Here are some excellent tips about how to make the most of your finessing situations.
1. With two finesses available and a queen missing in each suit, you might have to combine your chances. If you cannot afford to lose a trick, play the ace and king of the longer suit. If the queen does not drop, take a finesse in the shorter suit.
 A J 4 3 9 8 A Q 3 2 K 4 3 | K 5 2 K 5 K 7 6 A J 7 6 5 |
Your contract is three notrump and West leads the heart 4. East wins the ace and returns the jack. You have eight tricks and you can’t afford to lose the lead.
Play on diamonds first. If they fail to divide 3-3, you must fall back on your black suits. Play the ace and king of clubs, your longer suit. If the queen does not appear, cash the king of spades and lead low to the jack.
2.. If a suit is led in which dummy is void facing a king in your hand, you may be able to avoid a finesse in another suit by discarding from dummy.
| A Q 4 — K J 8 7 6 4 A J 7 6 | 6 3 2 K 9 8 A Q 10 9 3 2 4 |
You get to six diamonds and West leads the queen of hearts. Rather than fret about spades, discard a spade from dummy. After East wins the ace, discard the queen of spades on your heart king. You lose a heart but you don’t lose any spades.
3. When a suit is led in which dummy is void and you have queen-jack and one or two others in the suit along with some slow losers, discard a loser from dummy. Later run the queen through the opening leader to establish the jack for another discard.
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You get to five diamonds and West leads a low heart. If you ruff, you wind up losing three tricks in the black suits. It’s better to discard a spade from dummy. When you gain the lead, push the queen of hearts through West, setting up your heart jack for a second spade discard. You lose only one heart and one club instead of three black suit tricks.
4. When an opponent leads a high card through an ace-queen-small combination and you have three or four small in the suit, it is not against the law to play the ace! You can always lead up to the queen later. With a little luck, you may not have to.
| K Q J A Q 5 5 J 10 9 8 7 4 | 3 2 8 7 6 A 4 2 A K 5 3 2 |
You get to five clubs and West leads the jack of hearts. There’s no need to finesse the queen. If the finesse loses and a heart comes back, you stand a good chance of losing two hearts and a spade.
Win the ace of hearts, draw trumps and knock out the ace of spades. If East has the ace, you are home free – East cannot attack your heart queen and you can discard a heart on a spade. If West has the ace of spades and leads a heart, play the queen. You still survive if West started with the king of hearts or if East has the doubleton heart king.
5. Do not overlook the element of TIME. You have to figure out how many times you can let the opponents in before you have no time left to make your contract.
| 10 9 8 7 A 3 2 Q 4 A 8 7 6 | K Q J 6 5 K 5 4 K J 7 3 2 |
You get to four spades and West leads the queen of hearts. Since you have a loser in each suit, you must develop diamonds so you can get a heart pitch. The key is to realize you do not have time to drive out the ace of spades. If you do, the opponents will lead another heart. When you knock out the ace of diamonds, they will take their heart trick and set you.
You must play diamonds before spades! Even then you must take care to preserve an entry to your hand in case the opponents win the second diamond. Win the opening lead with dummy’s ace and drive out the ace of diamonds. Win the likely heart return and discard a heart of the king of diamonds. Now you have time to knock out the ace of trumps.
If your diamonds were king-10-small, you would still have to attack diamonds before spades. You would finesse to the 10 after driving out the diamond ace.
The art of finessing has many fabrics.
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