Too many finesses.
Bridge Column for April 26, 2002, Harvey Bernstein
Neither side vulnerable.  South deals.  
                              North
                              S: 7 6 5 4            
                              H: J 4 2       
                              D: A J 10      
                              C: 8 6 5   
            West                             East
            S: Q J 8 2                       S: 10 9 3       
            H: Q                             H: K 6 5 3    
            D: 7 6 5 2                       D: Q 4 3             
            C: J 9 4 3                       C: K 10 2      
                              South                         
                              S: A K  
                              H: A 10 9 8 7 
                              D: K 9 8     
                              C: A Q 7    
          The Bidding:  
                  South    West    North    East                  
                   1H      Pass     2H      Pass
                   4H      Pass     Pass    Pass
     This hand came up during a rubber bridge game.  The contract
looks very reasonable but declarer was defeated two tricks
because he took the wrong finesse.  The opening lead is the queen
of spades.  Cover the East-West hands and decide how you would
play this hand before reading on.
     The first problem is to determine how to play the trump
suit.  If entries to dummy were not a problem, declarer would
want to lead hearts twice from dummy towards hand.  With most of
the possible distributions of the outstanding hearts, this
approach will hold the losers in that suit to only one trick.
     Entries to the dummy are limited, however, and declarer
wants to be able to lead a club towards the closed hand as well. 
The diamond suit offers a finesse either way, so he prefers that
the opponents lead that suit, but they probably won't be that
helpful.
     The first spade is won in hand.  Because of the entry
problems, declarer decides to avoid the heart finesse and cash
the ace.  There is good news and bad news.  Unfortunately, all of
that news is delivered by the same card when the queen of hearts
falls under the ace. 
     Declarer leads a heart towards the dummy hoping that the
queen was not a singleton.  The bad news is that West discards a
small club.  Declarer ducks in dummy and East ducks as well.
     Another heart goes to the jack and the king.  East exits
with a spade which declarer wins with the king.  Here is the
position with declarer having lost only one trick so far:   
                              North
                              S: 7 6                  
                              H: Void        
                              D: A J 10      
                              C: 8 6 5   
            West                             East
            S: J 8                           S: 10           
            H: Void                          H: 6          
            D: 7 6 5                         D: Q 4 3             
            C: J 9 4                         C: K 10 2      
                              South                         
                              S: Void 
                              H: 10 9       
                              D: K 9 8     
                              C: A Q 7
     In this layout, it is right to take the diamond finesse
through West.  This loses but declarer still has an entry to lead
a club to the queen, which holds.  In all, declarer scores two
spades, two diamonds, two clubs, and four hearts.
     Do you see why it was correct to take the diamond finesse
through West?  If, instead, you play a diamond to the ace and
then run the jack, you are stuck if West holds the queen.  You
can never return to dummy to take the club finesse and you will
have to lose two club tricks along with a heart and a diamond.
_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.