Spades Strategy: Refusing a Finesse

Finessing is largely a guess, but there are hints that we can use to determine if a finesse is favorable, or if we should refuse a finesse.

The first hint is if East has bid higher than West. Higher bids tend to hold more Kings and Queens.

This is also true if West has made most of his tricks but East has not.

The next hint is if partner leads the suit.

A suit led by partner sometimes indicates shortness in the suit, meaning if our finesse fails, it is less likely the opponents trump us on the 2nd or 3rd round of the suit.

The last hint we can use is if we have 4 or fewer cards in the sidesuit (or the suit we are finessing is the spades suit).

With a sidesuit length of 4 cards, there is only about an ~18% chance that an opponent has a singleton in the suit.

Inversely, if the sidesuit is a length of 5 or more, we should reconsider the finesse. At 5 cards, the chance of an opponent singleton start becoming 25% or more.

Another hint to refuse a finesse is if West has a huge bid or West has more tricks left to take than East.

Other times to reconsider a finesse (but won't be quizzed on) are when:

1) You only need one more trick to win the game, set the opponents, or secure your bid in a hairy situation.

2) West is the "danger hand." For example, if East has a club void and West gets back on lead, West could lead another club for East to cut.

3) You have a good lead to make. For example, to lead spades if the opponents have a cross ruff going.

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