HINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 15

HINTS ON AUCTION BRIDGE

Finessing (1)

(Written for THE SUS bit -Caliban."—Copyright In S’eui Zeatand.) I HAVE received from a correspondent (and am very glad to have) the suggestion that I should say something in this column about the vexed question of finessing. This certainly is an aspect of Bridge which will well repav study, especially on the part of those who have Mt yet learnt by experience' how certain constantly-recurring problems should be handled. There are a number of situations in which the seasoned card player wil d the right thing automatically, whereas the novice, puzzled as to what is the right line of play, has to stop and think the thing out, and, m the ment of the moment, or because he does tot like to keep the table waiting, thinks it out wrong. The majority of these situations involve a decision as to what is—in the broad sense of the term—the taking of a finesse. What, then, is a finesse? It is a curious thing, but, while everyone has a fairly accurate notion of what constitutes a finesse, hardly anyone -■ an define it intelligibly. I invite the reader to ask the next three players whom he sits down with*to do so. He will be fortunate if Aiom any of them an answer that really “holds water.” In one popular book—l forget at the moment which it is—some four or five definitions of a finesse are brought together, and none of them is really satisfactory. - one of them, that is, would enable a document in which the term * * finesse was made use of to be satisfactorily construed in a court of law. After passing these strictures it is “up to me” to offer a satisfactory definition myself, and here it is, for the acceptance, or criticism, of my readers. To'finesse is to play to a trick on the assumption that a particular card (the card “finessed against”) is in a particular hand, the assumption made being that ■which, on a balance of probabilities, is more likely than any other to work out advantageously. This sounds cumbersome, but I do not think that the idea of a finesse can be correctly expressed in fewer words. Why do I stress the importance of this definition? For this reason: that it is only by thinking out exactly what a finesse is that one can learn to appreciate one of the fundamental principles of play. The essential thing about a finesse is the making of an assumption. To take, for example, the simplest case—where the declarer has the Ace, Queen of a suit in Dummv, and has no information as to which of the adversaries holds the King—the finesse—te., the lead from his own hand up to Dummy and the play of the Queen if the second player does not put up the King—:.s based on the assumption that the King is in the second player’s hand. If this assumption be correct, a trick is gained by the finesse; if the assumption be not correct, nothing is lost—save in the one case where the fourt.:i player holds the King single. On balance, therefore, and in the absence 3f other factors which may properly affect the declarer’s line of play, to take the finesse is clearly the right course. We a n now proceed ta two generalisations which it is worth bearing in mincL (1) Most finesses involve the handling of a tenace, i.e., of the first ard third cards of a sequence (the card finessed against being the intermediate one). The most common finesse is the finesse against the King, where the player finessing holds Ac* and Queen, as in the illustration just given. (2) All finesses involve considerations of probability—some of them quite easy to grasp, some of them so complicated that only knowledge and experience can ensure ther.r proper application. They cannot conceivably be worked out during the play of a hand. I will give, in a later article, one or more examples of such situations, and will show how interesting and elaborate is the theoretical framework upon which the determination of the right line of play must be based. Fof the present, however, we will confine ourselves to the elements of the situation. The simplest case of a finesse, as we have seen, is where the Ace and Queen of a suit are in one hand and the position of the King is unknown. This is often confused, in the minds of beginners, with a quite different situation, viz., where the declarer (&ay) has the Queen of a suit in his own hand and the Ace in Duram}'. The novice frequently makes the mistake, in this position, of playing out hi 9 Queen and ** running” it if it is not covered by the King—under the impression that in so doing he is taking a finesse. What in fact he is doirg, of coarse, is precisely the reverse. He is throwing away his only chance of malting both Queen and Ace. For if the Jmng is on his left, the Quean will be covered, and both hia potential winners must be played to the one trick; and if the King is on hie right, the Queen will fall to it. The only chance of making two tricks, therefore, is to assume that the King is o:i the declarer’s right, and lead up to the Queen from Dummy. To make this assumption and act upon it is to take a finesse in the proper sense of tha term—to take,, indeed, exactly the same finesse as one takes when one leads up to an Ace, Queen; yet it is extraordinary how long it takes some players to grasp this elementary point. To conclude this article, let me set out a hand which well illustrates the possibilities of the finesse.

Z (declarer) is xdaying the hand in Two No-Trumps. There are a lot of high cards in his adversaries’ hands. Yet (as the eader can see for himself) it requires no exceptional skill on Z’a part—merely an iutclli ;n£ use of the finesse—to make email slam against A’» lead of the 6of Clubs.