In Australia they do it with finesse

Karen Cumpstone came to Canada from New Zealand a few years ago. She was a well respected card player down under as she is in North America. She sent a lovely hand which will be reported by Ron Klinger in the near Sun-Herald on December 19th. Here is the story:

Dave Beauchamp who Ray and I met when we visited Australia was playing with Ted Chadwick. This was the deal from Ted’s point of view:

North ♠ J732 ♥ A9852 ♦ K7 ♣ 53

South ♠ Q654 ♥ Q73 ♦ AJ ♣ AQ94

The auction was simple. Ted opened 1NT and responded spades to Stayman.  Now Dave raised to 3♠ and that was the final contract.  The opening lead was the ♦ 3 (4th highest).  The plan is going to be to draw trump and set up hearts.   Ted won the ♦ K and played the ♥ 9.  East ducked very smoothly and Ted let the heart run to the ♥10.  The smooth duck suggested to him that the ♥ K was on his left not on his right.  He won the diamond return in hand and played a spade from hand.  West won and got out a club to the East’s ♣ K and Ted’s ♣ A.  Ted played another spade West winning as both followed.  Ted won the club return and drew the last trump with the ♠Q .  This was the position with the lead in Ted’s hand.

North ♠ J ♥ A852 ♦ – ♣ –

Ted ♠ 6 ♥ Q7 ♦ – ♣ 94

There are actually two choices now.  You can play the ♥ A.  This works if the ♥ K started out as doubleton in either hand (most likely West’s).  Or you can try something more artistic.  Ted’s original play of the ♥ 9 set up an intrafinesse, one of the truly beautiful plays in bridge.  If as was the case the original heart holding was

West: ♥ K10x   and East: ♥ Jx

then when Ted leads the ♥ Q to the second heart trick, there is nothing the defense can do to get a second heart trick.  When West covers the ♥ A will smother East’s ♥ J and set up the suit for declarer.

Why did Ted chose the intrafinesse as the way to play hearts?  In his own words; “. The only reason I did that rather than try to drop the king was simply because I’d never done an intra finesse before!”

Lovely.  If there was a bucket list for bridge plays than the intrafinesse was be on my list.  Well done.  And thank you Karen for sharing.

I am leaving for Orlando Saturday so the blogs may get a bit scarce for a couple of days.