The finesse

The dictionary definition of a finesse is 'a delicate or adroit manoeuvre'. In card-playing terms, it amounts to taking a trick with a card that is not in its own right, a boss. A boss, by definition, is a card guaranteed to take a trick, if trumps are not an issue (A or A K, or Q when the A K have gone).

In all the discussions on this page, either the contract is no-trumps, or if it is a trump contract, either trumps have been drawn or the suit in question is trumps. Consider the hands below. In all these examples, if you are not too sure, set out the cards and follow it through that way.

The notation throughout this page is that of showing the cards in one suit in the two hands of declarer and dummy (At times it is convenient to call these East and West, and the two hidden hands North and South). It never makes any difference which hand is declarer and which is dummy. The argument is exactly the same whichever way round they appear.

In this simple case, the Ace is obviously a boss, and the Queen is not since the King can beat it.

You have two crucial decisions to take in any finesse. Firstly, what is the missing high card that we wish to prevent taking a trick ? In this case it is the King. This missing card will usually be pretty obvious.

The second decision is which side are you going to lead from-left (L) or right (R) in my diagrams, declarer or dummy when you are seated at the table.

Now there is a crucial relationship between the missing card and the hand to lead from, and I am indebted to my friend and ex-student John Farmer, for spotting this. I have seen it in no textbooks on the subject where they usually talk about 'leading up to honours'. Although this is very often true, it is not so always, whereas the Farmer rule never lets us down.

The relationship is this. The hand you need the missing card to be in is always to the left of the hand you lead from. OR, to put it another way, you want the missing to be in the hand that will play second. Since there are only two places where the lead can come from, you should have no difficulty in trying it out mentally from both hands and simply seeing which one works.

To return to our earlier situation:-

We have already identified the King as the missing card. Before reading on, try leading a card from both hands and see what happens. Whichever card you might lead from the left-hand will only result in one trick-the Ace. The King will be played if you choose to lead the Queen, while a smaller card will take the trick if you lead the three. You must assume that your opponents are not stupid.

Now try leading from the right-hand. Most of the time, second player will play low, but if second player does play the King, you will hit it with the Ace and then you have a second trick with the Queen. If second hand does play low, then you play (finesse) your Queen which will hold the trick since the King is in the hand that has already played.

Many of you will tell me that the missing card will only be in the right place half the time. True. Some of you have tried to convince me that the air in Ramsey, in Cambridgeshire, is so poor that finesses only work 25% of the time. Not true. But when the missing card is in the right place, if you don't play the suit as outlined above, you will not even make the Queen the half the time that the card is where you want it to be.

I know that I have laboured this point and by now, half of you have fallen asleep and the other half have taken up Bingo, but unless you have grasped this essential relationship, your finesses will be failures.

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