Both vulnerable. North deals.

Both vulnerable. North deals.
NORTH
Q 4
K 7 5 2
J 5
A Q J 10 8
WEST EAST
10 9 8 5 K J 7 6 3
J 10 8
K 9 8 3 7 6 2
K 7 4 2 6 5 3
SOUTH
A 2
A Q 9 6 4 3
A Q 10 4
9
The bidding:
NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST
1 Pass 1 Pass
2 Pass 3 Pass
4 Pass 6 Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: Ten of
Some finesses are pure guesses. But there are times when you don't care whether a finesse wins or loses.
North-South conducted an aggressive auction to reach the heart slam. South decided that his hand was too strong simply to bid four hearts after North's raise, and North lent a bit too much weight to his diamond holding when he accepted South's game try in diamonds.
West led the 10 of spades, and declarer was in a bind. He tried the queen of spades from the table, but East covered and the defense had established a trick in spades. A successful finesse in either minor could solve the problem, and there was also a backward finesse in clubs to try. Which should declarer choose?
If either the club finesse or the diamond finesse lost, the defenders would take the setting trick in spades. However, if South took the ruffing finesse in clubs, there was no way of defeating the contract!
Declarer won the spade lead, drew trumps in two rounds then played the ace and queen of clubs and, when East followed low, declarer discarded his losing spade. South ruffed the spade return, crossed to dummy with a trump and discarded three diamonds from hand on the table's good clubs, and the slam rolled home.
& copy; 2006 Tribune Media Services
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