Double Finesse
A double finesse is a finesse that's taken against two opposing honor cards:
| | Dummy | | |
|  AQT | |
| West | | East |
| K98 | | J765 |
| South | |
| 432 | |
South is on lead and needs two spade tricks. A double finesse can be taken by leading a low spade to dummy's
T. If East shows up with either the
J or
K, South can take a second spade finesse upon regaining the lead.
This is superior to finessing the
Q whenever West has both the king and jack.
However, when faced with a 9-card holding, it may slightly better mathematically to finesse the queen:
| | Dummy | | |
|  AQT83 | |
| West | | East |
| ??? | | ??? |
| South | |
| 6542 | |
In this layout, South is in hand and needs all 5 heart tricks. It's best to finesse the
Q and then play the
A. (Note that if South only needs 4 heart tricks, the correct line is to lead to the
A first.)
