Vil Gravis's blog

Most of the time, you shouldn’t need to be Deep Finesse to make the best opening lead. Nor should you have needed to have read some of my earlier articles stressing the need to have a full set of agreements with your partner as well a full repertoire of opening leads, including the opening lead of the ACE when holding specifically AKx or AQx against a No Trump contract.

Board 11 from Thursday 14/03/24
Dealer S EW Vul

	Q 32 K86 AJ98752
8752 AQ8 QT54 QT		JT96 KT654 97 63
	AK43 J97 AJ32 K4

The obsession with No Trumps has the potential to either win in a big way, or deservedly crash in flames. Why do so many bridge players have this obsession with bidding No Trump slams rather than the far easier to make minor suit slam? I don’t have a ready answer for that, but Deep Finesse does, because DF can see all the hands and knows that 7NT can be made by NS on this deal. So can 7D but 7D does not require the same virtually impossible layout that 7NT requires.

Board 19 from Wednesday 28/02/24
Dealer S EW Vul

	A6 A964 KQ76 AJ7
J532 KQJT53 J9 5		T74 72 83 Q98642
	KQ98 8 AT542 KT3

What can we learn, if anything, from this deal, which tells us that Deep Finesse can make 4S EW but not 4H! So, what’s the difference? When you see the deal for Board 5 you’ll see little difference between the hearts and spades: both have a 5-3 fit but there appear to be two heart losers and only one spade loser. Yet, DF says EW can make 4H but not 4S. Let’s see if we can work out why, then, 4H makes but not 4S.

Board 5 from Wednesday 14/02/24
Dealer N NS Vul

	QJ7 QT9 KQ9 A952
A8543 A6432 Q73		KT6 J87 AJ5 KJ84
	92 K5 T876432 T6

As South, how would you play 4H when West leads the four of clubs? Let’s say South has opened 1H and West has bid spades quite strongly. We can look at the full deal to make the problem into another double dummy one.

Board 6 from Tuesday 30/01/24
Dealer E EW Vul

	9 Q9742 T73 A985
KJT7653 J86 AQ 4		Q2 3 J9642 QJT32
	A84 AKT5 K85 K76

Few declarers made twelve tricks in a 4H contract on Board 18. Needless to say, there were none in 6H which can be made, if you have the help of Deep Finesse.
Board 18 from Wednesday 17/01/24
Dealer E NS Vul

	KQ862 AK6 A432 T
AJ753 T2 QJ6 A72		T94 J53 T95 9843
	Q9874 K87 KQJ65