A thread for a friend, and bored people who fancies some new gadgets.

tlautrec · #1 16th January 2010

The finesse.

This is not a crash course on the general finesse, but I had a game earlier on and made a move that baffled my partner. I guess it's pretty unconventional for people to do so, so I'll give my partner at that time an explanation anyways:

So my club holdings were Qx. His club holdings were Axxx (forgot how many small clubs he had, assume more than 3)

It was a contract of 4 hearts and I called Ace of clubs to be my partner. I laid down the queen of clubs after gaining the lead after 1 round. My partner did not know if he should put down the ace, so he ducked. ^^ it was taken by the king. So.. why did i lead the Queen?

Of course, the better move might be for my partner to lead a small club to the queen, so that if the king appears halfway, i can save my queen from sacrificing to the king, and take a trick later, and even later, my partner might be able to take another trick with his ace of clubs. so why did I not wait for that possibility of getting 2 tricks instead of 1 and risk causing confusion?

1. Potential trump: Calling the Ace of clubs as partner would indicate that i probably had a shortage in clubs, so it's possible that I would like a club return after the ace is laid down in order to break trump. However, I have TWO clubs, so having just the ace of clubs is not enough to give me a trump, and hence I can't break trump and draw those trumps that make jeopardize my other potential winners in another suit that I was planning to run after the trumps are all out. (I bid this contract with a 2 suited hand, as usual ^^) So, I took the liberty of playing out the club and 'giving away a free trick to the opponents' first, because I want to make sure that once the ace is played, I will be 100% sure to gain control. and 100% BREAK TRUMP WITH THE CONTROL IN MY HANDS MUAHAHAHA.

E.g.

Partner: Axxx
Opp: xxx
Opp Kxxx
Me: Qx

2. The finesse is not possible if partner can't gain the lead by another means other than Ace club. So in short this requires:
a. partner to know that you have queen.
b. partner to gain the lead other than through ace club
c. after partner gains the lead, partner plays a small to your queen AND the king doesnt drop.

why?
a- because if you dont have queen, playing small is meaningless; you need queen for this trick to work.
b-if partner had already cashed ace club, i would be reduced to my 1 and only queen of clubs left in my hand. if the King appears the queen's gonna be sacrificed anyways
c-if King does appears, then you will have your queen promoted to a sure winner... and then you cash it. but how to pass the lead back to your partner to cash the ace of clubs? You have effectively BLOCKED yourself.

So, Kiwi8, did you understand why I led the queen of clubs?

I am EVIL. ^^

Kiwi8 · #2 16th January 2010

I know that u are applying some of the contract bridge concepts to the floating bridge (Zany bridge), but I do feel that there is no need to analyse as deep as contract bridge. So I must admit I will use very laymen analysis to analyse floating bridge.

U see, sometimes a finesse can also be executed by forcing out the King Club (assuming of course the defender has only the King Club singleton (low chance).

Anyway, I do understand your rationale of leading the Queen of Clubs.

tlautrec · #3 16th January 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiwi8

I know that u are applying some of the contract bridge concepts to the floating bridge (Zany bridge), but I do feel that there is no need to analyse as deep as contract bridge. So I must admit I will use very laymen analysis to analyse floating bridge.

U see, sometimes a finesse can also be executed by forcing out the King Club (assuming of course the defender has only the King Club singleton (low chance).

Anyway, I do understand your rationale of leading the Queen of Clubs.

Haha sorry for the lengthy analysis. =X Mhmm actually i can say so much about it because I have played bridge for really really long so I lead by reflexes which were the result of much consideration from a long time ago. That's how you get playing style. hahaha and it's my style to do such outrageous stuff so do pardon me.

Oh and when explaining i get carried away especially with the blabbling of terms >< I'll keep it in mind to make it simple next time. =D let's play together again someday. With Winson100. ;p