For me, due to the leading, I had supposed South hold long ♡ and he hadn't led trump, so I just played casually, cashing ♡K, then ♡J->♡2->♡5->♡Q... Oops... Doing some detection first to find more clues might be a better choose. Sending out ♢ first and whatever who won, he had no choice but to return ♢ or ♠. I could win in hand. Crossing to table with ♣K. And now the distribution was clear. If one A for each, now it was your guess time, no more information I thought. May