Neither vulnerable, North deals South’s four-spade cue bid denied first-round control in either red suit, so North’s five-heart cue bid promised a diamond control as well as a heart control. It is well known that the percentage play when missing four cards to the queen is to cash the ace and king rather than to finesse. The odds for a finesse are close enough, however, that an expert will sometimes take a finesse when he thinks that the hand calls for it.

South in today’s deal was Swedish expert Anders Morath. Morath appreciated the value of his two of clubs and chose to finesse on this deal because of it. He won the opening diamond lead with dummy’s ace and cashed the ace of clubs, carefully playing the seven from his hand. He then led a club to his jack. Had West discarded, Morath would have had 12 tricks and could try for a thirteenth.

West, however, won with the queen and led another diamond. Morath won with dummy’s king and cashed three rounds of hearts to discard his remaining diamond. He then ruffed a diamond with the nine of clubs and was pleased to see the suit split 3-3. He crossed back to dummy by leading his two of clubs to dummy’s four and discarded his queen of spades on the established eight of diamonds. Had the diamonds not split 3-3, Morath could have used the extra entry to dummy to try the spade finesse. An elegant line of play!