JANUARY 1992 The Intra-finesse by David Lindop

Early in our bridge playing days, the im- If we give ourselves the eight and portance of playing in an 8-card or longer nine, however, the situation becomes suit, especially when the suit is more interesting: divided 4-4 between the two hands, is something we all come across. Sooner Dummy or later, we end up playing in a trump suit A843 that looks something like this: LHO RHO KJ9 106 Dummy Declarer Q952 A743 It still does no good to lead the ace and Declarer then low toward the queen. Our LHO Q652 will win two tricks with the king and jack. Nor does it help to lead the queen, If we can only afford to lose one trick in since LHO will cover with the king and the suit, we apply the basic principle of we will eventually lose a trick to the ten the finesse: lead toward the card which and one to the jack. we hope will win a trick -- to¬ward the Suppose, however, we lead a low queen in this example. Usu¬ally, the ace card from dummy toward our hand, be- is played first, in case there is a single¬ton fore taking the ace; RHO contributes the king lurking about, but we are hop¬ing six and we play the nine from our hand. that RHO has the king three times or LHO wins the first trick with the jack and doubleton. We can also the sec¬ond the layout now looks like this: round if RHO plays low, hoping LHO has king doubleton. How are we to know Dummy that this is the case? Usually, the bidding A84 gives an indication and, perhaps, the way LHO RHO the opponents play their cards. K7 10 In the above layout, it does us no Declarer Q52 good to lead the queen on the first round of the suit, since we are missing the Jack, ten, nine, and eight. And however good When we regain the lead, we are now in we are at guessing, we have no hope of a position to lead the queen from our losing only one trick if the hand. If LHO does not cover, the queen layout is: will win the trick and we will take all three remaining tricks. If the queen is Dummy covered with the king, we win dummy's A743 ace, pinning the ten and establishing the LHO RHO all-important eight. KJ9 108 It would be of no avail for RHO to Declarer rise with the ten on the first round of the Q652 suit, as we would cover with the queen to CANADIAN MASTER POINT force LHO to win with the king. The ♠ 2 remaining cards would now look like ♥ A954 this: ◆ KQJ2 ♣ AK104 Dummy A84 LHO RHO ♠ KQ5 J7 6 ♥ Q862 Declarer 952 ◆ 98763 ♣ 7 When we regain the lead, we can lead As usual, I had bid too much but partner toward the dummy, planning to take a certainly had her values. The opening finesse against LHO's jack. lead had not done me any damage and I The above method of playing this won the shift of the two of clubs with is termed an intra-fi- dummy's king. With sure spade and dia- nesse . As we have seen, it is rather com- mond losers, I could afford only one loser plex, even when we can see all the in the trump suit. There was that magic missing cards. It is even more difficult to combination! I led the four of hearts execute at the table. You need to recog- from dummy and the seven appeared on nize the potential for an intra-finesse in my right. I inserted the eight and LHO the heat of battle and must be fairly cer- won the jack. Another club was led and tain of the lie of the missing cards. I trumped with the two of hearts and led Otherwise, you'll be asking yourself why the queen of hearts from my hand. you didn't merely take a simple finesse! Bingo! This was the complete hand: I used to think that the intra-finesse was one of those rare text-book situations ♠ 2 that only came up when the Hideous Hog ♥ A954 was playing against Papa the Greek in ◆ KQJ2 Bridge in the Menagerie, or the Abbot ♣ AK104 encountered Brother Xavier in one of ♠ AJ963 ♠ 10874 's articles. However, a couple N of hands in the past year have changed ♥ KJ3 W E ♥ 107 my mind. The first came up when I was ◆ 105 S ◆ A4 playing in the 1990 Master Mixed - ♣ Q92 ♣ J8653 a-Match final (one of my favourite forms ♠ KQ5 of the game). The auction proceeded: ♥ Q862 ◆ 98763 West North East South(me) ♣ 7 Pass 1 ♠ Dble 2 ♠ 3 ♥ Notice how there was a lot of information Pass ♥ 4 to help find the right play on this hand. LHO had opened the bidding and shown The was the ace of spades up with only the ace of spades so far. and this is what I saw: LHO must hold either the king of hearts or the ace of diamonds to have an open- JANUARY 1992 ing bid. When the four of hearts was led however, and continued with the queen from dummy, RHO might have played when East encouraged. Now West the king, and was also unlikely to have switched to the three of hearts and I was played the seven from a holding of J73 or at the cross-roads. With a diamond and 1073. I had to assume the missing dia- three clubs to lose, I had to hold the spade monds were divided 2-2, otherwise one losers to one. of the opponents could probably get a Once again, there was a lot of infor- . Spades were likely divided 5-4, mation. Why had West not played a third since they were bid and raised. With five club? Presumably, because he held only spades and two diamonds, it was not un- the doubleton KQ and East started with reasonable to assume RHO had exactly four to the ace. If East held both the ace 5-3-2-3 shape. Of course, it turned out to of clubs and king of spades, he might be 5-2-2-4 ... well, that's another story. have raised to two diamonds immediately A few months later, in the round- over the double. So it looked as though robin final of the Canadian National West held the king of spades. Here we go Team Championship, I was playing with again. Win the heart lead with dummy's Ed Bridson and the following hand came king and lead the four of spades. When up: the six appeared from East, I played the nine and West won the ten. Another ♠ A874 heart was led. I won dummy's ace of ♥ AKJ9 hearts, led a diamond to my ace and ◆ 42 played the queen of spades. This was the ♣ 864 complete hand: ♠ 2 ♠ Q952 ♥ A954 ♥ 8 4 ◆ KQJ2 ◆ AJ3 ♣ AK104 ♣ J532 ♠ AJ963 N ♠ 10874 ♥ KJ3 W E ♥ 107 West North East South ◆ 105 S ◆ A4 (Ed) (Me) ♣ Q92 ♣ J8653 ♠ KQ5 Pass ♥ Q862 1 ◆ Double Pass 1 ♠ ◆ 98763 Pass Pass 2 ◆ 2 ♠ ♣ 7 I guess if you're going to rebid a suit of Q952 it's best to know about intra-fi- West ducked the queen of spades, but nesses. West led the king of diamonds another spade drew the remaining trump and I let this win the trick -- the old Bath and I was able to lead the last club from . Sometimes opponents get their dummy toward the jack of clubs for my signals upside-down (even in a Canadian eighth trick. championship!) and I was hoping for a So there you go. The intra-finesse diamond continuation so that I could dis- actually does come up at the table. I'm card one of dummy's club losers. West certainly looking for further opportunities carefully switched to the king of clubs, to try it out. How about you?