BRIDGE
Spot the lady
Andrew Robson
Jimmy Cayne, head of Bear Stearns in New York, is fanatical about bridge. He com- petes at the very top level in America and will hate himself for blowing the following hand, a grand slam, in the final of the Vanderbilt Trophy, recently held in Dallas.
Dealer South East-West vulnerable
The Bidding
South West 2+ pass 3♦ pass 4♦ pass 7♦ pass North East 2V pass pass 6♦ pass pass pass Both North and South's final calls were somewhat aggressive and the contract depended on avoiding losing a trick to •Q. How do you play the trump suit?
West led a 4 to East's queen and South's king. Cayne realised that the odds missing five cards in diamonds favoured taking the finesse — the queen was unlikely to fall under the top honours. In case it was sin- gleton, he cashed the king first. He crossed to 40 and ran *9. Good-news bad-news resulted. The nine won the trick — the finesse had succeeded — but West was now void and East' s queen was guarded. Cayne could not finesse against it again and went one down. Did he err?
Most emphatically! Laying down 4K before cossing to dummy to finesse caters to West holding a singleton queen. But it prevents declarer from taking two finesses in the more likely scenario that West has a low singleton. Exactly four times as likely. Cayne should cross to +0 at trick two and lead •9, running it when East plays low. He continues by playing dummy's second ♦ to his ten. He draws East's two remain- ing 45 including •Q and claims his con- tract.
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