Games - Finesse

	Games - Finesse

*This article is about the card-game technique. In optics, finesse is a parameter characterizing a Fabry-Perot interferometer.

Also, in American team sports -- particularly football -- the term is used to denote a style of play characterized by reliance upon the players' speed and quickness rather than physical strength; a team employing this strategy is said to be a "finesse team" -- a label often considered pejorative.

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In contract bridge and similar games, a finesse is a technique which allows one to promote tricks based on a favorable position of one or more cards in the hands of the opponents. If one can lead up to a finessable position such as ace-queen, an additional trick can be won if the king is positioned in front of the combination of ace and queen.

A more precise definition of a finesse would be: A play that attempts to win either the current trick or a later trick with a certain card of the suit led, although the opponents hold a higher card in the suit, by taking advantage of the position of the particular cards.

A finesse is said to be on or off depending on whether or not the finessable honor is favorably placed (onside) or not (offside). Many finesses involve a combination of non-touching honors in the same hand, called a tenace.

Direct finesse

A direct finesse is a finesse that gains a trick without losing one, as long as it is "on". For example:

If South (declarer) is on lead he can lead to the queen; that is, he leads a small spade and, if West plays low, plays the queen from dummy. If West is holding the king (it is "onside"), North-South will win two tricks, for a gain of one trick without losing a trick. (If West actually plays the king on the first trick, of course, North-South win two tricks by covering with the ace.)

Indirect finesse

An indirect finesse is a finesse that gains a trick - if it is on - but may involve losing a trick first. A typical example is:

South leads a spade toward the king; if West holds the ace, the king will either win the current trick or will become the highest remaining spade and win a later one. (More precisely, the king is set up as a winner, but that doesn't mean it will necessarily take a trick. It might be ruffed, or at No Trump the defense might run another suit for a squeeze and force it to be discarded. But this article is about finesses, and having acknowledged that such issues exist, we will ignore them henceforth.)

Double finesse

A double finesse is a finesse against two outstanding honours. Sometimes it can gain two tricks:

South leads a spade to the 10; if it holds (or later on, if it loses), he reenters his hand in a different suit and then leads another spade to the queen. North-South will take three spade tricks if West has both the king and the jack (probability about 25% in the absence of any information), two if East and West have one each (50%), but only one if East has both (25%).

Other times it can gain one trick:

South leads a spade to the 10. Assuming it loses, he reenters his hand and then leads another spade to the jack. North-South will take two spade tricks if West has either the king or the queen, or both (probability about 75% in the absence of any information), but only one if East has both (25%).

Similarly, a triple finesse is possible, and occasionally desirable, with a holding such as A-Q-10-8. This would be a low-probability desperation play if you needed four tricks in the suit, but you will probably make two or three.

Deep finesse

A deep finesse is a maneuver that allows one additional trick to be won, but only if two cards are favorably positioned. A deep finesse has therefore a probability of only about 25% of success.

South leads a spade and inserts the 10 if West plays low. South will gain a trick if both the queen and the jack are with West. NB: If there are no entries back into the South hand, West can assure himself one trick by splitting his honors, that is playing the queen or jack, on South's original lead.

Leading high for a finesse

If the length of a particular suit in both the declarer and dummy hands is less than the total number of high cards in the suit in the two hands, then at some point you will have to play two high cards on the same trick. In that case, if you are going to finesse in the suit, it is often desirable to start by leading one of the high cards, in order to retain the lead in the same hand if the finesse is on.

Example 1:

Example 2:

Examples 1 and 2 play the same way. If you intend to finesse, you normally should not start by leading to the queen: if you did and it held, you would still have to reenter your hand in order to take a total of three spade tricks. Instead you should finesse by leading the jack, and if West plays low, playing the small spade from dummy. This is called running the jack. Now you are still in your hand and can simply repeat the finesse by leading low to the queen. Or if West does have the king and covers your jack with it, then you can put the ace on the same trick and, because you started with four high cards, you still have the queen and 10 to win the two remaining tricks as well.
Example 3:

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