BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Neither vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

xQ 10 9 7 3

uK 4

v8 6 5 2

wA 10

WEST EAST

x6 5 x8 4 2

u10 8 2 uQ 9 7 6 5

vA J 10 7 vQ 9

wK 9 8 3 wQ J 6

SOUTH

xA K J

uA J 3

vK 4 3

w7 5 4 2

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1NT Pass 2u- Pass

2x Pass 3NT Pass

4x All pass

-Transfer to spades

Opening lead: Eight of u

A ”free finesse” is a finesse with no risk attached. It usually happens when an opponent leads a suit for you. It gives you an extra trick at no cost, but there are times when it must be spurned. Today’s deal is from a youth competition in Australia.

The heart lead offered a free finesse, but it also tangled up declarer’s entries. Should declarer accept this free trick, he would end up needing the ace of diamonds to be in the East hand. Young Matt Smith showed us how to do it.

Smith rejected the free finesse by rising with dummy’s king of hearts at trick one. He then cashed the ace of clubs and led a heart to his jack. This finesse was not free, but it was successful. The ace of hearts was cashed to discard dummy’s remaining club, and a club was ruffed with dummy’s queen of spades. Smith crossed back to his hand with a low spade to his ace and ruffed another club, this time with dummy’s 10. He led dummy’s low spade to his king and ruffed his last club with dummy’s last trump, the nine.

At this point, Smith had taken three hearts, one club, two spades in his hand, and three club ruffs in the dummy. That was nine tricks and he still had the high jack of spades for his tenth. The location of the ace of diamonds was no longer relevant. Nicely played!

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