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.

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.

Contents

5 Leading High for a Finesse

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:

                S: K 7

                S: 6 3

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 can gain two tricks:

                S: A Q 10
            
                S: 7 4 3

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:

                S: A J 10
            
                S: 7 4 3

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.

                 S: A K 10

                 S: 6 5 4

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 your holding in a suit includes enough high cards that you will at some time have to play two of them on the same trick, then it is often desirable to lead one of them when finessing in order to retain the lead in the same hand if the finesse is on.

                Example 1                  Example 2
                S: A Q 10                  S: A Q 4

                S: J 4 3                   S: J 10 3

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.

                Example 3                  Example 4
                S: A 4 3                   S: A Q 4

                S: Q J 10                  S: 10 9 3

Examples 3 and 4 show that when you lead high for a finesse, the honors do not have to form a tenace that you lead toward. Example 3 can be played exactly like examples 1 and 2, by running the jack (or queen or 10). In Example 4, you can take a double finesse by running the 10 (or 9).

Two-Way Finesse

A two-way finesse is a situation where you can finesse by leading from either hand toward the other.

                S: A J 2

                S: K 10 3

You may start by playing the king of spades (or if in dummy, leading the 2 to the king) and then running the 10; this makes three spade tricks if East has the singleton queen or if West has the queen, and if that's not the case, then East will be on lead. Or you may start with the ace and jack, making three tricks in the opposite situation, or leaving West on lead. You may decide which way to finesse based on which opponent is more likely to have the queen, or on which opponent it would be safer to give the lead to, if you must. Or, of course, you also have the option of not finessing.

Ruffing Finesse

The ruffing finesse is a variation of a finesse where the finessing player chooses to ruff or not, rather than choosing which card to play from a tenace.

In this example, hearts are trump and South's 2 is the last one remaining, and the lead is with North (dummy). Then North-South can take all tricks if East holds the ace of spades. A spade is led from the North hand; if East plays low, a diamond is discarded and the lead is repeated. If East never covers, North-South get three spade tricks and a trump. If East plays the ace, South trumps and leads a club to return to the dummy, which is high, so taking two spades, a trump, and a club trick.

Note that while a conventional finesse is "on" if the opponents' critical honor is positioned before yours, the reverse is true for a ruffing finesse. Consequently, there is a form of two-way finesse where you can take a ruffing finesse against one opponent or an ordinary finesse against the other. If there is no other reason to choose one play or the other, the ruffing finesse may be a superior alternative because it allows you to lead high and retain the lead. Let us look at a complete hand:

          S: A Q J 5                S: 3
          H: K 6 5 4                H: A 7 3 2
          D: A 7 5                  D: 9 6 3
          C: 6 5                    C: A K 9 4 2

East plays a contract of 4 hearts. After the opening lead of a diamond, he wins the ace and plays the two top trumps; they break 3-2. He leads a spade to the queen, but the finesse is off, and the opponents now cash two diamonds. With a trump still to lose, one down.

Out of luck? Not at all. The contract is cold as long as trumps break 3-2 (and the defense cannot get an early ruff). The correct play is to win the ace of diamonds and to continue with the ace of spades, followed by the queen for a ruffing finesse. If North does not cover with the king, declarer pitches a losing diamond. If North does play the king, declarer ruffs and later pitches a diamond on the jack of spades. Even if the king is with South, declarer loses 3 tricks only, if trumps are 3-2. And if trumps are 4-1 the game will still make if the king of spades is sitting with North. The advantage of the trump finesse over the ordinary finesse here is the gain of tempo if it loses.

Free Finesse

A so-called free finesse is not technically a finesse at all, as it is not dependent on the position of the opponents' cards, but only on their choice of lead. You have a free finesse when an opponent leads a suit, so that the hand containing a tenace position plays last to the trick. In the first example:

                S: A Q

                S: 7 2

the normal finesse only works if West has the king, but if East leads spades, you simply play the lowest card that will win the trick, and so get two tricks no matter whether East or West has the king. Similarly, in the two-way finesse example, you make three spade tricks automatically on a free finesse if either East or West is the first to lead spades.

Free finesses often happen due to the defense guessing wrong about high cards in declarer's hand, especially on the opening lead. But it is also possible to force the defense to give you a free finesse, by endplaying them. Consider the two-way finesse example again, but with an additional card:

Nobody has played any spades at any point, so the defense is known to have 7 of them, and their other card is known to be a heart. Declarer leads a heart, losing to whichever defender holds the high heart; and that defender is now on lead with nothing but spades. North-South will take 3 spade tricks for certain, and declarer need not guess which way to finesse the suit.

Bath Coup

This specific case of a free finesse is important enough to have its own name. As South (declarer) you hold:

                S: A J 2

and West leads the king or queen of spades. If you play the small spade and West now repeats the lead, you will get two tricks with the ace-jack. (If you have more than one small spade, you may be able to help trick the defense into wanting to repeat the lead by your choice of which one you play.)

The Bath Coup is not just a deceptive play. Even if West does not continue the suit, declarer may gain an advantage since he still has a sure stopper in that suit.

Trump Coup

The trump coup is not a finesse, but an alternative tactic used in a similar position. It occurs when the hand on lead (typically the dummy) has no trumps remaining, while the next hand in rotation has only trumps, including a high one that would have been onside for a finesse if a trump could have been led. The play involves forcing that hand to ruff, only to be overruffed.

In the end position below, spades are trump. The king of spades is onside, but declarer (south) cannot finesse against it because dummy has no trumps remaining.

                S: -
                H: A
                D: -
                C: 3 2

        S: -             S: K 2
        H: 6             H: 7
        D: -             D: -
        C: A K           C: -

                S: A Q
                H: 2
                D: -
                C: -

Declarer takes all three tricks by playing a heart first. When a club is led from dummy, East has nothing but spades remaining and therefore must ruff, and South can overruff with the ace or queen according to which spade East plays.

A trump coup is not possible in a double-finesse position, since declarer with a holding like A-Q-10 over defender's K-J-x would take the first trump trick and then would have to give the defender a free finesse. In effect, a trump coup against a king (or the second-highest remaining trump) must find it guarded by exactly one other trump. Similarly, with A-K-J, a trump coup against Q-x-x is possible, and so on.

To execute a trump coup, declarer must have exactly the same number of trumps as the defender. If declarer had more trumps, entry could not be given to dummy at the critical point when the defender will have only trumps remaining. Sometimes a declarer with too many trumps, but needing to do a trump coup, can set up the desired position by entering dummy and leading a suit he can ruff, to shorten his own trumps. (If the card ruffed would have been a winner, the play is called a grand coup.)

Coup en Passant

Just as the trump coup resembles a standard finesse except that trumps are not the suit led, so the coup en passant resembles an indirect finesse:

                S: -
                H: A
                D: -
                C: 3 2 

        S: -             S: A
        H: 6             H: 7
        D: A             D: 3
        C: A             C: -                                

                S: K
                H: 2
                D: 2
                C: -

In this example declarer takes two tricks by playing hearts first: when the club is led, declarer's diamond loser will go under East's ace of spades on one of the last two tricks, and declarer's king will take the other trick. Here both players have the same number of trumps, but the hand would play the same way if either or both had a small trump in place of the small diamond. The important thing is that declarer must have few enough trumps that dummy can be entered at the critical time.

Suit Combinations

The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge has a long list of suit combinations and how best to play them depending on how many tricks you need. A good player does not need to memorize this, and can usually deduce the correct play at the table. However, it is worthwhile to study the suit combinations table. But remember that the optimal play in a suit may not be best in the context of the entire hand.

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