[kgr]

I found this an interesting combination from Winstonm and JB visualizing lesson:
...A9x
Hx.......HHxx
...KTxx
From the play till know you expect that the suit is 2-4, East having 4.
You play small to the 9, finessing West's H.
After that you drop West's H under the A and finesse East's remaining H.
This was called an intra-finesse in the lesson (not sure if that is the correct name, I would think that intra-finesse is palying to the T of AQTx).
I never thought about this - finesse, drop the H under the Ace and then finesse the other opponent - before. And it looks like a basic play.
Ideal to include in a lesson tartgetted for adv/int.
Thanks again for the lesson!

[luke warm]

fred's 'bridgemaster' disks have several examples of this

[Free]

I guess you missed something, since there are only 4 honours in the game (5 if you count the T as one, but you hold it yourself). So it's quite a weird problem. If you only miss 2 honours, you should play AK and hope for Hx with either opponent, or a 3-3 split...

Btw, this is NOT an intra-finesse

[kgr]

Free, on Dec 24 2005, 06:01 PM, said:

I guess you missed something, since there are only 4 honours in the game (5 if you count the T as one, but you hold it yourself). So it's quite a weird problem. If you only miss 2 honours, you should play AK and hope for Hx with either opponent, or a 3-3 split...

Btw, this is NOT an intra-finesse

Make it with the T an honnour:
...A9x
Hx.......HHxx
...K8xx

[kenberg]

Specifically the combination in the lesson hand was

A92
opposite
K854

As it happens the QJ73 is to the right of the K854.


Leading small to the 9 allows you to get three tricks since the 9 forces a quack, the ace drops the now bare T, and then deuce to A8 picks up the remaining quack. Of course there is some guess work to be done in order to choose inserting the 8 over playing for the drop but for the hand in question the guess was pretty certain.

As to whether this is called an intra-finesse, here is a combo from the Chaga Bols tip in Sally Brock's collection "The Complete Book of Bols Tips" (Recommended)




Q853

opposite

A962.

With, as Chagas stipulates, the KT4 to the right of the A962 you can score three tricks by starting small to the 8 and then later leading the Q from dummy to smother the now bare J on the left.
Chagas calls this an intra-finesse. He gives other examples, and closes with the tip:

Whenever you have to develop a shaky suit, and especially when this suit is trumps, you should consider whether you can prepare for an intra-finesse by ducking with an 8 or a 9 on the first round.


This does not totally answer the question as to whether the lesson play is or is not properly called an itra-finesse, but whatever it's called it's one heck of a play.

A rose by any other name.....

Ken

[Winstonm]

My definition of an intra-finesse may be different. If so, sorry. My understanding of the intra-finesse is that it is simply a finesse against a doubleton honor which thereafter creates a second finesse position not previously available. This would include smother type plays such as Chagas suggests where you pin an honor or the finesse of the 9 when holding K9x opposite A8xx and LHO holds Qx, Jx or 10x.

Perhaps we should call the former a Capulet finesse and the latter a Montegue finesse: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Winston

[kenberg]

I intended the Chagas example as confirmation of your usage. That particular example involves a smother but that is not a necessary part of an intra-finesse, as can be seen by looking at Chagas' other example.

At any rate, it's a fine play, and I missed it. I wasn't the declarer, but looknig at the hands later, seeing all four, I still didn't see what was to be done until the discussion. I'll have to pay more attention to this possibility.

I also need to think some about the card reading and maybe the probabilities. Chagas makes a special point of the usage in the trump suit. But the trump suit usually must be tackled early on, when it might seem that the intra-finesse might be right, but so might playing for the drop. In the lesson hand (in NT) declarer could postpone the drop/finesse decision until late in the hand.

Anyway, a nice hand.

Ken