TAKING A FINESSE IS OFTEN A BAD CHOICE........................( By Johnny Supremo )

Just lately I haven't been doing too well. Coming second and third is something I'm not used to.....but I put this temporary blip down to partners who still have much to learn about the game. The last two or three robotically elected to take on finesses when better options were available. So for them, this ninth lesson of mine is on "finesses", or should I say when to reject them.

Finesses, when you have nothing else to go on, work 50% of the time. And all to often I see declarers taking finesses when they are doomed to fail. So what are the circumstances when finesses should be rejected, and only used as a fall back position.

• End-plays: Situations can occur where you engineer the opponents to lead away from their king into your Ace-queen. Imagine you are in 4S and have a doubleton Ace-queen of diamonds in dummy. The opponents have been stripped of trumps and hearts, and after the Ace and King of clubs, you throw your RHO in to take his winning club. He will either be forced to play another club for a ruff and sluff, or lead away from his king of diamonds. In both instances the potential diamond loser has gone away.
• Playing for the drop: If you know from both the bidding and the play, that the honour you would like to finesse is sitting wrong, then why bother. It is far more sensible to go for the drop. Often, in a 4-4 trump fit missing the queen and the ten, a finesse through the jack is standard practice. However, if it is odds-on that the queen is sitting over the jack, then playing for the drop of the queen doubleton becomes the only sensible option. Indeed, there are many situations where it is equally sensible to reject the finesse of a King, by going up with the Ace in the knowledge ( or hope ) of felling an offside singleton King.
• Playing for a simple squeeze: this situation occurs quite frequently and should always be looked out for. Imagine, a game contract can be made if you avoid losing a heart, In dummy you hold queen, jack doubleton in hearts (opposite your Ace-x ) along with 4 diamonds to the Ace,Queen Jack. You know or suspect the LHO opponent has the King of hearts guarded, and four diamonds to the King-10. Having played seven rounds and conceding three tricks, your hand has come down to one trump, Ace-x of hearts and 3 small diamonds. On the play of the last trump your LHO is fixed. Either he bares his King of hearts, in which case you pitch a losing diamond to make the last 5 tricks. This is done by by finessing diamonds with the jack, back to the Heart Ace (dropping the King), finessing diamonds with the queen, to finally cash out a winning queen of hearts and the diamond Ace. Should your LHO pitch a diamond on the last trump, then the heart jack is thrown from dummy. With two successful diamond finesses, you make one heart and all four diamond tricks.

So you see that in each of the above examples, playing for every finesse was losing bridge. If only my last few partners could have taken this advice on board........