Bridge Deal of the Week (Jul 18 2008)

Problem:

The Auction:
West  North  East  South
1♦       dbl     pass   2♦
pass     2♠     pass   3♣
pass     3♦     pass   3♥
pass     4♣     pass   5♣
all pass

This week's deal is modified from a deal that occurred in the US team trials. You are invited to take the South seat, declaring 5♣ after West opened the bidding with 1♦. West leads the ♦A, and follows it up with the ♦K and ♦Q, East ruffing with the ♣5 the third round, you overruff with the ♣9. You draw trumps next, West shows up with three of them, East discards two hearts (remember, he has already used one trump to ruff the third diamond). When you play a heart towards the ace, West follows with the jack, creating a finesse position in the suit for you. The question now is, do you finesse the ♥10, or do you play West to have QJ doubleton in hearts?

Hint:
At the outset, it appears as if you need to guess whether to finesse the ♥10, or to try and drop the queen. The principle of restricted choice suggests that you finesse. Also, East is likely to have more cards than West in the majors - another reason to suggest that you should finesse. Convinced? Or do you have a reason to spurn the finesse?

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Bridge Baron deal No: N4453-50683-44732-21068-05374-52975

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Deal Of The Week