Double finesse in bridge
Learn about the double finesse in bridge.
A double finesse is a very common way of winning extra tricks as declarer in bridge. The key is to learn to recognise double finesse positions.
1NT opening bid
I'm going to open this 1NT. I'm set up to play standard today, so my 1NT shows 15-17 high card points, but you might open something else if you're playing Acol. Either way we are getting to this 3NT contract. The three small diamonds aren't a problem because I'm still balanced. Opening something other than 1NT when you can is likely to give you rebid trouble.
Counting our tricks
West leads the ♣2. Let's just count our top tricks, the ones we're absolutely sure we can make. So we've got the ♣A, ♣K, ♣Q. That's three tricks. We've got the ♠A, there's four. We've got the ♥A that's five, and we've got the ♦A. So that's six absolute sure tricks. Now we could take a spade finesse, hoping East has got the ♠K. That would give us one more trick. And we could also hope that East has got the king of hearts.
We can finesse the hearts twice, low heart to the ♥J, cross back to the dummy, and then low heart to the ♥Q. So that's one possibility to get three more tricks we need.
Can you spot the double finesse position?
Let's look at that diamond suit. Now that's a bit more interesting. All I need is for West to have one of the missing honours. I'm going to take the first diamond finesse, which we'll probably lose. But having lost that first finesse, I now have a simple finesse position remaining so I can finesse again and again if I need to.
One of the things that has helped me most with declarer play has been studying suit combinations, just like this double finesse.
tags: #declarerplay
