Bridge Lesson 9: Your First Finesse

A finesse in bridge is a way to win a trick with a card that is not the highest, by leading toward it so the opponent who holds the missing honor must play before you. With the ace and queen in dummy, you lead a low card from your hand toward them; if the king is with the opponent on your left, dummy's queen wins.

A finesse works about half the time, and it is the second great source of extra tricks after the long suits of lesson 8. This is your first one.

Say dummy (North) has ♥A Q 5 and you (South) have ♥6 4 2. The opponents hold the ♥K. You would like the queen to win a trick, but the king beats it. So the queen can only win if the king's owner has to play first.

Lead a low heart from your hand. West plays second:

• If West has the king and plays low, you play dummy's queen. East, who plays last, has no higher card. The queen wins. If West plays the king instead, dummy's ace takes it and the queen is now the top heart. Either way you win two heart tricks.
• If East has the king, the queen loses to it. You still have the ace, so you win one heart trick, the same as if you had never tried.

So the finesse costs you nothing when it fails and gains a trick when it works.

Always lead from the hand opposite the honors, toward them. The card you hope to win with must be the last or nearly the last card played to the trick, after the opponent who holds the missing honor.

So you need to be in the right hand. To lead toward dummy's ♥A Q, you must win a trick in your own hand first. If you want to take the same finesse twice (with ♥A Q J, for example), you need a way back to your hand between the two leads. Count those entries before you start.

The same idea works with one honor. With ♥K 5 in dummy and ♥6 4 2 in hand, lead low toward the king. If West holds the ace, the king wins: about half the time again.

You need ten tricks in 4♠. Count your losers this time: the ♠A, a third-round diamond, and in hearts either one or two losers, depending on where the ♥K is. Three losers are fine; four are one too many. So the heart finesse decides the contract.

1. Win the ♦A and lead the ♠K to knock out the trump ace. West wins and leads the ♦J; you win the ♦K.
2. Draw the rest of the trumps. Your hand now has plenty of trumps to get back to.
3. Lead a low heart from your hand toward dummy's ♥A Q. West plays low and you play the queen.

Reveal the hands: West has the ♥K, so the queen wins. Cash the ♥A. You lose a heart, a diamond and the ♠A, and make ten tricks. Swap the ♥K into East's hand and the same careful play makes only nine, because nothing you could do would make the queen win.

A simple finesse needs one card to be in one of two hands, so it works 50% of the time when you know nothing else. Two finesses in different suits are better: at least one of them works 75% of the time (you fail only when both lose, 1 in 4).

The odds change with information. If West opened the bidding and East passed, the missing king is more likely with West. If the opponents bid a suit, its honors are probably in the bidder's hand. Good players use the auction to decide which finesse to take, or whether to take one at all. Our guide to finesses shows the other kinds, and finesse or drop explains when to play for a king to fall under your ace instead.

Before you take a finesse, ask three questions:

1. Do I need it? If your count already reaches the target, do not risk a trick for no reason.
2. Which hand must I lead from? The hand opposite the honors.
3. Can I get there? Make sure you have an entry to that hand, and another one if you want to repeat the finesse.

You can try any of this risk-free in BridgeDummy's card combination analyzer: enter your cards in one suit and it gives the exact odds for every way the missing cards can lie.

Previous: Lesson 8: Setting Up a Long Suit. Next: Lesson 10: Drawing Trumps, when to take the opponents' trumps away.