A short break from the instructional series to help you get over that heavy column of last week — I hope you’ve recovered from it!

As regular readers of this column will know I only like finesses as a last resort — but every once in a while the odds tilt me in favour of an early finesse. This hand came up recently and I could not resist!

We managed to stay in four hearts — as you can see the slam is defeated on a club lead, but it would be a good slam as it makes 12 tricks on any lead but a club and the club Ace would have to be with east to defeat it.

East-West were an excellent pair from LA and West led the two of spades. I won the Queen with the Ace, sowing the seeds with East that his partner may have the King.

The hand now makes 12 tricks by drawing trumps and discarding one of dummy’s clubs on a diamond — but we were on a roll in this session, the luck was with us and I wanted more!

So where is the finesse I mentioned? I decided not to draw trump as it might allow the defence to signal and at trick two led a low diamond towards dummy and inserted the ten …..when this held 13 tricks rolled in as both clubs from dummy now go away on the diamonds!

Luck? Yes, a bit, but I thought the risk reward was great as the finesse was 50/50 and I was certain East would return a spade if he had the Jack of diamonds — if he does I still can claim the 12 tricks the rest of the room was claiming on a non-club lead.

What would have happened if East had won the diamond Jack and played a club? At the table I would just move on as I was happy with the risk/reward on the play, but the hand may not have appeared in this column!

Once in a while these things work. So you see, not all finesses are bad.

The next set of Beginners Bridge Lessons will start on September 14, 2026, at 6.45pm to 9pm and run until the end of March, with a break for Christmas. Message bridgelessons@bermudabridge.com for details and registration.

• David Ezekiel can be reached at davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, July 10

1 Jane Smith/Margaret Way

2 Elysa Burland/Heather Woolf

3 Jack Rhind/Molly Taussig

Monday, July 13

North/South

1 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2 Elizabeth McKee/Margaret Way

3 Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

East/West

1 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

2 Caroline Svensen/Jane Clipper

3= Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

3= Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

Tuesday, July 14

1 Richard Bruton/Chris Van Rooyen

2 Gareth Cooper/Maximilian Santiago

3 Ross Cooper/Desiree Woods

Wednesday, July 15

1 Elizabeth McKee/Stephanie Kyme

2 Betsy Baillie/Sharon Shanahan

3 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

Thursday, July 16

1 Gertrude Barker/Cristine Lloyd-Jennings

2 Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan

3 Tim Mardon/Kaitlin Conyers