Bridge players, especially beginners and the intermediates, simply love finesses. They yield lots of tricks when they work and also give the player the feeling of doing something clever.

Better players spend their time looking for ways to avoid finesses at all costs and usually get to them as a last resort.

Eddie Kantar, one of my favourite people and instructors in bridge, writes a lot about finesses and recently had a series of tips on finesses in the OK Bridge Spectator . . . here is an edited list of his tips and how and when to finesse.

1. When you have to choose which finesse to take between two suits each missing the king, play the ace of the longer suit. If the king does not drop, take a finesse in the shorter suit.

2. Say you are missing kings in two finessable suits, one a singleton facing a holding including the ace-queen and one a doubleton facing an ace-queen-jack combination. If you cannot afford to lose the trick, first try to ruff out the king in the singleton suit. If that doesn't work, take the finesse in the doubleton suit.

" 7 6 5

A Q 6 5

A Q 8

10 9 8

" K 4 3

3

4 2

A K Q J 7 6 5

Your contract is five clubs and West leads the spade deuce. East wins the ace and returns the jack. Don't put all your eggs in one basket ¿ give yourself two chances. Play the ace of hearts and ruff a heart. If nothing happens, return to dummy with a trump and ruff a second heart. If the king falls, you have a parking place for your losing spade on the queen of hearts. If the king doesn't fall, take the diamond finesse.

5. You can pick up lots of extra tricks by tempting defenders to cover an honour with an honour even though you are NOT planning to finesse.

A 4 3

Q 6 8 7 2

K J 10 9 5

You probably plan to play East for the queen. But don't lead the 5 ¿ lead the jack, planning to win the ace. You will be pleasantly surprised how often West covers the jack.

6. Don't overlook the opportunity to give your opponents fits in this common position:

J 4 3

K 10

If you can afford to lose only one trick in this suit, try leading the jack. If often coaxes the queen. If East does not play the queen, there is good reason to believe he doesn't have the queen.

7. When you have a concealed suit, you can almost bet that when you lead an honour from dummy, second hand will cover. If second hand does not cover, play fourth hand for the honour.

J 4

A K 10 9 8 7

Assume you have bid this suit and you wind up playing the deal in notrump. when you lead the jack, East plays low. Since it is very likely that East would cover holding the queen, play the ace and king if you need six tricks in the suit.

8. When the number of trump tricks you can afford to lose depends on whether or not a side-suit finesse works, take the finesse before attacking the trump suit.

" A Q J 3

7 4 3

A 8 6

K Q 4

" 4 2

A Q 10 8 5 2

K 5

A J 10

Your contract is six hearts, and the opening lead is the jack of diamonds. To learn how to play the hearts, you must take the spade finesse first. If the finesse loses, you must play hearts for no losers ¿ lead low to the queen. If the finesse wins, make a safety play in trumps by first cashing the ace. IF no honour falls, enter dummy and lead a heart towards your hand.

There you are ¿ (nearly) everything you need to know about finesses!