A Little Finesse

Finesses are so frequent – almost every deal has at least one – that they get taken for granted. Being commonplace promotes fuzzy thinking – or not thinking at all.

So we began with …

The Odd One Out Round

In each case the jack is led from the South hand – which one of the following is NOT a finesse?

(A)	(B)	(C)	(D)
AK72 N S J654	AQ7632 N S J54	A10982 N S J54	K1092 N S AJ54

Answer later, make a selection now.

What is a Finesse?

We may be able to recognise a finesse (or not as your answer above might reveal) but defining a finesse is not easy. Let's see what Google has to say,

finesse

/fɪˈnɛs/

noun

1. […]
2. (in bridge and whist) an attempt to win a trick with a card that is not a certain winner, typically by playing it as the third card in a trick in the hope that any card that could beat it is in the hand of the opponent who has already played.

Hmm, I'm not sure about that. It seems to me that a critical element is missing, that of a tenace – what's that? Another Google definition,

tenace

/ˈtɛnəs/

noun

• (in bridge, whist, and similar card games) a pair of cards in one hand which rank immediately above and below a card held by an opponent, e.g. the ace and queen in a suit of which an opponent holds the king.declarer holds a trump tenace over East

Now, pedant that I am, I'm not absolutely sure about that either. Let's look at some examples we think we know.

A Taxonomy of Finesses

In the following, LHO and RHO are left-hand and right-hand opponent.

Plain Vanilla

I am sure you've seen this before, it is invariably the first one in textbooks.

Lead low from South, playing the queen unless LHO inserts the king.

Language-wise, you are said to "finesse the queen". The king might be onside with LHO (good) or offside with RHO (bad). You make two tricks if the king is onside, only one if it is offside.

The ace-queen is a tenace over the king.

If the ace and the queen are in separate hands, you need a stronger holding:

Lead queen from South, playing low from North LHO covers with the king. Players often say "run" or "pass" the queen. There are two quick tricks if the king is onside, that is two without losing the lead. If the king is offside you still make two tricks – but the first and the third (note you never get three tricks by leading the queen).

Note that strictly speaking, there's no tenace in the diagram as we had '… a pair of cards in one hand …'. I said this definition lark was tricky.

The Lob†

Lead low from South, playing the king unless LHO rises the ace. You get one trick if the ace is onside, none if it is offside.

This isn't really a finesse but it qualifies from the first definition; again there's no tenace.

However it's important to preserve the distinction the terminology affords otherwise fuzziness will envelop our thinking. The lob is a desperate measure, unlike the plain vanilla, all measure of control is lost – the opponents are now free to take any winners they have in the suit. The lob is a last resort.

Look back at the plain vanilla; you could play off the ace then lead low towards the queen. You gain once in a blue moon when RHO has singleton king, your loss is that opponents can cash tricks in the suit. Almost always the plain vanilla finesse is better. Leave your lobs until you're in a tight spot and have no choice.

Plays can be a combination of plain vanilla and lob:

First finesse the jack. If that loses to the queen, on the next round lob to the king. In fact, even if the jack wins, return and lob to the king. If the ace-queen are onside with at most one lower card, you'll make three tricks in the suit (jack, king and a long card).

Your expectancy in terms of tricks is more complicated this time: you get two tricks if LHO has both ace and queen, only one if they have ace or queen and none at all if they have neither honour (both are offside). That's one trick on average (and a flashback to 'O' Level maths).

† First used to my knowledge by Eric Rodwell in The Rodwell Files: secrets of a bridge champion, (Masterpoint Press, 2011). Rodwell is one of the world's best players and this is a very good book but the learning curve is intimidatingly steep.

The Odd One Out Round (answer)

In each case the jack is led from South.

(A)	(B)	(C)	(D)
AK72 N S J654	AQ7632 N S J54	A10982 N S J54	K1092 N S AJ54

The answer is (A). All the others are finesses.

(B) thru (D) don't necessarily represent best play though.

In (B) if West has a singleton king leading the jack will create a winner for East's ten (they started with 1098). Much better to lead low towards the ace-queen which brings in the suit without loss whenever West has king-singleton or king-doubleton (you can't avoid losing a trick if they have K109 etc.).

In (D) you would feel foolish leading the jack, passing it when it wasn't covered, only to discover that East held singleton queen. In (D) best play is to cash the ace first if you decide to finesse through West. Of course if you think East has the queen, you should play the king first and lead the ten.

In (C) leading the jack is just fine. If it is covered then you win the ace and force out the remaining high card with your 10-9-8. That the cover doesn't help the defence is what separates (A) from the others. In (A) leading the jack is, technically, a 'null-play'; either West covers and sets up the ten or, if they don't have the queen, your plays loses to East anyway. And of course, some of the time the queen would have dropped under the ace-king (being short either side).

A Taxonomy of Finesses (continued)

Two-way Finesse

Play a top card from either hand then lead low towards the remaining ace-jack or king-ten. But which way?

The best thing to do is to get the opponents to play the suit for you – then you can't go wrong. Painting the opponents into a corner so they must play suits like this is one of the building-blocks of good declarer play.

'Chinese Finesse'

Lead the queen and hope LHO (a) has the king and (b) doesn't play it.

This is not a finesse – it's the bare bones of the 'odd one out' (A) above.

It is a doubly-desperate play; not only can the defence always thwart you (by LHO covering if they hold the king) but, more importantly, it gives up on the genuine chance of a lob for an extra trick by leading low to the queen, with or without first cashing the ace.

Double Finesse (1)

Lead low and finesse the ten. Win or lose, lead another low card from South and finesse the queen. You could take three tricks (LHO has king-jack, 25%), two tricks (LHO has one of king or jack, 50%) or no tricks (RHO has both). This is similar to the second example of the lob earlier.

Like the plain vanilla, you need stronger holdings in South to lead an honour (or near honour) and run it:

Run the ten; that is good for two tricks if LHO has the king or the jack (and holds you to the ace only if RHO has both those cards). But you need the eight to have a chance of taking all three tricks.

Run the ten; if that's covered, cover cheaply in dummy and repeat the process. If you didn't have the eight-spot, LHO with K-J-8 could cover your ten with the jack (queen wins) then cover your nine with the king (ace wins) to get a third round winner with the eight.

Compare and contrast:

Double Finesse (2)

Here, with a weaker holding, you're after two tricks. Lead low and finesse the ten. Assuming that loses, lead another low card from South and finesse the jack. You take two tricks when LHO has king-queen (25%) or one of king or queen (50%).

Again, when you're leading honours from South you need stronger holdings for the same effect:

(i)	(ii)
A32 N S J109	A92 N S J103

In both examples running the jack is the correct first play; if that loses, run the ten next.

And on and on… There are many variants of the finesse and some plays have many names; see Wikipedia on the finesse – not usually a good resource for bridge but that page is OK.

What to do

Look out for tenaces

After counting your tricks the next key step is surveying your assets. Holdings like ace-queen, king-jack, queen-ten, ace-jack-ten etc. etc. are very valuable and, even more pertinently, require you to do something with them. So get card-spotting.

Leading up to honours requires less-strong holdings than leading the honours themselves.

It is (almost) always better to lead up to honours than lead them. Even strong holdings like KQxxx; rather than lead out the king, lead towards the king-queen and if you win that tricks, return to an entry and try again.

When you lead an honour check that you can afford for it to be covered

Check that your play makes sense: in the quiz at the top the 'odd one out' isn't a finesse because an opponents will 'cover an honour with an honour'. If the suit is important to you, LHO knows she won't take a trick with her card so will cover to help her partner.

Protect yourself: play off as many top cards as you can afford before your finesse

It is always embarrassing to lose to an honour that would have fallen anyway; make sure you cash high cards before taking a finesse. Likewise, some holding are too strong and honours are more likely to drop, the classic is,

"Eight ever, nine never"

If you have a combined 8-card holding missing the queen, finesse. One more small card and nine in total, 'play for the drop' – that's 'never' finesse. This is a simplification and is only good when you have no other clues, such as information from the auction or play of other suits.